Swift wrote “Castles Crumbling” around 2010 for her third studio album, Speak Now. Since then, fans gained knowledge of the song, but no part of it was actually ever heard until it was released as a From The Vault track on Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) on July 7th, 2023, featuring Taylor’s long-time friend, Hayley Williams.

In June 2023, a fan gifted Hayley with a bracelet themed after Speak Now, fact to which she said that was “coming at a very interesting time.” Her reaction brought fans to speculate about her appearance on the album, which was later confirmed when Swift posted its tracklist. While announcing it, Taylor mentioned that Hayley’s band, Paramore, was a huge influence to her around the time that she wrote Speak Now.

Although “Castles Crumbling” marks their first collaboration, Hayley had already been a guest star during Swift’s 2011 Speak Now Tour, and had also made an appearance in the music video for her 2015 single, “Bad Blood.” Hayley is also heavily rumoured to have been the inspiration behind the song “Speak Now.”

[Working with Taylor] was really special because we have known each other for a really long time in different stages of our lives. We connected in the beginning when Paramore was just sort of starting to break out and kind of become a popular band, and she had already been successful in country [music] but she was kind of nearing her crossover moment, and it was very exciting. I was also very thankful to know someone that was my age, that was in a similar position to me. And over the years, whether we’ve been in contact consistently or not, I’ve just always been really grateful to know I’m not alone in it. She has so many experiences that I can’t even fathom. There’s been so much added pressure that I know nothing about, and the scale of it is something that’s so much grander than Paramore has experienced even, but I think we’ve found such a good honest connection of just trying to be good stewards of the opportunity that we’ve both been given in music. Like, how do we actually use this in the best way that we can? How do we share these opportunities with the right people? How do we experience this and be fully present for it? And I really look up to her for that. But as far as “Castles Crumbling” goes, I heard the song and was super surprised by the storytelling in it, which is no surprise because it’s a Taylor Swift song, but it’s about an experience that we’ve both shared growing up in the public eye and I just feel very honoured to get to sing about that feeling. And yeah, I just really love it. I love it. I can’t believe I got to be a part of it.

— Hayley Williams via Coup de Main Magazine.