Paramore‘s Hayley Williams has said she turned down a collaboration with rapper Lil Uzi Vert, because she feared the track would boost her to an uncomfortable level of fame.
The singer, who recently unveiled her ‘Petals for Armor’ solo project, admitted she “loved” the rapper’s music but still had to turn down the collaboration.
“This is so, so random,” she told Beats 1‘s Zane Lowe via FaceTime.
“But I get asked to do like features on country songs sometimes. I’m no hater of country music. I mean, I grew up very young in Mississippi on Shania Twain and Dixie Chicks. I’m pretty sure Jason Aldean asked me to sing on one of his songs, and I was like…”
She continued: “And I remember too Uzi asking me to do some stuff with him and I know that fans are going to be so pissed at me for saying this, but I literally wrote him back on Instagram and I was like, ‘Buddy, I love you so much, but I don’t want to be that famous.’
“I told him like we were getting ready to take a break. I obviously had a lot of issues going on that no one really knew about and I was like, ‘Bro, I just need to disappear. I don’t want to be that kind of a famous person.’ Because that is…He’s like a big artist, man. My stepbrother is obsessed with them. He was pissed when I told him the story.”
Describing the release of her ‘Petals for Armor I EP’, Williams admitted: “I was so anxious and so confused.
“There were so many personal real life things kind of crowding my mind at that point that I thought, why do I want to put out five songs that all feel very large emotionally for me? There’s fun songs on there too. It’s not like they’re all these heavy somber joints, but like I cannot imagine having to navigate a conversation about all five right now.
“And my favorite on the entire second EP is ‘Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris.’ So I thought, ‘Well, I’ll start with this and I’ll be able to have a real conversation around it and then we can slowly unfold this thing and build up to the album release.’”
Earlier this month, Williams also opened up on her battle with depression.
“One of my biggest healing moments was realising that a lot of my depression was misplaced anger. I really forced it inward, on myself, and it made me feel shame all the time,” she told The Guardian.
But she said over time she was able to channel her anger and use it as a recognition of self-worth. “It helped me understand things that happened throughout my life that weren’t right.”
She also recently reaffirmed her stance on the controversial lyrics of Paramore‘s breakout hit, ‘Misery Business’, having previously announced that the track had been axed from her band’s live shows amid the ongoing debate over whether its message was “anti-feminist”.
For help and advice on mental health:
- ‘Am I depressed?‘ – Help and advice on mental health and what to do next
- Help Musicians UK – Around the clock mental health support and advice for musicians
- Music Support Org – Help and support for musicians struggling with alcoholism, addiction, or mental health issues
- YOUNG MINDS – The voice for young people’s health and wellbeing
- CALM – The Campaign Against Living Miserably for young men
- Time To Change – Let’s end mental health discrimination
- The Samaritans – Confidential support 24 hours a day
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