Taylor Benjamin York is the lead guitarist for Paramore and was born on December 17, 1989 (age 34), in Nashville, Tennessee.
Career with Paramore
Taylor was originally part of the small band Josh Farro, Zac Farro, and Jason Clark created. He later helped write and record All We Know is Falling and Riot!, and took part of all tours supporting Riot!, including The Final Riot!. He later left due to his parent's desire for him to graduate high school before rejoining in 2007 as a touring member.
On June 15, 2009 Paramore announced that Taylor York had officially become a full-time member of the band.
Due to his closeness with Zac Farro, many fans and Hayley Williams believed he would follow suit and leave the band as well in 2010. However, during Paramore: The Last Word he stated he had no plans to leave the band, because he loved it too much. He and Hayley were the primary songwriters of their fourth studio album, Paramore.
As of the end of 2015, he and Hayley were the only remaining members of Paramore after the departure of bassist Jeremy Davis, making Paramore a duo. However, in 2016 after spending some time as a duo, former drummer and old friend Zac Farro returned to the band to record drums on their album After Laughter and it was announced in February 2017 that Farro would be returning full time, officially making Paramore a trio again.
Equipment
Taylor's equipment has been a mixture of various guitars; he was mostly seen using Fender guitars, mostly the Fender Jazzmaster electric guitar, and now he is mostly seen using BilT guitars, which he declared being his favorite type of guitars. As for acoustic guitars, he is mostly seen using the Martin 000-18.
His pedal board consists of the Digitech Whammy pedal, the Boss DD-20 Giga-delay, the Voodoo Lab Pedal Power, the Boss Tuner pedal, the Line 6 DL4, Electro Harmonix Doctor Q, the Line 6 pedal, the EHX POG 2, the Maxon AD999 and either the Boss RV-3 or RV-5.
His favorite choice of picks is the Dunlop Nylon. 88mm picks.
Personal Life
His entire family is Christian and musically talented. His father is Peter York, the Chairman and CEO of CCMG (Capitol Christian Music Group), he is also a guitarist, who taught the instrument to both Taylor and his brother Justin York.
Taylor dated musician Gabriella DiPace from 2008 - 2010. In 2011, it is rumored he was going out with a close friend of Hayley's, Dakotah Rae, for a while. From June 2012 - May 2013, he was in a relationship with a woman who has since liked to remain anonymous and during that relationship they got a dog called Bill together, but when they eventually broke up she kept Bill due to the fact Taylor had a busy touring schedule. Taylor has also been in an on-off relationship with two-time American Idol contestant, Baylie Brown which began late 2013 and ended sometime between 2014-2015.
Currently, Taylor is in a committed relationship with his childhood friend and bandmate Hayley Williams. The two confirmed the rumors that they were dating in an interview for The Guardian in September 2022, but chose not to give away any more details of their relationship. Although they waited until after the announcement of their sixth record to reveal they were a couple, Taylor and Hayley had already been hinting at it since 2017 during the After Laughter album cycle.
Featured Albums
Paramore
Hayley Williams
Trivia
- His nicknames are T, Tay and T-Bear.
- He has a Twitter account: @itstayloryall.
- He has a Tumblr account (currently inactive): @alohayall.
- He has an Instagram account: @tayloryorkyall.
- Although all Paramore members met around the age of 12 - 13 and became good friends, he has always been especially close with drummer Zac Farro.
- He is also a record producer, having co-produced Paramore's self-titled record (2013), After Laughter (2017), and produced Hayley Williams solo project Petals For Armor(2020).
- His brother, Justin York, joined the band on tour during the spring of 2010 and became an official touring member during 2011 and spent 12 years playing with the band on concerts and festivals until 2022, when he announced he was retiring to focus on his family.
- Taylor can also play keyboards, piano, glockenspiel, percussion, drums, bass, tambourine and ukulele.
- In 2017 during interviews Hayley Williams stated multiple times that Taylor was the one who managed to keep Paramore together as a band and helped her through the difficult period in her life after the departure of Jeremy Davis, in which she developed severe depression and felt like giving up on her musical career. She even went as far as calling him 'The Heart Of Paramore'.
- According to Hayley, Taylor is the only member that never left the band.
- Taylor's trademark has always been his curly hair since he liked to grow it out until it was at shoulder length. But ever since 2009 when he cut it short for the first time, Taylor has been alternating between short, medium and long hairstyles.
- Taylor is a fan of The Nashville Predators and even attended a game they played once with Hayley and Zac. He wore a Preds cap and jersey, along with a customized yellow blazer with their logo just for the occasion.
- He is apparently good at sports, since he proved to be a formidable opponent to fans who played against him at ping-pong on Parahoy and a decent basketball player, being able to score a couple of times while doing hoops with his bandmates during an old Paramore Webisode in the Brand New Eyes era.
- Taylor likes football and his favorite team is The Tennessee Titans.
- He loves coffee.
- He is a dog person.
- He drinks and smokes, but has been trying to quit both for quite sometime. He stated in an interview in 2022 that he was able to give up drinking but didn't say anything about stop smoking.
- He (along with Hayley and Zac) has his own signature color for the After Laughter Era, his being yellow, Zac's being blue and Hayley's being red.
- Taylor admitted in an interview for The Guardian in 2022 that on top of his depression and anxiety worsening during the pandemic, he had also begun developing agoraphobia.
- Taylor owns the most guitars and equipment in general amongst all Paramore members.
Current Members
Taylor
|
Former Members
Touring Members
Former Touring Members
 |
Brand New Eyes |
|---|---|
| Songs | Careful • Ignorance • Playing God • Brick By Boring Brick • Turn It Off • The Only Exception • Feeling Sorry • Looking Up • Where the Lines Overlap • Misguided Ghosts • All I Wanted |
| Bonus Tracks | Decode • Ignorance (Acoustic Version) • Where the Lines Overlap (Acoustic Version) • Brick By Boring Brick (Acoustic Version) • Turn It Off (Acoustic) |
| Members | Hayley Williams • Josh Farro • Taylor York • Jeremy Davis • Zac Farro |
 |
Paramore |
|---|---|
| Songs | Fast In My Car • Now • Grow Up • Daydreaming • Interlude: Moving On • Ain't It Fun • Part II • Last Hope • Still Into You • Anklebiters • Interlude: Holiday • Proof • Hate to See Your Heart Break • (One of Those) Crazy Girls • Interlude: I'm Not Angry Anymore • Be Alone • Future |
| Bonus Tracks | Escape Route • Native Tongue • Tell Me It's Okay • Decode • The Only Exception • Brick By Boring Brick • Let the Flames Begin |
| Members | Hayley Williams • Jeremy Davis • Taylor York |
 |
After Laughter |
|---|---|
| Songs | Hard Times • Rose-Colored Boy • Told You So • Forgiveness • Fake Happy • 26 • Pool • Grudges • Caught in the Middle • Idle Worship • No Friend • Tell Me How |
| Members | Hayley Williams • Taylor York • Zac Farro |
