Hayley Williams talked with Dolly Parton for a new Consequence feature:
Because I have so many friends in the rock business that would die to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – people that really spend their whole life doing that.
I’ll take anything you give me in country music because I feel like I will have earned it, because I’ve worked my whole life in it. But I felt like this was something they voted on and I did not want to take votes away from anybody, like a Pat Benatar. You know, the girls that were in the business.
I just said I did not want to do it. It caused a bit of a controversy, and I did not want to stir up controversy. I’m always trying to keep things as calm as I can.
So anyway, they went ahead and put me in it anyhow. [Laughs] They explained why they do it – it’s people’s music that had influenced other people’s music, or whatever. So I said, “If they put me in, I’ll accept it gracefully,” but I still didn’t feel like I’d earned it. And I had often talked about doing a rock album, and well, I’m also not one to miss timing. So I thought, if I’m ever gonna do it, I’m doing it now, so I can feel I earned it.