FRANKLIN, Tennessee — Hayley Williams is not a role model. She is just a girl from Mississippi who moved to Tennessee, met a bunch of boys and started a band. That the band sold more than a million copies of their last album (2007's
Riot!) and followed that up with one of 2009's finest rock efforts (Brand New Eyes, which hits stores Tuesday) is largely immaterial. In fact, it does not change anything about Williams, her life, or the way she views herself.
We know all this because, when Williams and her Paramore mates welcomed MTV News to their hometown of Franklin, Tennessee, last week, she told us as much, while she was driving us around in her banged-up Mazda. There is no pretense involved with Hayley Williams. No trappings of fame. She's just a small-town girl, and she'd like everyone to know it.
"I don't want people to look at me and go, 'Oh, that's the girl from this band,' I just want to do my thing," Williams said. "I know the guy who sold me the house ... he lives across the street from me. I know my next-door neighbor. She's this super-sweet old lady, and the first week I moved in she brought me a plant — a really cute plant to put in my kitchen, and it's still there. I still have it."
And her outlook isn't going to change anytime soon, because Williams has surrounded herself with like-minded friends and musicians, all of whom wouldn't hesitate to put her in her place if her head got too big.
"I have random friends that are in other bands, and ... those are the people I look up to, and that I know have made it enough in the business that they can make a living doing what they love and they're still grounded," she said. "They still love being around people and they're not secluded and all weird just because they got a little successful. I don't want to be that person that's closed-off and thinks I'm special. I look up to bands that inspire me. And those people are normal and I'm the same. I'm normal too."
This report is from MTV News.
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