Taylor Swift Discussed How Having Paramore Open On ‘The Eras Tour’ Is A Full-Circle Moment And ‘An Honor’

Paramore graces the latest Billboard digital cover as they gear up to release This Is Why next month. Hayley Williams told the publication, “I feel like we’re the most annoying band in the world because it’s always like, ‘Oh, we overcame this, and now we’re making an album.’” Taylor Swift, it would seem, disagrees with that assessment.

Elsewhere in the cover story, Williams described Paramore serving as an opener on Swift’s upcoming The Eras Tour as “really huge” and “a big deal,” and that’s where she and Swift agree.

“Having Paramore join me on tour is such an honor,” Swift told Billboard. “We came up alongside each other as Nashville teenagers writing our own music, so it feels insanely special to kick off the tour together nearly two decades later. I just remember being constantly floored and inspired by their writing, originality and artistic integrity. Hayley is such a riveting performer because she’s so multifaceted — bold and playful and ferocious and completely in command. It’s a dream come true to join forces like this.”

Williams also recalled those earlier years: “When we were 19, [Swift] told me — she was a country singer at that point — that she wanted to be like Carole King. And I was like, ‘Whoa, that’s a crazy thing to say,’ you know? Because we were kids. And I’ll be damned, this woman, she’s crossing genres and bleeding over into other aspects of pop culture, and she’s helping to shape it at the very least.”

The Eras Tour is scheduled to kick off at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on March 17. Paramore will open for the first two dates in Glendale on March 17 and 18 before embarking on their own North American tour this spring.

This Is Why is out 2/10 via Atlantic. Pre-save it here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.