The story of Lita Ford - from early years to The Runaways and a dizzying solo career
Lita Ford is an American guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, widely known throughout the world. Your Star Trek Ford started out as a solo guitarist The Runaways. The group would later disband, and Lita will go on alone… She will start a successful solo career which reached its peak at the end 80s. Over the course of a decade, she will release a ton of hit singles and albums that will achieve some success. At the same time, her loud duet with "Godfather of Heavy Metal" Ozzy Osbourne: 1989 track "Close My Eyes Forever" achieved the greatest success in Ford's solo career, reaching number eight on the Billboard Hot 100. How did the veteran metal career begin? Let's find out together!
Early years
In his interview New York Times Ford said that she chose the profession for a reason, but realizing its secluded nature:
“I don't know why there are so few female metalheads… Yes, admit it: this is not a women's industry. Hard rock is not women's music or work. But women love to listen to it, and I play a lot of songs that reflect the fact that I think like a woman and not like a man…”
Lita Ford was born in 1958 year in England, however grew in Long Beach, California. Her mother, Lisa, was a nutritionist at a local hospital, and it was she who encouraged her daughter to develop musical abilities. When Ford was 11 years.She started taking guitar lessons. Soon she wrote her first song ... Lita's mother recalled it like this:
“It was a beautiful Spanish play. I liked her…"
Discovering for the first time Jimi Hendrix As a teenager, Lita quickly changed her taste in music! She started listening to music by similar artists, including bands Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. In their work, she found a huge source of inspiration ...
Breakout with Runaways
Teenager Ford was invited to the group Runaways as a guitarist. The novelty of an all-girl rock band, coupled with the talents of the members and soloist Joan Jett in particular, awarded the Runaways with success! Having released four studio albums and a cult hit "Cherry Bomb", the young ladies fled ... Ford's charisma did not allow her to become just an amateur, and under the influence of the solo breakthrough of her idol Jimi Hendrix, she stated that she "wants to be able to sing and play just like any man like Hendrix does!"
While studying her voice, Ford struggled to support herself by working at a gas station and selling perfume...
"I like money. And it sucks when you don't have a job!" Lita said in one of her interviews.
She shared an apartment with a future bassist Mötley Crüe by Nikki Sixom in Los Angeles, where they ate mostly macaroni and cheese. Before her career took off, Ford worked as a fitness instructor at the gym, which explains a lot about her great figure. However… she was very often abused by male metal guitarists. Her ex-husband is a guitarist Chris Holmes told People magazine:
“She hates when guys say chicks shouldn't play guitar. And this is completely fair. She plays better than 90 percent of the guys I know…”
Solo career: the main stages of creativity
Impact Runaways preserved on Ford's debut album, titled Out for Blood: She showed off the same brash, hard rock 'n' roll approach and black eyes Jett for romance...
Her second album Dancin' on the Edgerecorded with drummer Randy Castillo, keyboardist Aldo Nova and bassist Hugh McDonald, contains scores "Dressed to Kill", "Lady Killer" and "Run with the $".
As critics noted, these songs convey "the general idea that we are not talking about sweet and tender things here." And although they called Ford "a first-class rock guitarist" at the time, in 1984 they called her playing "thoughtful light metallic tint..."
Success with Lita!
In 1986 career year Ford went up dramatically after the release of her third album Lita! The platinum-certified record featured two top-ten songs, including a gold single "Close My Eyes Forever" and popular "Kiss Me Deadly"…
Yes Yes! Exactly Ozzy Osbourne joined Ford in "Close My Eyes Forever"! Critical response has been rave...
New records and new successes
Her next release Stiletto, only strengthened the image of Ford on the metal scene! Although the guitarist herself claimed that the album was boring and far-fetched, critics spoke of it rather warmly ...
Following Stiletto was released Dangerous Curveswho introduced the singles "Shot of Poison" and "Black Widow".
Personal life
In the middle 1980s Lita Ford was engaged to Tony Iommi! He was a co-producer of her album, which never came out ... By the way: their relationship also did not work out.
In 1990s Ford married a guitarist W.A.S.P. by Chris Holmesbut after a while they divorced. She later started dating the former Nitro vocalist, Jim Gillett. Soon the couple got married, while knowing each other for only a few weeks ... As a result, they had two sons - James and Rocco. They moved to Turks and Caicos Islandswhere Jim started a small real estate business. For ten years, Ford stayed away from music as she devoted time to her family and homeschooled her children for several years. Unfortunately, after 17 years of marriage, Ford announced that she was filing for divorce ... She claimed that Gillette incited her sons to physically attack her.
Conclusion…
For my career Lita Ford experienced both dizzying ups and downs ... However - cruel criticism has never dissuaded a heavy metal star from recording new albums! Ford stood the test of the hard rock audience, for which it already deserves respect ...
“If you’re good and can stand your ground, they like you. Not so much, but I have had situations where the public tried to see if I would break ... They will scream, insult ... Just deal with it, there is nothing to worry about. I'm not going to cry and run off the stage!"
