The sweet origins of Taylor Swift’s friendship with Hayley Williams

Taylor Swift and Hayley Williams have been friends almost as long as they’ve been making music — and if it weren’t for Swift’s mom, the two may not have grown as close as they are today.

Talking to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show this week, Williams recalled the GRAMMYS party that landed the two musicians in the same circle — and not for the last time.

“A woman came up to me,” Williams told Fallon, “and she said, ‘I’m Taylor Swift’s mom and, you know, Taylor doesn’t have a lot of friends her age that do music. And I would love to, like, you know, introduce you guys or get your number.'”

The two have been friends ever since, and music has continued to bring them together even as they’ve navigated their individual successful careers. Most recently, Williams collaborated with Swift on the Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) vault track “Castles Crumbling.” Paramore will soon open for Swift on the next leg of the ongoing Eras Tour.

Genuine friendship among artists can’t be easy, especially in instances where they’re nominated for the same awards. But true friends support each other on and off the stage, and this has never been an issue for Williams and Swift.

Soon, the two friends will get to spend quality time together on tour for the first time. But not before Swift has one of the busiest Octobers of her career — at least in terms of release dates. The Eras tour film comes to theaters next weekend. and two weeks after that exactly, the latest re-recording of one of her albums releases to the public. 1989 (Taylor’s Version) drops on October 27, so Swifties will have plenty to do in the weeks to come that doesn’t involve rumors about who the artist is or isn’t dating (we’re going with isn’t).