Paramore’s Hayley Williams was tremendously shaped by her grandfather, Rusty, and his love of music, so it’s only fitting that she encouraged him to release a shelved album from the ’70s. That LP, Grand Man, will arrive on Valentine’s Day through her bandmate Zac Farro’s label Congrats Records.
“So many people our age are mining these albums for tones and things you can’t even replicate. Grandat has a way of cutting to the core of a feeling, and not overcomplicating it. Which we tend to do, because the world is hard. It’s nice when you can hear something plain and simple and know that it is true,” says Hayley, who sampled his song “Friends or Lovers” on her solo debut, Petals for Armor, in 2020. “I thought that it was a crime that these songs were sitting there on the shelf,” Farro adds.
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The opening track, “Knocking (At Your Door),” serves as the first single, which glides through a similar soulfulness as one of Rusty’s favorites — the Temptations. “I don’t expect anything, and I’m too old to be famous,” he says. “But I just want to know someone liked what I did, and to be touched by whatever the hell they are listening to. I want people to see how it felt when things were real.”
Check out the animated video for “Knocking (At Your Door),” plus the album artwork and tracklist, below.
Grand Man tracklist
- “Knocking (At Your Door)”
- “Can’t Stay Away”
- “Angel Eyes”
- “Wanted”
- “Fade Away”
- “If Only For A While”
- “Never Gonna Stop”
- “Lovers Only Come And Go”
- “Every Time I’m High”
- “The Only Way For Me To Say I Love You”
- “Riverboat Gambler”
- “Someone Who Happened To Me”
- “Take Me Around The World”