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New Interview at Hip Online
Willa Ford planting flowers? “I’m
trying to do the homeowner thing with
flowers but everything is flying around”
said Willa as her plant falls to the
ground. “Hey little guy, are
you
alright?”
What kind of flowers are they?
A palmeria.
I have no idea about flowers.
The are the flowers they put on the
Lei in Hawaii. The smell is kick ass,
it’s a mix between suntan lotion
and fruit. I had to have it but I
don’t know how to take care of
it. I’m a
disaster. I really want to do the
green thumb thing because my dad is
a farmer but it’s a disaster.
Do you usually like to do things
like that?
I want a garden but I don’t have
time to have one so this is my potted
plant version, but it’s a disaster.
It’s the Willa no one would
expect.
Yeah, the potted plant Willa. (We
both laugh) It’s more peaceful
with plants around, don’t you
think?
Yep. And it makes me wonder if Willa
the farmer is the same as Willa the
singer.
There are sides of me you won’t
see in videos. How much fun is watching
me messing around with potted plants
in a video. I do have daily chores
like everyone else. But
everyone says I’m totally different
than they expected.
That’s entertainment.
Totally. You have to entertain. Entertaining
is the thing normal people would do
on alcohol. (We both laugh) That is
what we do most of the time, which
is our job.
Is it fun to be that person?
Oh yeah. That is why people do it.
Some people want to be a musician
only and do it for the music, I do
it for the love of music too, but
you have to entertain. Very few people
get away without entertaining. I read
a quote from Elton John where he said
he’d do anything to be able to
continue to be able to make music
On that note, is there a limit?
There is a limit. I had an interview
with Playboy and they asked if I would
pose for them and I said no.
Is it about the tease? Because Playboy
isn’t about the tease.
Totally, that is about just flat out
showing yourself. I’m all about
the chase and the tease, but I’m
not that hooker. I don’t put
out like that. I’m comfortable
with my body and
could run around naked with friends,
but I would care if my grandmother
saw me and I’m Baptist and I
have morals. I do keep things for
myself from my fans and being naked
is one of them. I think the chicks
appreciate the fact that I don’t
want to get naked.
What does your family think?
At first I didn’t know how to
explain things to my grandmother,
and she is pretty hip. She got cable
just to get MTV. She and her friends
get together to watch me and it makes
you think twice about what you do.
I explained my job to them and showed
them the first video. She was very
proud but she said she’d disown
me if I got naked and I told her
not to worry about it because I would
never do that.
Who decides on your limits? Yourself,
management?
Me.
How do you feel when the record label
calls you the “supreme bad girl”?
The thing is they know me, and I am,
but how bad is bad? It’s all
relative, but is it so bad I’ll
go to jail? I’m not going to
do things illegal. I will push the
envelope and act like a
mischievous diva, hell yeah. But I’m
not a diva, that’s not my style
at all.
Have you always been mischievous?
Yeah, I’ve done things, but I
always got out of it and always got
out of trouble. Guess what I was doing
when I missed school, was I getting
into trouble? No, I was either still
sleeping or I was doing stuff for
drama. I might have been skipping
class but I was in the drama class
rehearsing. I was just focused. I
was always against the grain. If
someone said wear jeans I wore a skirt.
A lot of people are like that.
I can’t be conformed. I’ll
go and wear coochie cutter shorts
and mid-drift. If I’m feeling
it then I’ll wear it. But I’m
the kind of girl that will flirt with
you all night, but you aren’t
taking me home. That is the bad girl.
Guys are like ‘god damn, she’s
fucking with me again’.
Is it because you don’t take
things too seriously?
Exactly. When you take things too
seriously you’re screwed.
I talk to a lot of pop artists who
are too serious and you get bored
quick.
Music is fun and celebration, pop
isn’t taken seriously in the
first place. It’s not classical
opera. I did that too. I had to stop
because I couldn’t stand there
in a little black dress
and be conformed. If I had made it
as an opera singer it would have been
fun to see how that would have turned
out.
You might have shaken the opera world
up.
(Laughs) Coochie cutter shorts and
all. (We both laugh)
Does it bother you that this bad
girl image overshadows you as a singer?
No because I’ll do whatever it
takes to let me sing. That is how
I feel about it. If someone told me
I had to be naked on stage to sing
then I’d do it. If that is what
it took, but
it does get overshadowed. It’s
not my fault, or the artists fault
it’s the fans who want it. You
have to give the GP what they want.
[ed note: GP meaning general public]
I have no
problem that I might have to wear
my shorts up my butt to get my music
across. There are girls who like me
because I help them deal with issues
and get my music for what it
is. I have an outlet to create what
I do, but when I have time off I drive
everyone crazy.
Back in the day you had Cindi Lauper
against Madonna, today you have Britney
and Christina and you and it can’t
all be the same thing. The fans want
something different.
Right and I’m not into Britney.
She is cool, but I’m not into
her flavor. We are totally different
artists. She doesn’t create music
or a self-proclaimed vocalist. Christina
is a singer
and writer, but I can pick up an instrument
and play it. That is no mystery to
people and I have studied classical
opera for four years. I just happen
to have a certain look and
my body looks a certain way and that
is what the general public wants to
see.
So back to the marketing overshadowing
talent…
…right, no matter what I do.
I have gone into a studio where they
are like ‘wholy shit, you have
mad skills’. Why doesn’t
anyone think I do? They say it’s
because no one else in
this genre does. They will write a
little bit…
…and get their names in the
credits.
Exactly. Is it fair that they get
credit for writing two lines? I don’t
write by myself. I write with someone
else. I don’t write the entire
track and take total credit.
Is there a point where you want to
get out of pop music?
Yeah. I have talked to my management
and I thought it would be cool to
make a classical album and just white
label it so no one knows who it was.
They do photo shoots and
the face is distorted. What about
doing Broadway? What if the business
gets so ugly where I can’t deal
with it? So what do I want to do?
I want to sing in a little jazz bar.
I want
to retire to a jazz bar. If we could
all have careers like Madonna that
would be awesome, but we can’t
all have that. I’m young now
and in the pop genre but when I get
older I
won’t look this great. If me
and Britney turn forty and we won’t
look this great then so who will still
have a career still in music? The
one who studied classical opera and
makes
her own music? I don’t freak
out about it really. The time I took
for the classical training was time
well spent. I will always have that.
Is being beautiful a burden?
Who would complain? I would smack
the person who complains about being
cute. The same people that look at
me for the all the wrong reasons are
the same people who
signed me to a record deal. (we both
laugh) They were looking at me and
said I have a great voice, but it
was because I was hot and was marketable.
The girls who aren’t cute
rarely work out.
I remember when I was a teen and
I had the hot pop artist on my wall,
Madonna was one. So what is it like
to have teenage guys buying your poster
and putting it on the wall?
It’s cool. When I grew up I had
posters on my wall like that. I had
Slater from Saved by the Bell. He
was hot. That is how I learned about
sex appeal. If I can help them through
puberty then that is great. Some fifteen
year old boy across the street probably
thinks it’s sweet that I live
across the street. The kids in the
neighborhood came to introduce
themselves and he forgot his name.
(We both laugh) At the same time there
has always been that hot girl in the
magazine.
If I’m fourteen or fifteen I
bet I have your poster on my wall.
(Laughs) Thanks.
Okay, let’s say you can get
your own way and run something, MTV,
a record label, and so on. What would
you want to run?
Wow that’s a good question. I
would probably want to run a record
company or MTV. Okay, there is a double
standard for things and I would like
to run those places and fuck it
all up. Instead of hot female interns
there’d be all these hot male
interns. (We both laugh) Suddenly
the guests on the show aren’t
who is selling the most records, but
the
music would be fierce. I’d give
everyone the music in the studio that
no one hears. I have been writing
some great stuff that is off the chain
but you don’t get to hear. Forty
years ago if I wrote that they’d
release it, it’s too risky now.
If you were running a record label
who would be the first artists you’d
sign?
Gwen Stefani. Purely off the fact
that she can sell it. She could sell
country music.
Who would you sign just because you
would love to hang with them?
Hmmm..
Michael Jackson would be curious.
I have met people who said he is hard
to work with.
Well you could hire him and then
fire him, just to get him in there
to see what is going on there.
Just for a day dude. (We both laugh)
Shit dude, this is going to sound
really insane, but Faith Hill. I want
to know how she makes it work. There
is such a fine balance, but she
is more than luck. I want to have
what she has. I really want to see
how she balances and makes it work.
Do you ever watch the Jessica Simpson
show?
Oh my god, the comedy. (We both laugh)
I know her. I don’t hang out
with her and she is really sweet and
is nice and the Christian girl that
she makes herself out to be and
she isn’t a hypocrite. But what
is crazy to me is that she never came
across as that dumb. I may do ditzy
things and am scattered, but they
really focus on it. She thought
buffalo wings were from buffalos.
That just isn’t normal. The fact
that she said it I wondered if she
was serious, but she wasn’t kidding.
And the chicken of the sea thing.
I might
have actually wondered if it was chicken
salad or tuna salad, but when you
taste it, but it’s the fact that
when he told her that she was so confused.
You know what is funny my
guy friends used to think she was
so hot but now they are like there
is no way they could deal with her.
She is one of those chicks you date
once and never marry. He seems so
smart.
It’s funny and works because
people want to watch, but is her music
career over now?
It is definitely career suicide. I
love her and she had a beautiful voice.
Bad move for sure, but why didn’t
her husband step in and say ‘this
might not be a good idea’ or
maybe he didn’t know she was
that dumb.
That is the problem with not moving
in with each other until you are married,
I say bullshit. At least get engaged
and move in together because you’re
going to live with each
other for the rest of your lives.
Do you have a fantasy about getting
married and having kids?
Yep, but mine is different. I don’t
want to be a normal family. My kids
won’t be normal. I have a niece
and she has like five hundred outfits
and it’s all me. My niece loves
people and socializing. She loves
to sing and dance. My mom raised us
to believe we could do whatever we
want to. She would let us do whatever
we wanted to do. If we drank
we had to do it at home, and not somewhere
else. She was so cool. Same with drugs.
But I never did them because of that.
I want a family, but not the typical
family.
I’m glad I talked to you because
I think people have a misconception
and I will admit I did too.
Thanks. You know most people who talk
to me don’t think I have a brain.
I was in gifted class so I wasn’t
an idiot.
And not just some chick that Maxim
drools over to through in a bikini
and g-string and make jokes about
for being dumb enough to do it.
I laugh about those magazines because
they always try to make me look dumb
during my interviews because I throw
it back at them. They’ll ask
‘do you ever think about
being naked?’ and I’ll say
‘do you ever think about interviewing
somebody?’ or asking a really
good question. It’s ridiculous.
Hell I wouldn’t have pegged
you for a gardener and wanting kids.
So I’m glad I had the chance
to find out.
To get the real deal. (We both laugh)
By: Charlie Craine - HipOnline.com
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