Who The Heck Is Willow Avalon?: The Southern Belle on a Mission to Raise A Little Hell

Willow Avalon is barreling down the highway, mini skirt hiked, one-booted foot jutting from the open window of her vintage green Mercedes.

It's July in her home state of Georgia, and she's desperate to catch a breeze. She's been like this for over four hours, needing to pee for about three and a half of them, but is not stopping this car. It might not start up again if she does.

Willow is on a mission, the fast-rising 25-year-old country star racing toward Savannah in the hopes of surprising her mom in time for her birthday. All the while, she's sending up shotgun prayers that the car's cracked radiator won't overheat under the bastard summer sun. The broken speedometer bounces along with the miles, uncertain how fast she's going. It's not until the Emanuel County sheriff fills her rearview that the answer becomes clear. Too fast.

"My dad said that I was born with a lead foot," the 'Tequila or Whisky' artist tells me, recounting the moments before her wrongful arrest and the striking mugshot that would become the cover of her debut album, Southern Belle Raisin' Hell. However, it wasn't the speeding ticket that landed the Carlton, Georgia native in a holding cell less than 100 miles from her destination; it was the warrant.

When checking her information in the DMV database, the sheriff discovered a ticket from nearly a decade ago, written outside of Atlanta, for which Willow had failed to appear in court, leading to a warrant for her arrest.

As The sheriff prepares to put her in the back of the car, he assures her he won't cuff her, believing she won't hit him. Willow, with her trademark wit, responds, "Well, sir, I didn't know that I had a damn warrant, so I don't know what I'm gonna do. You might as well at this point."

Their exchanges unfold this way: the sheriff reluctant to apprehend her, the young spitfire unwilling to go down without a bit of sass first. It's that fiery spirit that informed her every move up to this misadventure, now enjoying the A/C in the back of a patrol car, watching as the kind government official lugs her guitar and a suitcase full of 10 pairs of cowboy boots – "I like to have options" – from her Mercedes to his trunk. It's a spirit that's unmistakable, even through her music today.

"I've always been a little bit devious. I literally got kicked out of Brownies for biting the mean kids and, I guess, drawing blood," Willow shares, mentioning the dirt-covered adventures and bully-scrapping escapades of her formative years in Carlton, a town with little more than a post office, a biker bar, and a Baptist church, but a place that has the singer's whole heart.

Her unruly trait is something she is honest about, having learned from example. "The women in my family are full feral, insane people, but the most loving, kind-hearted women you could ever think of," she explains of her matriarchs. "They were my role models, and so it was nurtured. But also, when my mom was in the principal's office all the time, I wouldn't say it was necessarily liked or appreciated."

So when Willow called her mother from the jailhouse in Emanuel County to wish her a happy birthday and tell her of the arrest, that's likely what it felt like, one more round with the principal. But instead of receiving some schoolyard punishment or diminished marks, she got booked, inking her faint fingerprints – she's served her share of hot diner plates – into the system, taking a mugshot that had the kid behind the camera murmuring, "Damn, that's a good one", all while going down as one of the sheriff's favorite people he's ever arrested. Seriously, he said that. In court.

During the few hours she was detained, Willow wasn't sure what to think, but she made the best of her situation. She recalls, "They start asking me all these questions, and I'm just cracking jokes because that's what I do when I get anxious. I don't really know what's happening. They asked me who my employer is, and I'm like, 'Atlantic Records, I guess'. And they're like, 'What the heck are you talking about?'"

The folks at the jailhouse didn't know Willow Avalon from her sharp-tongued cheating song, 'Homewrecker,' or cheeky anthem, 'Hey There, Dolly', that would later gain viral success, coating social media in her welcoming warble. They were unaware of Southern Belle Raisin' Hell, except for the one apprehended before them.

However, the new album and artist are one and the same. Kicking off with the honeyed voices of some of those aforementioned role models, her Granny and great-aunt, the record beautifully introduces listeners to Willow Avalon, her family, her home, and, ultimately, her heart.

Throughout the release, you'll feel her fire and experience that soon-to-be hallmark sass, especially on numbers like the smoldering 'Something We Regret' and the Maggie Antone-backed 'Yodelayheewho.' You'll meet her people on the darling 'Gettin' Rich, Goin' Broke', take a tour of the place that raised her on the patient 'Country Never Leaves', and after an earful of the thundering title track, pray you never get on her bad side.

"It was a cohesive culmination of my life, my history, my family's history, me growing up, my relationships," she describes the collection. "I think it was a combination of all those things and wanting to make something that felt like a portrait of myself and my life. I think we executed it, and I'm just so dang proud."

Now, about that pesky warrant. Willow was bailed out by her mom some five hours after her arrest. Still, it wasn't until later, when the singer's lawyer looked into the near-decade-old ticket, that it struck her.

"I remembered that I had gotten pulled over by an officer when I was like 17, going to my first day at work at Anthropologie, my first non-waitressing job," she explains. "I was over 30 minutes late because this officer pulled me over and told me that my bike rack was obstructing my license plate, all the while flirting with me the whole time."

After noting her young age and tardiness to the officer, she asked if he could just write the ticket and send her on her way. "I think I might have said it in a little bit more of a sass mouth," she admits, "because I had a bit of more of a potty mouth back then, and I was upset because this is a grown man that's, for one, hitting on me, and for two, making me late for my job."

The officer apparently refused to write her a ticket, instead getting back in his vehicle and driving off, only to submit – unbeknownst to her – a citation for the plate obstruction, tacking on an extra "failure to dim high beams" violation.

The day Willow was set to play the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre while on tour with Cage The Elephant, her lawyer went to court in her place and successfully had the invalid citation taken care of. Who would be there but the Emanuel County sheriff, all ready to wave her speeding ticket. He would be the one to send her her mugshot.

Now, with the release of Southern Belle Raisin' Hell, the start of her first headline tour on the horizon, a schedule already peppered with festival appearances and much more still ahead,she is on the cusp of what is undoubtedly a breakout year.

Her dad was right. Willow Avalon was born with a lead foot and isn't letting up on the gas anytime soon.

Willow Avalon's debut album, Southern Belle Raisin' Hell, is released January 17 via Assemble Sound and Atlantic.

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