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New VH1 Interview
Willa Ford: A Toast to Sex - By C.
Bottomley
Blonde hottie is a hands-on feminist
who says you don't need men to have
sex, and you don't need pick-up lines
to meet girls. She talks sorority
parties, lingerie photo shoots, and
Marilyn Monroe.
Willa Ford knows what you think when
you look at her. She's tall, blonde,
and sexy, so it’s easy to imagine
her as a ditzy puppet with some record
company Svengali pulling the strings.
But Ford also knows what to do with
your expectations. From the moment
this vivacious singer starts talking,
it’s obvious she’s very
much in command of her own destiny.
It hasn't been an easy road to independence.
Her relationship with Backstreet Boy
Nick Carter overshadowed her 2001
debut Willa Was Here, and inspired
jealous fans to set up Ford-bashing
Web sites. The singer spent as much
time denying she was cross-eyed as
she did making music.
The pair eventually split, dividing
up custody of their numerous dogs,
and Ford refocused on her career -
refusing to let herself be pigeonholed
as “that girl.” It worked.
Her hit “I Wanna Be Bad”
sold over 250,000 copies, she hosted
the Miss Teen USA pageant and made
a scene-stealing appearance in Uncle
Kracker’s “In a Little While”
video.
Right now she's fired up over her
new single “A Toast to Men.”
It's a saucy club banger based on
an X-rated sorority sister chant,
and it's refreshingly raunchy. Her
forthcoming as-yet-untitled album
might insure that Willa is here to
stay. With a sweeping Smashing Pumpkins-style
ballad called “I See You”
and the steamy “Sexysexobsessive”
among the tracks, Ford’s certainly
nobody’s pop idol. In fact, she
sings opera and doesn’t give
a damn what her parents think. The
22-year-old diva-in-waiting told VH1
about staying in control, even when
you’re posing naked.
VH1: What inspires “A Toast
to Men’s” sentiment, “F*ck
the men, lets drink to us”?
WF: A really great sorority party!
[Laughs.] I didn’t get to go
to college, but I was at a party with
my friends, and there were like five
sorority sisters who got together
and were like, “F*ck the men,
let’s drink to us.” I was
like, “That is amazing! Do it
again!” It’s about girls
having fun. All we do is talk about
men - “Oh, he screwed me over,”
“Oh, he is hot,” “Oh,
I hope he calls.” This song is
like, “Listen girls, f*ck the
men for the night, let’s drink
to us. This isn’t about them.
It’s about us.” Everyone
took it differently. Some men were
like, “Oh, you’re just down
on guys.” Others were like, “Yeah
f*ck us!” I’m like, “You
guys are dorks.” If a guy wrote
a song about f*cking chicks, you’d
have like pickets and stuff. Thank
God it’s just boys, they don’t
care.
VH1: So what’s good about men?
WF: They make good dads sometimes!
I have a great dad. My brother is
pretty cool too. Past that, that’s
pretty much it! [Laughs.] What are
they good for? Carrying your bags
and your books if you are still in
school … and of course that other
thing. But I’ve decided we don’t
need them for that, either. But that’s
not for me to discuss on camera.
VH1: What was the last pick-up line
you fell for?
WF: I don’t fall for pick-up
lines. There was this one guy. We
were talking and at the time I didn’t
realize he liked me. He said, “You’ve
been hurt, haven’t you?”
I laughed so hard - I was like, “hahaha,”
hysterically in his face. I was like,
“Was that a line?” He was
like “Oh, no!” Six months
later he was like, “Yeah, it
was.” Pick-up lines don’t
work with me, I see right through
them.
VH1: But hey, you were still talking
to him six months later.
WF: Yeah, but it wasn’t like
I was talking to him ‘cause he
got me… but wait, damnit! I think
he was using the line to try to get
me comfortable. But it didn’t
work.
VH1: What did your mom say when she
saw the “A Toast to Men”
video?
WF: My mom was there! [Laughs.] She
was like, “That’s my baby!”
She didn’t have a problem with
it. There was one section of the video
that we took out that actually showed
somebody’s t*ts. That was the
only section that my mom was like,
“That’s disgusting!”
I was like, “Okay, we’re
taking it out!” [Laughs.] This
one’s just like a party song!
This is nothing! Wait until you hear
“Sexysexobsessive.” [Laughs.]
VH1: Do I even have to ask what “Sexysexobsessive”
is about?
Willa Ford: It’s pretty much
what it is - it’s raunchy. Actually,
it’s about somebody having dreams
- like their whole life is being taken
over by sex. Some people have those
issues, but not me!
VH1: Did you sit down with your family
and say, “I’m Willa Ford;
I’m not 19 anymore, and there’s
going to be a song on the new record
called ‘Sexysexobsessive’”?
WF: I’ve never had to have that
discussion. My grandmother goes, “As
long as you’re never naked, I
don’t care.” It’s a
character. All of us have that side
of us. All I did was reach in, pull
it out in the song, and, put it in
music, so that everybody could listen
to it and go, “Oh, I do have
that side.”
VH1: They didn’t ask any questions
about the material you were writing?
WF: If they have questions, they
can ask me, but I just play it. I
don’t try to tell people what
“Sexysexobsessive” is about.
You took it as it was my sex fantasies.
It’s also about some of these
sex fantasies about me. There are
some people out there that can’t
seem to get these sex fantasies off
their minds, and literally it runs
their life. But everyone hears it
differently.
VH1: Would you have kissed Madonna?
WF: If it was called for. If Madonna
said, “We’re going to kiss
in this sequence,” you’re
not gonna tell her no. It’s like
career suicide! If she said, “Kiss
me!” I’d be like, “All
right, but brush your teeth.”
VH1: Have you ever done something
you thought the situation called for,
and later regretted it?
WF: No… never, I call my own
shots. We were at a photo shoot for
Blender, and I hated all the lingerie.
I was like. “This stuff is wack.
I can’t put any of this stuff
on. I’m going to get naked, and
you are going to cover me in these
things.” My mom was like “What?”
and my publicist was little nervous,
but it turned out to be a great shoot.
You didn’t see anything more
than you would have seen in lingerie.
I didn’t regret it.
VH1: Is it true that you grew up
singing opera?
WF: I was an opera singer. I try
to keep my repertoire going of what
I learnt. But it’s really sad
because you just start forgetting.
There’s one song that I remember.
"Nel cor piu non mi sento"
[from Giovanni Paisiello's La Molinara].
It’s a girl flirting with a guy,
but then she is like “Oh, but
I can’t!” It was a fun song
for me as a kid, because I was 12
or 13 years old and trying to relate
to it. I can sing some for you now,
but I haven’t warmed up. [Sings
aria.] There you go, I am very raspy!
VH1: What do you think is one of
the biggest misperceptions that people
have of you?
WF: People think, “She’s
blonde and cute and does music,”
so people think I’m dumb as a
box of rocks. What they don’t
realize is that it’s not easy
to run your own career. Everything
that happens is because I said, “I
think this should happen.” People
in interviews also think I come across
as flighty, floozy, and kind of skanky.
But I’m just honest. You ask
me a question, I’m going to be
matter of fact about the issues. But
I’m definitely not a skank. Playboy
interviewed me the other day, and
asked me if I would pose. I said “No.”
They were like, “Wow, that’s
not an answer we expected.” I’m
like, “What did you expect?”
Just because I like to get down to
it, does not mean I will give you
everything.
VH1: Is it harder for you than if
you had a team making the decisions
for you?
WF: Yes. I work so hard on every
little thing I get or do. I have a
wonderful team around me, don’t
get me wrong. But I was the one in
the studio for two years, bawling
my eyes out, attempting to make the
music that I needed to make to get
my fans. My job is not nearly as glamorous
as the rest of the pop divas. Yeah,
I go to [Frederic] Fekkai to get my
hair done, but I don’t have my
publicist book my appointment to go
there. I call like any regular person,
or my mom calls, and I’ll be
like “Can you fit me in next
week?”
VH1: What woman would you raise a
toast to?
WF: Marilyn Monroe. I know that sounds
weird ‘cause she is probably
everything I didn’t stand for
just now. But I would raise my glass
only because I want to be in the same
room as her. I want to know what the
deal was back then, what women had
to do to become what she was. I know
she had to a lot of things to get
what she got out of life. People saw
Marilyn Monroe as the sex goddess
that had sex with this person and
this person, and all these famous
people - or so we think. I think she
was a lot smarter then we give her
credit for by using men to get what
she wanted. Not that I want to be
her. I would just love to sit beside
her and raise my glass and be like,
“This is to the girl that gave
up everything to do it.”
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