About Lita Ford
Lita Ford’s career began in 1975 as a founding member and guitarist of the groundbreaking all female group The Runaways. The group’s hard rock / punk edge spawned hits like “Cherry Bomb” and “Queens of Noise.” Lita and The Runaways proved their timelessness in 2014 when “Cherry Bomb” was featured in the critically acclaimed Marvel / Disney Studios hit movie Guardians Of The Galaxy and was nominated for a Grammy Award.
In 1983 Lita launched her carrier as a solo artist with her debut album, Out For Blood, establishing her as the premier female performer in rock and heavy metal. Lita quickly followed up in 1984 with the release of Dancin’ on the Edge, which earned her a Grammy nomination in the Best Female Rock Vocal Performance category. The album produced the world charting single “Fire In My Heart” and the U.S. Billboard top 50 charting hit “Gotta Let Go.” The song, along with the video being in MTV’s top rotation began to make Ford a household name and face.
2018 celebrated the 30th anniversary of the self-titled multi-platinum Lita album. Released on February 2nd 1988 the Lita album boasted four charting hit singles. “Back to the Cave,” “Falling In and Out of Love” (co-written with Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx) along with the worldwide mega hits “Kiss me Deadly,” nominated for the MTV Video Music Awards Best Female Video of the year and the certified gold ballad single “Close my Eyes Forever” featuring Ozzy Osbourne, which remained in the Billboard Top 10 for 25 weeks.
The Lita album solidified Ford as one of the most influential female performers in the music industry and earning her the title “Queen of Metal.” Ford released three more studio albums following Lita – Stiletto, Dangerous Curves and Black. These albums produced the radio and video hits “Hungry,” “Playin’ with Fire” and “Shot of Poison,” again nominating her for a Grammy.
In 1995 Lita Ford took a sabbatical from the industry to raise a family. In 2008 Ford answered the calling of her fans and after thirteen years triumphantly returned to the stage. The excitement generated by Ford’s return quickly showed the world that the Queen was back. Since then Lita continues to tour at a non-stop pace, headlining major events worldwide and throughout the United States.
Alongside her live performances Lita has followed up with two new studio albums. Living Like A Runaway and Time Capsule. With Ford’s long awaited return to the scene, also came the long awaited opportunity by the industry to finally recognize Lita Ford for forever changing the roll of women in music. 2014 saw two of these accolades. At the 50th anniversary of the world famous Whiskey A Go Go, Ford was presented with the Guitar Player Lifetime Achievement Award. And in the same year the prestigious Guitar Player Magazine awarded her the Guitar Player Certified Legend Award and inducted her in to the Guitar Player Hall of Fame.
Besides her renown musical career Lita has also appeared in numerous movie, television and media rolls. In 1991 she portrayed the roll of the hitchhiker in the fantasy/thriller Highway To Hell, starring Chad Lowe. On television Ford has guested on shows such as Fox’s Herman’s Head, Food Network’s Chopped and Nickelodeon’s Big Time Rush. Ford was also featured along with Bruce Springsteen’s legendary E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons as band members of The Howie Mandel Show’s Studio One Band. In 2009 Lita was cast to voice the roll of Rima for the action adventure video game Brutal Legend.
In 2016 Ford released her autobiography Living Like A Runaway: A Memoir. The books insight and vivid truthfulness so captured audiences that it quickly became a national best seller and awarded 4.7 stars out of 5 by Amazon. The book reached such critical acclaim that Lita was presented the “Outstanding Writer” award in 2017 by the Producers Choice Honors.
At 2017’s Fifth Annual She Rocks Awards Lita was chosen as the recipient of the coveted Icon Award. That evening she was also officially bestowed the title of The First Lady of Rock Guitar by Marshall Amplification and Guitar Player Magazine. Laura B. Whitmore, founder of the WiMN and producer of the She Rocks Awards, commented, “Whether as a solo artist, band member, or guitar shredder, Lita Ford is a true pioneer who has broken down barriers and inspires today’s female guitarists. I am excited to honor her with an award that really sums up the essence of Lita Ford.”
Ford continues to encourage and inspire aspiring musicians by teaching and mentoring through here work with Rock and Roll Fantasy Camps.
2018 has seen Lita and her long time band mates Patrick Kennison (Guitar), Marty O’Brien (Bass) and Bobby Rock (Drums) continuing to tour at her normal feverish pace. The year has also seen her taking on new endeavors and expanding the Lita Ford universe. In May of 2018 Lita launched Lita Ford Guitars. The company, in conjunction with Cara Guitars offers hand worked replicas of Lita’s iconic instruments. These classic replicas are also available through the newly formed “Lita Ford Ultimate VIP Concert Experience” meet and greet packages.
Since the start of 2018 Lita has been more present than ever in major media and publications. Filming 24 episodes of AXS TV’s hit series Top 10 Revealed, Nat Geo TV’s Decades Remixed and a top BBC series focusing on iconic musicians playing styles and their gear, along with appearances in the Suzi Quatro and Girlschool documentaries. Lita also contributed to two upcoming major release books, The History of Hard Rock by Tom Beaujour and No Encor by Drew Fortune. The year finished out with Lita again being bestowed three prestigious honors: The Hollywood FAME Producers Choice Icon Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2019 Legend Inductee Nomination into the Hall of Heavy Metal History and in 2019 a life-sized digital portrait of her iconic one of a kind double neck guitar will be on exhibit at London’s Saatchi Gallery presented by The Art of Capture photographer Kane Hibberd.