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By Tiffini Taylor
Lita Ford has been rocking out for a little over 40 years. The Runaways, solo artist and the present. A guitarist with a kick-ass attitude, she has a great career in the span of that time. There have been good times and bad times, throughout she has never given up. Guitars and music are Lita Ford.
Hungry, Close Your Eyes Forever, Shot of Poison, Lisa, and Kiss Me Deadly are just a few of Lita Ford’s hits. A few albums with The Runaways and 15 plus albums she has put out as a solo artist is astounding. Even in present times it is difficult to be a female guitarist, back in the mid to late-seventies and throughout the eighties it was more difficult.
A successful career has made Ford a legend. She has respect from colleagues and fans. Her catalogue is amazing, just by her solo work. Sultry vocals and fierce guitar make for great music. She continues to tour and has worked with rock legends such as Ozzy Osbourne. Gold records and other prestigious awards comes from her raw talent and hard work.
Lita Ford will continue to gain new fans as she continues to tour. She commands a stage with confidence to go with great performances everywhere. Ford has never run away from her sexuality, she owns it just like women should. In the eighties, MTV played music videos, Ford proved she was a leader in them. Leather, lace and guitars is what rock ‘n’ roll is built on and Lita Ford has embraced throughout her career.
Ford’s lustrous career is not over. In the past few years, she has toured with Halestorm, put out a Christmas single with Cherie Currie (ex-Runaway mate), and has been on tour relentlessly. Ford continues to work with B.C. Rich, she still plays a Warlock and double neck guitar tremendously well. Below Ford discusses guitars, music, parents passing, her dogs, 2019, and even a little bit about shopping… read and enjoy.
Tiffini: How old were you when you began playing guitar?
Lita: I was eleven, I got my first guitar.
Tiffini: What has been your favorite guitar to play?
Lita: I don’t have one, they all do different things that’s why, they are each so different. I’ve got beautiful acoustics that they just walk on water, well if they could walk. I’ve got a couple of awesome Warlocks that are just the most badass guitars in the fucking music industry. They’re so good. I’ve got one that I made with my father. We were on a fishing trip. We were coming back from the Deschutes river in Oregon. We were driving down the mountain. I saw a piece of tree on the side of the road, it was a big piece of tree it was a trunk, it was alive it had just got hit by lightning or something. I said, ‘dad pull over’, he pulled over and says, ‘what do you want?’. I said, ‘I got to have to have that tree’. My dad got it and strapped it to the roof of the car, I don’t know how the hell he did that. We dropped it off when we got back down the mountain from Oregon. We drove into California we dropped it off at B.C. Rich Guitars. I said to the guys, ‘Make me a guitar out of this piece of wood.’. They made me this Gunslinger, it’s curly maple, burly maple, and fire maple. It’s the three all mixed in. This thing is solid like a bowling ball, but it sounds like death when you play it. It’s the most badass guitar. That guitar and the Double Neck, my acoustic Taylor, my two Warlocks. My maple guitar I call it Fishing Wood. The Double Neck I call it The Twins.
Tiffini: When it comes to technique with guitar playing, is there a formula or a certain way you play with different guitars?
Lita: Different guitars are good for different songs. Different recordings if your going to record. I might use a guitar in the studio that I would never use live. Must have a guitar to duplicate that studio sound as close as it can. You can’t switch guitars for everything. Although some people do like Rick Nielson from Cheap Trick. Brings out a different guitar for every song, he’s a showman.
Tiffini: What is the first thing that you remember that happened, right after ‘Kiss Me Deadly’ song came out?
Lita: My dad died. I got presented my first gold album. The video came out on MTV and it went in heavy rotation. At the same time all these wonderful things happened, my father dies, that happened. It’s the weirdest thing you know, he never got to see it. I was being given all these great awards and MTV had me in heavy rotation, the album went gold, then my dad dies. It was like, shit, he didn’t get see any of it. He never even heard the song.
I’m just blessed in so many ways and I’m so grateful.
Tiffini: I’m sorry to hear that. Have you ever considered doing ‘Kiss Me Deadly’ a different way?
Lita: No, no. If you heard the original demo of ‘Kiss Me Deadly’, you would never want to do it any other way than the way it’s done now. The demo was slow, and it was a lower key. I think it might have had even had a different melody, I don’t remember. After hearing that I would never ever change what I’ve done to ‘Kiss Me Deadly’.
Tiffini: I want to ask you about the song ‘Close My Eyes Forever’, you did with Ozzy Osborne; how was that recording experience like?
Lita: It was great. Ozzy’s wonderful in the studio. He’s awesome. I mean you know he has his moments of course. That’s why we love him. He’s Ozzy, he’s a freaking lunatic.
Tiffini: The eighties were great. There was a variety of music happening. What inspired you in the eighties?
Lita: I was inspired by, well back in the eighties, well first I was a big Deep Purple fan. I loved all the members of Deep Purple they were so badass. The drummer Ian Paice and Ritchie Blackmore on guitar, Jon Lord on the keyboards, like my god nobody plays keyboards like that. That’s not even a keyboard that sounds like death. I loved that everybody started imitating the Hammond B3, everybody wanted to sound like they were playing the Hammond B3. Then you’ve got Ian Gillan and then Glenn Hughes these people were just over the top good. They didn’t need any special effects or any kind of digital this or that, it was just pure musicians.
I am a pure musician and sometimes people look down on that. One night we were on tour and I got laryngitis bad. I mean I could talk just above a whisper. I said to my tour manager, ‘got to cancel the show I got to go home, what are we going to do?’ He said, ‘why don’t you just play guitar and let Patrick sing’. I said ‘What, he doesn’t know all the words, how’s he going to do that?’ Patrick is just easy going, go with the flow, nothing bothers me kind of guy. I’m like oh my god, is he going to be able to this? We get out on stage and I couldn’t speak, I mean I had no voice. I couldn’t talk to the audience, I couldn’t sing a word, so Patrick had to cover all the vocals, everything. I just stand there, and I just play guitar. Oh, it was so much fun because I hadn’t just played guitar since I was in the Runaways. And this was just a couple of months ago, something like that. As a matter of fact, the gig we had to cancel was in Cincinnati and we’re playing a make-up gig.
Tiffini: You have progressed or matured with your music since the eighties, is that something that is natural for you?
Lita: It sure feels like it. I’m a late bloomer, I guess. I feel like oh you should have been doing this 60 years ago. Why didn’t you do this from the very beginning Lita, well I guess I had to figure out how to do it.
Tiffini: You have an incredible catalogue; do you have a favorite album?
Lita: You know I think I do sometimes. Then I go back and listen to something like before the nineties, and I go ‘Oh my god, that’s great’. Then I listen to something like ‘Living Like A Run Away’ from 2012, my god, that’s even better. I ping back and forth.
Tiffini: You have a great band put together, you have Patrick Kennison on guitar, Marty O’brien on bass, Bobby Rock on drums. How did it come together?
Lita: Were a team. You got to be a team to be able to play like that, together so tight, it’s so badass. Marty has been with me since 2012, and then Bobby Rock came from the Nelson Brothers, Gunner and Mathew they’re the best I love them so much, but they brought me Bobby Rock, and Patrick was a friend of Marty’s. Patrick was just ridiculous, he came in and sang the harmonies to ‘Kiss Me Deadly’ and was playing a B.C. Rich and I just went Oh My God. Shreds on the guitar. It’s so great and everybody is so different they’re all their own personalities. They’re all into different things. It’s cool. I’m very lucky.
Tiffini: What is your favorite song to play live?
Lita: I love all my songs. There so much fun, they’re just so much fun to play we got a great set list of great songs. Sometimes they ask us to cut it short like we only get to play 45 minutes, maybe there is other bands on or something like that and we get bummed. Like cut that song are they crazy.
Tiffini: When you are on stage playing, is there an energy that you get, or does it depend on where you are playing?
Lita: The crowd is a huge part of your energy. You can just block them out, if they’re just a bunch of idiots, just stand there with their mouths open. It’s like ‘Come on guys make some noise or show some emotion or something’. Some crowds don’t they’re just dead. You just kind of act like they’re not there, because it does fuck with you. Nobody wants to be that way. We’ve had great audiences, oh my god, they’ve been so great. Then there is always the one in so many like god are these people even alive. Then sometimes a lot of is the security guards won’t let them do anything. There’s like a security guard at the end of the row and they’re telling them to sit down, retarded. This is 2018 not freaking 1918, you know.
Tiffini: You have great clothes you perform in. Do you have a designer who designs your stage wear?
Lita: No, not really. I’ve just a couple of people I’ve used. I just really like what they do. I just use them for certain things. I think 2019 is going to bring some new stuff in the clothes, new ideas. I’m excited about that.
Tiffini: There is a resurgence of vinyl coming back within the past couple of years, do you like that?
Lita: Yeah, it’s great. I don’t know what they’re record players are like, I don’t have one.
Tiffini: The technology within the music industry in present day, do you think it’s a good thing or bad thing? Music getting out there to more people there is such an overload with YouTube and everything, do you think technology has helped in the music industry?
Lita: I hate YouTube. I fucking hate YouTube. A lot of technology leads people to believe that they’re looking at something or they’re getting something that they really don’t ever get. They pay for it but don’t get it. I just hate that about modern technology. There are great things about modern technology but I’m not so sure that’s one of them.
Tiffini: Has there been a place that you have never played that you want to play?
Lita: I don’t know, maybe Hong Kong. I heard its beautiful there, I’d love to go shopping. Go out to eat, go shopping. Just give me day, just one day get out of my way I’m shopping (laughs).
Tiffini: Obviously you are on tour right now, but is there someone you have never toured with that you want to tour with?
Lita: Maybe, but I think those days might be over with for them. I would love to tour with Aerosmith. I’ve been to a lot of their shows, but I haven’t actually toured with them. I would love to tour with Judas Priest.
Tiffini: You have your own brand of guitars, what can you tell me about them?
Lita: It’s LitaFordGuitars.com.
I’m watching my dog outside in the yard right now. She’s tiny and we have a lot of coyotes here, it’s just like I must keep an eye on here. Anyway LitaFordGuitars.com, there duplicates of the original Runaway guitars is what they are. They are badass, they’re badass guitars. They are hand-made, all one piece of thick heavy wood. They sound great, they play great. We just sold one at the last gig. They’re great guitars, good guitars are hard to find these days. James Cara makes them, so it’s his work.
Tiffini: I’m curious, what kind of dogs do you have?
Lita: I have two chihuahuas. They are the most insane coolest dogs on the planet. They’re travel size, they’re amazing they go under the seat at the airlines. Two in one bag. They’re just awesome they’ve been traveling with since 2012. They don’t bark, they’re just the best. They love people.
Tiffini: Last question, what is next for Lita Ford?
Lita: 2019, it’s going to be a big year. We’ve got a big tour coming up, we’ve got a new album we are trying to out. If we can pull all that off its going to be a huge year.
