Willis Earl Beal Spent Two Weeks in Jail, Was Released Yesterday

BY Alex HudsonPublished Aug 6, 2015

DIY soul-pop experimenter Willis Earl Beal has an album called Noctunes coming out later this month, and in the lead-up to its August 28 release on Tender Loving Empire, we've learned some rather surprising news: the singer just spent the better part of two weeks in jail.

Beal was booked in Portland, OR, in the early hours of July 23 on charges of criminal mischief and harassment.. The booking information for his arrest can be seen here. He got out of jail yesterday (August 4)

A YouCaring campaign was set up to raise bail money, although this now seems to have been removed or blocked to the public. The page apparently read, "All great artists have a crazy night every now and then. That doesn't mean they deserve to be in jail for an indefinite amount of time." Mecca Normal's Jean Smith tweeted that Beal's arrest stemmed from a broken window at a club, and Spin confirmed with the singer's rep that those "assumptions are correct."

Promotional efforts behind Noctunes have continued in spite of Beal's time behind bars. A new song called "Survive" emerged last Thursday (July 30), at which point he would have still been locked up.

This isn't the first time Beal has been in trouble with the law. In 2012, he was arrested amidst allegations that he kicked a homeless man in the face in the Netherlands.

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