Hayley Williams has publicly identified Morgan Wallen as the “racist country singer” referenced in a lyric on the title track of her new solo album, saying during an appearance on The New York Times’ Popcast that “it could be a couple but I’m always talking about Morgan Wallen,” and adding, “I don’t give a s—. Find me at Whole Foods, b—, I don’t care.” The Paramore frontwoman’s confirmation followed weeks of speculation after the song “Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party” was released over the summer with the line, “I’ll be the biggest star at this racist country singer’s bar.” Williams’ remarks circulated widely on Thursday as clips from the podcast were reposted across entertainment outlets.
The lyric’s explicit reference to “this…singer’s bar” pointed listeners to Wallen’s six-storey venue on Nashville’s Lower Broadway, Morgan Wallen’s This Bar & Tennessee Kitchen, which opened on June 1, 2024. Local authorities had initially rejected plans for a large neon sign on the frontage amid debate over Wallen’s recent behaviour and the 2021 video of him using a racial slur; the project later won approval for its signage in December 2024. The operation has since become a busy fixture on the strip and a visible part of the singer’s brand, drawing supporters despite the controversies that have followed him.
Asked on Popcast if she wished to “name names,” Williams was unequivocal, tying the song’s Nashville setting to her broader insistence on addressing racism in and around the Southern music ecosystem that shaped her life. “I’m never not ready to scream at the top of my lungs about racial issues,” she said in the interview, describing those concerns as “so intersectional” that they overlap with debates on climate change and LGBTQIA+ rights. Williams, who was born in Mississippi and grew up in Tennessee, has increasingly used her platform to confront state and industry politics, and said she was unconcerned about backlash to the new track’s pointed language.
The 36-year-old singer’s comments arrive a month after she formally released Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party as a self-issued album on her Post Atlantic imprint, collecting 17 tracks she initially dropped as standalone singles and adding a new song, “Parachute.” The release marked her first full independent project following the end of a two-decade association with Atlantic Records that began with Paramore’s early career; distribution for the new record runs through Secretly Distribution. The project includes material that Williams has said reflects on her Southern upbringing, faith, and the region’s history, alongside bristling observations about contemporary culture in Nashville.