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Legal
Willis Earl Beal arrested for assault
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 29 May 2012
Willis Earl Beal was arrested after a performance at Le Guess Who? festival in The Netherlands this weekend. The singer was held overnight by police in Utrecht after he reportedly kicked a man in the face from the stage.
According to reports, Beal became annoyed by two men, described later by RTV Utrecht as being “under the influence of drink and drugs”, drumming their hands on the stage during his performance. The Guardian reports eyewitnesses as saying that he then told them: “If you disrespect my profession, I disrespect your face”, before doing exactly that.
Shortly afterwards, Beal cut his performance short, telling the audience: “Because of a few bad apples, we all miss out on one more glorious, fantastic, lovely performance. I love you, and I even love the guy whose face I kicked in. I love him, too. He’s a good guy! He’s just drunk a little too much”.
He then called another audience member “a prick” and asked everyone else to buy his merchandise. By this point the police were presumably getting ready to take the singer into custody. Meanwhile, thanks to the wonder of the internet, you can watch it all on YouTube right here: