For Hayley Williams, Paramore was a surrogate family. It was initially made up of her friends from Franklin, Tennessee: Josh Farro and Jason Bynum on guitar, Zac Farro on drums, and Jeremy Davis on bass. But Paramore would prove to be a volatile family group, as relationships between members were strained by success and worldviews. Within a few years of Paramore’s forming, the Farro brothers walked away. Josh Farro later took to his blog, accusing Williams’s father of being an overbearing manager, Davis of bad behavior that led to multiple dismissals, and Williams (who had a brief relationship with Josh) of writing lyrics that went against his Christian beliefs.
The younger Zac eventually rejoined Paramore, with Josh’s blessing. But an even more contentious split came when Davis left in 2015, and sued the band over credit, royalties, and a partnership in Paramore’s business arm. Davis was outspoken in his hard feelings toward Williams, who maintained (along with the rest of Paramore) that the legal proceedings kept them from public comment. The lawsuit was settled in 2017.
For Williams, who still looked on Paramore as a family, the ongoing drama took its toll. Worn down by the splits and infighting, particularly with Davis, Williams herself left the group she co-founded, putting Paramore into hiatus. “I wasn’t OK for a while,” she told The Guardian. Battling depression, she was only slowly coaxed back into the band by guitarist Taylor York.
