Country music superstar Hayley Williams could have held back speaking with the hosts of the New York Times “Popcast,” this week. But she decided to get personal and name names.
The frontwoman of Paramore was asked about a specific lyric on the song “Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party,” which opens, “I’ll be the biggest star at this racist country singer’s bar.”
That “racist country singer,” Williams confirmed, is Morgan Wallen.
“It could be a couple, but I’m always talking about Morgan Wallen — I don’t give a (expletive),” Williams said on the podcast as the hosts chuckled. “Find me at Whole Foods, bitch, I don’t care.”
Podcast host Joe Coscarelli, a culture reporter for the New York Times, went on to ask Williams about the diversity of Paramore’s fan base.
“The music gives them a space, it makes them feel a part of something,” Williams said about looking out at diverse crowds at her shows. “And that’s the only feeling I’ve ever wanted since I was a kid in Mississippi. I’ve just wanted to feel a part of something.”
Wallen got into trouble when TMZ published a 2021 video of the singer using the N-word, but the singer revealed in an interview with Good Morning America that sales of his music actually spiked after the video was released.
Wallen said he donated money to the Black Music Action Coalition as a result.
Wallen also issued an apology video following the TMZ video’s release.
“I let a lot of people down,” Wallen said in the five-minute video, clarifying that he was on “hour 72 of a 72-hour bender” when the video was taken.
More recently, Wallen ran afoul of the law. The Associated Press reports that he was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment in 2024 after police say he threw a chair off a Nashville honky-tonk bar roof.
He later accepted responsibility for this action and pleaded guilty in December, according to the Associated Press.
Williams’ song was one of 18 songs on her release “Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party,” which came out earlier this year.