Willa Ford is no Britney Spears. And she’ll be the first one to tell you.

She’s a small-town, baby-faced blonde who, as a child, sweetly sold her farmer father’s tomatoes by the side of the road and still cites her grandma as her “fave person in the entire world.” She is Willa Ford—once famous for dating her Ruskin, FL, neighbor, the Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter. Yet her nasty 2001 Top Ten hit, “I Wanna Be Bad,” turned her into the man-slagging, Britney-trashing tough girl of teen pop.

“Britney is larger than life right now, there’s no doubt,” Willa says. “Am I as big as her? No. But musically, I am more talented.”

 

 Willa’s effort to back up that claim is a slyly accomplished second album, Sexysexobsessive, and its rapidly climbing, ironically titled, dancehall/rap hit, “A Toast to Men,” with its easily memorable chorus of “Fuck the men, let’s drink to us!” Born Amanda Williford 23 years ago, Mandy was discovered by Magic Johnson, of all people, who signed the opera-trained chanteuse to MCA. Her name was quickly changed, but not her self-described “relentless” determination to stick to her guns: She refused to do a “Disney/ Nickelodeon” version of “I Wanna Be Bad” entitled “I Want to Be Glad.”

 

 After a move to alterna-rock label Lava Records, FHM catches up with Willa in a look she describes as “ghetto fabulous meets white trash.” Her outfit is punctuated with a Dallas Stars hat (she has recently been linked with the Stars’ Mike Modano) and a wife-beater with no bra. Shoveling down a chili Fritos pie and two corn dogs, this little hellion’s talk is as straightforward as her choice of chow.

OK, Willa, you’ve got this “bad girl, maneater” thing going and—
I wouldn’t say I’m always “bad”—you can’t always be that or you’d drive yourself insane—but I would go with the “maneater.” I almost verge between straight and lesbian. I’m not lesbian, but I am that bitchy straight girl who could almost be—’cause the minute you’re an asshole and piss me off, you’re done. But guys love me. I see myself as such a boy, such a dude. If my boyfriend’s on my right and I’ve got five guy friends with me, I’m throwing down with him like I am with the rest of them. If a guy likes that quiet, subdued Southern belle, I have one word: Britney.

Oops, you did it again.
I’m an honest son of a bitch. My mom used to call me Gabby. She’s like, “People can ask you anything and the sad part is that you’ll tell them anything.”

 

So tell us about Britney.
If anyone remembers correctly, there was my “I Wanna Be Bad,” then, boom, “I’m a Slave 4 U,” then Christina comes out with “Dirrty”—

This could sound like sour grapes.
Listen, there’s enough room for all of us and I can’t go anywhere but up. I mean, Jessica Simpson’s got her show, Mandy Moore has got her movies, Christina is not going anywhere because of her amazing vocal skills—unless she goes crazy—and then there’s Britney, who, to be quite honest, just like the Backstreet Boys and ’N Sync . . . I just think there’s a cycle and if you didn’t move with that cycle, you’re screwed.

My. Any thoughts on J.Lo?
She’s an awesome actress, but I can’t stand her singing. And her love life is a joke. Like, as much as it’s doing for her, at some point, we’re all gonna go, “Who gives a shit?”

 

  So tell us about Britney.
If anyone remembers correctly, there was my “I Wanna Be Bad,” then, boom, “I’m a Slave 4 U,” then Christina comes out with “Dirrty”—

This could sound like sour grapes.
Listen, there’s enough room for all of us and I can’t go anywhere but up. I mean, Jessica Simpson’s got her show, Mandy Moore has got her movies, Christina is not going anywhere because of her amazing vocal skills—unless she goes crazy—and then there’s Britney, who, to be quite honest, just like the Backstreet Boys and ’N Sync . . . I just think there’s a cycle and if you didn’t move with that cycle, you’re screwed.

My. Any thoughts on J.Lo?
She’s an awesome actress, but I can’t stand her singing. And her love life is a joke. Like, as much as it’s doing for her, at some point, we’re all gonna go, “Who gives a shit?”

 

 - Will Add More From My Magazine Copy Soon -

 

Willa Ford planting flowers? “I’m trying to do the homeowner thing with flowers but everything is flying around” said Will 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 art 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 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)

+ Charlie Craine
Published: December.22.2003

 

Willa Fortune
With a hot debut album and a hotter video on MTV, Willa Ford is built for the way you live.

Stuff, 2/20/2003
By Dan Bova

Willa Ford and I are sitting at the swanky Royalton Hotel 44 Restaurant in New York City talking about…urinals. I tell her that the Royalton’s men’s room doesn’t have a urinal, but a giant waterfall that you pee into. She gives a courtesy “Oh, yeah?” then stares desperately at her cell phone. I guess she’d rather talk about her newly finished album, Willa Was Here, featuring the blistering single “I Wanna Be Bad,” instead of the merits of places where I’ve whizzed. To each her own.

In case you’re dead-yet somehow still able to read—Willa Ford is the stunning pop diva who’s been kicking hip-hop-influenced dance tracks into everybody’s ear holes and convincing your girlfriend to buy Pantene Pro-V shampoo. She’s also the hated enemy of legions of jealous Backstreet Boys fans—one more reason to fall on your knees and worship the new Queen of Naughty.

STUFF: In your press release, you proudly declare that you’re “not a cheerleader.” I was a cheerleader in high school. Does that make me girlish in your eyes?
WILLA: No. I think cheerleader is a term of bubbliness.

Careful—I’m fragile.
A lot of my friends are cheerleaders, so don’t get me wrong. I was in that whole pep-rally scene. Then in 10th grade, all of a sudden, I just broke loose. They called me Gangsta Barbie. I’d come pimping into school with chrome concept rims on my Prelude and my killer system bumpin’. I was totally one of the boys, and because of that, I gained so much insight into how their brains work. So now when I wear my pumps and my miniskirts, it’s like, I get it.

Pumps just look so uncomfortable to me.
It’s our sexuality, our one weapon that a man doesn’t have, so you can take him down to size in an instant. I couldn’t imagine not being a female, being able to go into a club and just work it and control the situation. Every guy out there is going, “Damn! She’s on to our game.”

How do the ladies react to your gaming?
It is so weird how some girls react to sexuality. I can just hear the backlash I’m going to get for my video and for being in Stuff. It’s really ridiculous that a female looks at another female who’s absolutely stunning and is like, “Ugh, I can’t believe she did that.”

Were you always so very, very bad?
My previous label tried to manufacture me. They wanted me to be cleaner, squeakier, sweeter and nicer. And that’s why we didn’t get along. I mean, I like to curse. The f-word is just such a great adjective, it’s not even funny.

It makes me giggle from time to time. With all the social unrest in the world, do you think it’s responsible to say you want to be bad?
I’m into entertaining myself, I’m into entertaining others and right now, I want to be bad-and there is nothing wrong with that. Let me just tell you right now: It’s a beautiful thing.

I’m wearing triple-pleated pants right now. Is that bad?
It’s so evil.

In your video, you have a run-in with the cops. What are we to infer happened before you left them on the side of the road and drive off with their car?
The cops and I were eating doughnuts, and this jelly doughnut exploded on my face. But you couldn’t really see it, and the director told us to keep going. So then I pulled the cop down onto the ground out of frame. I’m not saying anything happened, but it leaves a lot to the imagination. When I stood back up, I wiped my mouth because of the doughnut, but on film it totally looked like I was wiping off something else! And the director cut it into the video! I was like, “I’m bad, but I know my limits on MTV, you know?”

Ever have any real brushes with the law?
Yeah. I got in trouble once for pimping. Cops had a problem with it. I’m not sure why. All I was doing was entertaining the customer. Just kidding. I got a speeding ticket once.

You’ve performed at theme parks. Did you ever get hit on by any of those big walking Disney characters?
The other day I was at the Hard Rock Hotel, and they’ve got some mascot that walks around. I was trying to check into the hotel, and it would not leave me alone. It was like a bird—Woody Woodpecker, maybe. Some satanic-looking thing. He couldn’t talk. It was all body language. The whole staring up and down, tapping on my shoulder, being like, “Hey, how you doing, baby?” I was like, “Get away from me.”

He tried the same shit with me. You list Boyz II Men and Jodeci as influences. Do you like anyone good?
I love sultry people. Like Basia, a jazz artist. Mary J. Blige—I like the toughness in her voice. There’s the obvious: Madonna, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Janet [Jackson].

I read that you don’t like to be compared to Britney.
Yeah, who, by the way, is very talented and a very hard worker. Magazines are always trying to pit all the girls against each other. We’re dominating the market. We’re all for each other. You know? We don’t hate each other.

OK. Just to pit you against each other, say aliens abducted you and Britney and you had to fight to the death for the winner to be returned to Earth. What would you do to her?
[Laughs] I think that me and Britney have enough sexuality between the two of us that we could conjure up something and get those aliens to let us both go back home!

You’re less than popular with a lot of Backstreet Boys fans. I’ve seen some of the “I hate Willa” Web sites. What is wrong with these girls?
It’s crazy! It all started when I went on tour with BSB and all these rumors about me mistreating them and their fans began circulating. These fans are writing, “Willa is Satan. She will destroy the earth!” It’s like, dude, I’m strong and I’m powerful, but I’m not that good. I’ve got to be honest.

Is there anything you’d like to say to them?
Do something more constructive with your freaking time! Go start a freaking organization to feed the homeless guy on the corner of your street. Get over it, people.

One girl said she’s boycotting Teen People, Pantene and Atlantic Records because of you. Think she’ll boycott us?
If she boycotts everything I’m involved with, before she knows it she’s going to be Amish.

Do you hope to get guy groupies on tour?
Of course I want guy groupies. I mean, come on. Dumb question. I’m in rock ’n’ roll for the men! [Laughs] Guys say it’s all about rock ‘n’ roll, hard-core chicks, drugs, whatever. I’m not into the drugs, and I’m not into the chicks. But I could be into the guys and maybe the booze. I can proudly say to America—this is a good message for the kids—I did my first keg stand the other day. It was a proud, proud moment. We have it on tape, too. I’m sure it’ll be on Hard Copy soon.

You’ve changed your name a couple of times. Do you have anything else in common with P. Diddy?
I have an obsession for guns, man. [Laughs] Just kidding. Totally a joke. I think he and I look a lot alike. People often mistake me for his twin sister.

Any other passions besides singing and staring at my pleated pants?
I’d like to be an actor. But I want to be in something that makes people say, “This girl can act” vs. “Dude, she looks hot.” But they can go hand in hand. Angelina Jolie is beautiful. If I had to say who I was most like, it’d be her. Minus the kissing of the brother.

And here I thought you were bad.