Hayley Williams, Elton John Chat About Artistry on Apple Music

Hayley Williams joined Elton John on his Rocket Hour Apple Music show this week to chat about her latest album, Petals for Armor, and how she’s grown as an artist.

On writing the new record and capturing her life at age 31, Williams said: “Even as you write you’re putting down something that you’re going through, or maybe that you have hindsight for, but you’re still moving, right? So a lot of the things that I was writing about, they’ve already sort of evolved and twisted, some of them twisted in on themselves, some of them sort of twisted open. I guess, really at 31, I am only just now learning how to romance myself. And I think it’s really underrated.”

John and Williams also discussed their experiences with finding “epiphanies” through the work, with John offering advice on “figuring things out” in life: “It took me until I was 43 until I started to figure out that I needed to change and I needed to take a new direction and think about what I’d been going through. The fact that you’re doing this at 31 years of age will stand you in really good stead. The writing on this album is so beautiful, and it’s very raw, and it’s very touching and it’s one of my favorite albums of the year. So I really want to thank you for doing it.”