Morgan Wallen named as the 'racist country singer' in Hayley Williams' new song as artist drops bombshell
Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams has confirmed who was the subject matter of a pointed lyric on her new solo album.
On the title track of Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party, Williams, 36, sang: “I’ll be the biggest star, at this racist country singer’s bar.”
Appearing on The New York Times’s Popcast podcast on Wednesday, October 1, Williams revealed that her lyrics refer to country music superstar Morgan Wallen.
She said: “It could be a couple, but I’m always talking about Morgan Wallen, I don’t give a s***.
“Meet me at Whole Foods - I just don’t care.”
It’s not the first time Williams and Wallen have come to blows; the former previously criticised the country singer’s Nashville venue, This Bar and Tennessee Kitchen. The Misery Business singer described it as her least favourite musician-owned spot in the city.
Speaking to Stereogum in August, she said: “When you open a business, you don’t just put your name on it. Like you come up with something, right?
“It can have your DNA in it, but I don’t understand the bars that are just people’s names.”
In 2021, Morgan Wallen was suspended by his record label after being filmed using a racial slur outside his home. He later apologised in a video, attributing the incident to a “72-hour bender” and saying he’d since taken part in conversations with black community leaders.
Speaking to Billboard in 2023 he said: “There’s no excuse. I’ve never made an excuse. I never will make an excuse.
“I’ve talked to a lot of people, heard stories [about] things that I would have never thought about because I wasn’t the one going through it - I put myself in just such a s*** spot, you know?
“If I was that guy, then I wouldn’t have cared. I wouldn’t have apologized. I wouldn’t have done any of that if I really was that guy that people were saying about me.”