Upon meeting Lita Ford, one gets the impression of a lioness always ready to protect that which she loves, and always ready to attack. Ford clearly has the deep devotion any mother would have for her children, but she also has an undeniable passion for her music. Put a guitar in her hand, she’s ready to shred that axe. Piss her off, and she’ll shred you. She is both the mother of two adorable young men, and the mother-figure for generations of Rock and Metal fans.
After a somewhat public and catastrophic divorce from husband Jim Gillette (formerly of the Metal band Nitro), and custody dispute for the couple’s two boys, Ford is once again ready to strike out on her own with another solo album. She’s got a lifetime of heartache, laughs, and dreams to write about, and talk about.
Your fans are incredibly excited to hear you’re back in the studio working on a new album. How’s it coming along?
Lita Ford: It’s fucking great! Can I say that?
Sure! You can say whatever you want.
LF: Cool. I’m very excited about it. It’s almost in the final stages. We’re getting ready to record bass and drums. We’ve got to get just another couple of songs together.
Do you have a release date set yet?
LF: We’re shooting for May, but we’ll actually be out playing the songs before then. This weekend at the Illinois shows, we won’t have them worked in to the set list yet. But after the NAMM show [in January 2012], we’ll start playing them live, getting them out there so people can start getting a little taste. It’s a very inspiring album. It’s very from the heart, very based on real life drama, and I think people will be able to relate in a lot of different ways. I’m looking forward to people hearing it.
Without getting too personal, I think pain always makes for the best Art.
LF: Yeah, right?! That’s so true.
In the past you’ve co-written songs with other musicians Lemmy, Nikki Sixx, and Ozzy Osbourne. Do you have any big-name collaborations on this album?
LF: No. Because this album is so close to me, so close to my heart. I’ve spent a year just looking for different producers, writers, the right team of people to help put this record together. You know Gary Hoey, the guitar player? He’s producing now. He and I, he somehow reads my mind. It’s like I could start a sentence and he can finish it. He really gets in to my heart, in to my head, gets exactly where I’m coming from. He’s brilliant in the studio; he’s a brilliant guitar player. My song writing partner is Michael Dan Ehmig, who co-wrote a lot of material on my other albums. Michael is a lyricist with a gift from God. He can write like nobody I’ve ever heard. Whenever Gary and I get stuck, we call Michael for help. Pretty much, it’s just been the three of us for this album.
It’s sounds like a pretty magical union.
LF: It is. It’s a real tight knit effort. All the songs really come together. The whole album is kind of a story.
The majority of Lita Ford fans, as well as music critic, feel her 2009 album Wicked Wonderland is hardly a “Lita Ford” album. The sound is heavily influenced by her collaborator, and then-husband, Gillette. While it does stand on its own as a well produced work of contemporary Hard Rock, it is barely recognizable for the raw lyrics and dynamic, sexy guitar sounds for which Ford is known. Now, even she acknowledges it felt a little forced and not quite authentic to her musical style. It has been nearly fifteen years since Ford has released new solo material.
Why has there been such a long period since your last solo record? And why now?
LF: First of all, I have two kids. One is ten. One is fourteen. When they were born, I just wanted to be a mom. I didn’t want to do anything else. I’ve been writing songs since I was sixteen. I had my first album out when it was seventeen. Now I’m fifty-three. I just wanted a break from the music industry. I sort of got whisked away to the Caribbean and all I cared about was being a good mom. Now that they’re a little older I’m able to turn my back and focus on music…
And just when I think Ford is going to share something private and indicative of where she is now in her life, we are interrupted by the obnoxiously loud intercom announcements at the airport.
LF: Ugh. She’ll shut up in a minute. Blah, blah, blah. Oh, she’s trying to convince people to check their bags. You used to be able to buy an airline ticket and they took your luggage for you. Now you gotta pay for your luggage, too. I just paid twenty-five bucks to check my bag; it’s not worth the hassle.
Yeah, I usually have to deal with how to get $30,000 in camera equipment on the plane with me, because I am not checking that shit.
LF: Of course not! It’s like with guitars and music gear. You gotta have road cases. It’s expensive. [Airlines] make it really awful for some people to travel.
Ah, yes, the glamour and excitement of the Rock and Roll life.
LF: Ha, yeah. No, it’s really not. Sad, but true.
Yeah, I’m headed to Las Vegas this week for a photo shoot. While everyone thinks it’s cool and exciting that I travel to photograph rock stars, it is actually going to be three days of travel, sitting in a hotel room by myself, and working the entire time. I hate to burst the bubble telling people how mundane it can be for those few minutes of excitement.
In true “mom” fashion, she reminds me to take a jacket because it gets cold at night this time of year in Vegas.
LF: Yeah [the rock star lifestyle] really isn’t glamorous. Just this morning I was checking out from my hotel, and I nearly got in a fight with the general manager at the Universal Hilton. I asked her for a printout of my incidental and she just didn’t want to be bothered with it. She said, “If you need a printout it’s going to take a few minutes.” So I replied [in a calm and pleasant voice], “That’s okay. I’ll wait.” But then she goes behind a door and I heard her call me a bitch! So I asked, “Excuse me. Did you just call me a bitch?” This woman just doesn’t know! I mean, I can really lose my temper. The last time somebody called me a bitch it was at a restaurant and I was trying to eat a burrito. I ended up throwing it at the waitress.
Oh my God, that’s funny!
LF: I mean, who makes you eat a big fucking burrito without a knife?! I had my hair done, my makeup done, and she didn’t have a knife. That burrito was huge, with guacamole and everything. She had a bread knife in her hand, so I asked if I could use that to cut my burrito in half. I was like, “Lady, c’mon. Just let me cut my burrito and you can have the knife back.” I mean, how are you supposed to eat those big things with just a tiny plastic fork? She said no, turned around, and called me a bitch! I was, like, “Oh my God. She just called me bitch. She… just… called… me… bitch…” I dwelled on it for about five minutes. Then I picked up the burrito, threw it at her, and it hit her in the back of the neck. This burrito went flying all over the restaurant. Guacamole was splattered everywhere. She was in tears. But before security came, I also had an order of loaded nachos with jalapenos, chicken, cheese, and everything. I threw them up against the wall.
So you nachos really were fully loaded and ready to go!
LF: Ha ha, yeah. I thought, “You want a bitch? You got one now!” (both laughing) Honest to God, don’t call me a bitch. So, yeah. That’s the glamorous life of traveling.
I guess throwing burritos doesn’t qualify you as a role model. But, your place in the history of Rock and Metal positions you as someone generations of girls have looked up to. How do you feel about that?
LF: Aww, it’s awesome. I can go to my grave knowing I left my mark in the world.
Do you ever feel pressure or responsibility to be a spokesperson for women in Rock?
LF: Well, it not just chicks. There are a lot of guy bands that are role model for girls as well. And The Runaways were a role model for guys, too—not just sexually but also musically. One of the campers at this past weekend’s Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp—he’s about 14 or 15—loves Mama We’re All Crazy Now, The Runaways version. He was like, “You gotta jam. You gotta jam with me to this song.” And it just made his night, his week. And he told me it was that version of that song, it made him want to play guitar. It's touching. And you meet people who can’t even look at you. They shake, they cry, they get sweaty. It’s really wonderful because they think so much of you. It’s really heart warming. I just want to take them in my arms and hold them. That’s what it’s all about.
Since we’re talking about cover songs, your version of Alice Cooper’s Only Women Bleed send chills down my spine every time I hear it. What made you decide to cover it?
LF: Awesome, thanks. One night, really late in a hotel room, Only Women Bleed came on the radio. And I thought, “Wow! What if a woman sang this song?” I mean, he’s not talking about actual bleeding, he’s talking about heartache, only women have such heartache. I don’t know that’s necessarily true, but the fact that the song came from a man… I think that song coming from a woman was such a heavy statement at the time. And it was such a challenge for me on guitar because it’s a brilliant song with so many incredible guitar parts. When you pick it apart, there are so many parts: slide guitar, pedal steel, clap steel, all these beautiful background vocals. It’s just such an amazing piece of music. Just the whole concept behind it. I felt like it was a challenge to me. And I love a good challenge. So, I thought, let’s give it a shot.
Yes, His version is touching and sincere, but your version—coming from a woman—just grabs my heart in a more poignant way.
LF: Yeah, it does come from the heart. I don’t know. From a woman, it’s more like coming from the point of the abused. Not that I was abused…
I know what you mean. We all go through times in our lives where we’re taken for granted, used, and abused in different ways.
LF: Exactly. In one way or another. But especially women. Look at the women in Iraq. They have to keep their hair covered. I mean, that kind of stuff. Wow.
Women carry a lot of untold pain and hurt I don’t think men are aware of.
LF: I agree. And we’re not Cinderellas!
If you take a look at the timeline of Ford’s personal life and when this song was recorded for her album Stilletto, it’s not a huge a leap to assume a devastating breakups, including a divorce from W.A.S.P.’s alcohol abusing Chris Holmes around that time, prompted Ford to profoundly identify with Only Women Bleed.
Anyone who follows Lita Ford or The Runaways will notice a glaring omission in the Joan Jett produced movie The Runaways, which focuses mainly on two people in the all-girl band’s colorful history. Ford has been incredibly kind and savvy in complimenting the actresses in the movie, yet not discussing her lack of presence in the movie’s storyline. Not one remain silent for too long, I suspect Ford has a few cards up her sleeve and is waiting for a more appropriate opportunity to tell her own narrative.
I think you have a really interesting life story. Have you considered a biography? If so, what would your perspective be?
LF: I think I would like to eventually make my story in to a major motion feature. I don’t want it to focus on just the music side of things. I had a great childhood. I had wonderful parents. Just being a woman in a man’s world… It’s been an uphill battle. I feel like I’m getting closer, but I haven’t reached the top yet. I would like my bio to be based on true stories of my life, but also there’s a lot of heartache with it. I’m not afraid to wear my true colors, to wear my heart on my sleeve. And it’s not just all about the sex, drugs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll. There’s more to it than that. What about all the in between stuff too, ya know?
I recently read the Jenna Jameson biography. You’d think it would be all sex, drugs, and pornography. But that was only part of her story. It was very well written and I felt like I knew the “whole” person after reading her book.
LF: Cool. I have to check that one out.
There are many ways to portray a person as well-rounded, not one-dimensional.
LF: Yeah. My father served in WWII. Out of one thousand men in his troop, nine survived. And he was one of them. That’s kind of the way I want to start {my biography] off—telling where I come from, my parents’ stories. My mother was raised in Rome. My father is British. We moved to the US when I was four or five. We moved from Boston to Galveston, to Los Angeles, and then I became a rock star at age sixteen.
It’s a very "American immigrant" story, but it’s also the “American dream”, too.
LF: Oh God, that’s my flight. I’m gonna have to let you go. Am I going to get to see you at the show?
Absolutely!
And just as any good movie leaves you hanging, Ford’s flight leaves us hanging and wanting to hear more.
Until we can catch up with the undisputed queen of Heavy Metal again, Chicagoans can catch her this Friday night at Tailgater’s in Bolingbrook, IL. She then heads to Illiopolis, Illinois on November 19th. If you are not able to check her out this week, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for her 2012 album release and a full U.S. tour.
Also be sure to check back to this column in a few days for photo from her November 18th show!
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