Paramore's Hayley Williams announced that two of her bandmates, guitarist Josh and drummer Zac Farro, decided to leave the band in a tidy blog post over the weekend. Considering the band's dramatic past -- they had to pull a tour to deal with "internal issues" -- we weren't surprised by the news. But the ex-bandmembers' juicy new blog post (via ONTD) detailing their side of the story makes several stunning accusations.
Note: There's been a lot of chatter online that the Farro blog post is a fake, but as many fans have pointed out, Josh's wife, Jenna, linked to the post from her personal blog after promising her husband would issue a response to Williams' statement several days ago, and the group's reps are declining to comment on it. More info as The Amp gets it!
The Claims:
• That Wiliams joined the Farros' high school garage outfit and before long "things changed and this band became all about Hayley."
• That Williams' manager and parents urged her to pursue a solo career, so she quit the band, then contacted Josh to invite him and Zac (but not original members Taylor York and Jason Clark) to join her.
• That Williams, her manager, and parents privately met with labels and decided to go with Atlantic without consulting the other bandmembers, who never signed the contract; the label wanted to ax the rest of the band because they were "terrible."
• That Williams' team decided to make it seem like the group was signed to indie Fueled by Ramen for grass-roots cred.
• That Williams' dad drove their tour van and "threatened 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."
• That Josh and Williams dated and split during "Riot," which caused drahhhmmma (and contributed to why the band yanked a European leg of their tour and nearly broke up).
• That while writing for "Brand New Eyes," Williams presented the band with lyrics that didn't gibe with their Christian views: "For example, 'the truth never set me free,' which contradicts what the Bible says in John 8:32 ('and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall sat you free'). We fought her about how her lyrics misrepresented our band and what we stood for, but in the end she got her way."
The Williams Conundrum, coupled with the Farros' regret that they lost their teen years to touring, made them finally jump ship. (Their faith helped with the decision, too: "We truly feel that God is leading us elsewhere and is going to do great things with us.") So far, Williams hasn't issued any responses on her very active Twitter, but it's doubtful the Farros could drop a bomb of this magnitude without some major reprecussions. Prepare thyself: An emo earthquake is brewing.
[Photo: Chris McKay/WireImage.com]