In music, bands often symbolize unity, but behind the scenes, conflicts can brew. Paramore also went through a similar process when former guitarist Josh Farro made serious allegations against Hayley Williams, revealing the inner workings of the band.
Back in December 2010, it was announced through the band’s website that the Farro brothers, Josh and Zac, left Paramore. Josh later penned a departure statement on his Blogger account, claiming:
“Hayley’s manager would tell the band to be in the lobby of the hotel at a certain time, but he and Hayley wouldn’t show up for hours. We found out that they had been meeting with record label executives all morning without us, which is totally weird given that this wasn’t simply a solo artist, but we were a band.”
He added, recalling how they didn’t know what was happening in their younger days:
“The band was in the dark the whole time. After many meetings between Hayley, her manager and the labels they decided to sign her to Atlantic Records. We didn’t understand why Hayley was the only one signing the contract since we were told this was a ‘band,’ but we were too young to grasp all of this. Next thing we knew, we were having a signing party for Hayley.”
After saying that Williams’ management and parents controlled her actions and decisions and pushed her to go solo, Farro continued:
“Hayley’s father… would constantly threaten to ‘pull the plug’ on the whole band if we complained about anything, suggesting that we were hired guns and Hayley was the real artist when, in reality, we were also part of the band. We’ve always been treated as less important than Hayley. It’s been obvious how her family views things.”
Later, in a 2013 conversation with HelloGiggles, Hayley was asked about the challenges she faced when the Farro brothers left the band and how they stayed together as a band. She replied:
“The first few months of going through that, especially when the press outlets got a hold of the story and the blog posts and stuff, it was a nightmare. I could not leave my house in Franklin without seeing a million people that I knew who thought they knew the story better than I did.”
She noted, further explaining the process after the split:
“It sucked – there was nothing fun about this part of our lives. We did, again, have to learn how to get out of our own way, and once we did that, there was no reason to hold a grudge or be pissed off.”
Seven years after the departure, drummer Zac Farro returned to Paramore in 2017. Josh, on the other hand, continued making music with Novel American and his solo project, Farro.
