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Hayley Williams is paying her respects to her late ex-husband.
On Sunday, September 20, New Found Glory guitarist Chad Gilbert passed away.
He was only 45.
Williams has found the words to pay tribute to the complicated man who influenced her and an entire genre of music.
Hayley Williams is paying her respects to her ex
Taking to her Instagram Story on Wednesday, September 23, Hayley Williams spoke about her ex-husband’s passing.
“Have not known what to say or if it’s appropriate,” the Paramore lead vocalist began the text post.
“But,” Williams continued, “I feel sure now that I want to [because] life is made of the paths we cross and the reasons we cross them are infinite.”
She affirmed: “Chad is indeed a legend in the scene.”
Williams continued: “And my time connected to him taught me a lot.”
“He introduced me to people that continue to shape my life in beautiful ways,” Williams wrote of her ex-husband.
“And,” she added, “to music and culture that has made life a lot richer.”
Continuing to speak of Gilbert, Williams acknowledged that “there isn’t much that hasn’t already been said about what contributed to the musical world a lot of us grew up in.”
She praised: “His influence and attitude guided the genre forward.”
Williams added: “His passion for fostering the community was inspiring and sticks with me.”
Her ‘love’ and ‘sympathies’ go to those central to his life in his final years
“I will forever be grateful that, from him, I gained a deeper understanding and a reverence for the community and the culture of hardcore,” Hayley Williams expressed in her tribute.
She is keenly aware that she is not the only one grieving him.
Williams sent her “love and my sympathies” to Gilbert’s family, to his New Found Glory bandmates, and to “all his friends.”
Gilbert is survived by his wife, Lisa Cimorelli, and their 5-year-old daughter, Lily.
All things considered, Williams did not have to leave such a generous and warm tribute to the ex who dated her when she was 18 and then cheated on her. But it is very kind that she did.
Chad Gilbert began dating Williams when she was in her late teens. They would remain in a relationship for about a decade before marrying.
Their 2016 marriage only lasted until 2017, however.
Gilbert remarried in 2020 to Cimorelli.
On Sunday, September 20, he passed away after a battle with brain cancer.
He’d had a cancer scare with his thyroid back in 2010, and had spent the past half-decade fighting for his life against a new cancer battle centered upon his brain.
Like Williams, our thoughts are with Gilbert’s loved ones at this time of grief.
