Paramore’s Hayley Williams Sees Her Younger Self in Billie Eilish

Is Billie Eilish the Hayley Williams of this decade? According to the Paramore singer, yes. Speaking with SiriusXM’s Alt Nation in a new interview, Williams said her first exposure to Eilish was seeing the young star’s “When The Party’s Over” music video, originally released in 2019, but it was watching Eilish in an interview when Williams started seeing the parallels.

“And then I watched an interview with her and I felt like there was something inside of me that was like watching me, slash us, as teenagers doing interviews and like navigating this world,” Williams revealed.

Like Eilish, who released her debut EP Don’t Smile At Me when she was just 16-years-old, Williams burst onto the scene when she was the same age with Paramore’s debut All We Know Is Falling in 2005. Both singers have also toed the line of catchy pop arrangements in their music and, of course, have gone on to create hair trends.

The kinship has led the two artists to form a close bond, with Williams also sharing in the interview, “We’ve spoken throughout the years since she kind of came onto the scene.”

In fact, the Paramore frontwoman has even had dinners at the Eilish family home.

“I went to their house for the first time at Thanksgiving last year, had some really great vegan cinnamon rolls, Maggie, her mom made. And I think that was kind of like, we had already connected, I had connected with her mom too, just about their organization that they have,” recalled Williams. “But ever since that Thanksgiving cinnamon roll treat, just, I mean… The rest is history. I feel like I would do anything for them.’

Maybe even a collaboration? Seeing their chemistry after joining forces at Coachella this past April, it would make a lot of sense. Eilish invited Williams to the stage during her set, in which they did an acoustic duet of Paramore’s “Misery Business” (for the first time since 2018) and Williams joined in again for Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever.”

In fact, Williams told The Guardian she almost talked Eilish out of doing “Misery Business” to keep her oath of abstaining from performing the song for a lyric she now deems misogynistic, though Williams realized the performance meant more on the grand scheme (it was her first time at Coachella to boot).

Up next for Paramore, the band will release their sixth album This Is Why on Feb. 10 and have revealed new music including the title track and “The News,” the latter released alongside a horror-filled music video. The band will also tour in 2023 for solo dates and with Taylor Swift, find tickets here.

Eilish is currently on her “Happier Than Ever” tour. At a hometown show in Los Angeles last night, Dec. 15, she invited Dave Grohl to join her for a take on the Foo Fighters’ “My Hero” in tribute to the late Taylor Hawkins.