Q&A: Lita Ford, heading to Loeb Stadium

‘Queen of Noise,’ Ozzy Osbourne collaborator Lita Ford to play Lafayette for the first time in almost 50-year career

• Thanks for ongoing support from Based in Lafayette sponsor Long Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Lafayette. For tickets and details on all the shows and events, go to longpac.org.

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Reporting in this edition comes from our friend Tim Brouk …

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Q&A: Lita Ford, heading to Loeb Stadium

By Tim Brouk / For Based in Lafayette

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All of Lafayette should genuflect when hard rock royalty hits the stage Saturday night.

Lita Ford, “The Queen of Heavy Metal,” will make her Lafayette debut when she opens a big hair metal extravaganza at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27, at Loeb Stadium. FireHouse (“Love of a Lifetime,” “Don’t Treat Me Bad”) and Warrant (“Cherry Pie,” “Down Boys”) will also perform. Tickets range from $39-$92.

Ford, 67, has shredded lead guitar professionally for almost 50 years. She started off with The Runaways, a teenage girl hard rock and punk band that featured Joan Jett on rhythm guitar and vocals and that had hits “Cherry Bomb,” “School Days” and “Queens of Noise.”

“Our first tour was with the Ramones,” Ford said from her Arizona home before embarking on this current Midwest swing. “That kind of gets your life on a certain path and you don’t forget those things. If you do start to forget who you are, then you better start looking back on those YouTube videos and remember who the hell you are. You know where you came from, and don’t ever lose it.”

Lita Ford (Photo: Teddy Allison Photography)

After The Runaways’ burnout in 1979, Ford starting building toward a solo career, releasing nine albums since 1983 featuring such hits as “Kiss Me Deadly” and her megahit duet “Close My Eyes Forever” with “The Prince of Darkness” himself, the late great Ozzy Osbourne. And she shows no signs of stopping. The influential guitar player, whose signature black BC Rich Warlock six string was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, will be releasing a new album on or around May 1 with a national tour to support it.

During a recent interview, Ford talked career, her early influence on Motley Crue, and how cranking up an amp and plugging in a guitar still gives her chills after decades of surveying her hard rock kingdom.

Question: I read that you started playing electric guitar at age 11 and were influenced by hard rock bands like Deep Purple at the time. Looking back, was that a bold move then? What did your classmates and parents think?

Lita Ford: I had the best parents. They were always so supportive of me. I mean, I couldn’t believe half the shit I would do that they would let me get away with. They were just always very encouraging. My mother always wanted me to play guitar for her and my father would always help me try to get my Marshalls (amps) loaded in my car. They were my biggest fans, my mother and father. My dad would show up at Runaways shows with a six pack of beer and just cheer us on.

Question: There are a lot of great all-female bands out there. For a young, successful bands like The Linda Lindas, what advice do you have for them?

Lita Ford: There really are no rules as far as how to learn how to be a rock singer or a rock guitarist. You just do what you got to do. And for me, I never did anything that was really politically correct. I always sort of did everything the wrong way and ripped apart my guitars to find out how they worked. I used to plug my guitar into everything and anything I could plug it into, and then I would try and get the biggest, beefiest, fattest sound out of it. And if it blew up, whatever it was that I was trying to play out of, well, I guess I blew it up then, you know? It’s also learning from other people, which was really great. It still is. I still jam with a lot of other people, and I still learn a lot of things from other people. I think just jamming with your friends, your family, other musicians, you just pick stuff up from them. Listening to your favorite songs any way you can. I used to put on a record, and I would shove the needle back in the grooves of the record because I wanted to hear a certain part over and over and over. There was no repeat back then. You just had to shove that needle back in the grooves and let it play again. But that’s how I learned.

Question: What was it like shifting to a solo career after The Runaways and having to become a lead singer?

Lita Ford: I knew what I wanted in my life, and I wanted to be a guitar player. I wanted to be a performer, and I wanted to be a singer. That was it and there was no “Oh, well, what if it doesn’t happen or whatever?” I never had those thoughts. I just wanted to play guitar and that was it and that’s what I was going to do. There was no doubt in my mind. I had a lot of support from a lot of people in the music industry. A lot of musicians, mainly musicians. And that was a huge help for me — having their support. Back then when you were a female, record companies didn’t always know what to make of you or how to market you: “Oh, you’re not a pop singer.” No, I’m not a pop singer. I’m playing hard rock and I’m a guitar player. But they didn’t know what to do with me. I said to a couple of them, “You guys can market a guy that plays guitar and sings hard rock, but you can’t market a woman?” I don’t know. Go figure.

What’s the difference between a man and a woman other than those bits hanging between her legs? I just would say, “I wear my balls on my chest.”

Question: I also read you were with Nikki Sixx early into Mötley Crüe’s formation. What can you tell me about that time in your life?

Lita Ford: Nikki and I lived together for a little while, and we lived together right at the very beginning of that first Mötley Crüe album, “Too Fast for Love.”

I used to watch him write songs for that record, and Nikki was always reaching out to a lot of other musicians for help. He’s creative, but he also takes pieces of everything that he sees and puts it together.

The Runaways used to do this song called “Dead End Justice” and (lead singer) Cherie (Currie) would get “shot” on-stage, and there would be blood all over the front of her clothes. And Nikki would say, “How did you make that blood?” Because you couldn’t just go to a store and buy it. You had to make it. So, I told him, “Well, you need some clear pancake syrup and some red food coloring.” And so, I taught Nikki how to make blood out of pancake syrup. He had these mannequins that lived in our living room, and they were not real pretty, and they were covered in blood. I remember one day coming in and thinking, “Why are there ants all over the living room?”

Question: What’s the wildest tour story you’re willing to share?

Lita Ford: I could probably tell you a story every day of my life, but you know, some of those are just so “Spinal Tap.” Have you seen the new “Spinal Tap?”

Question: Sadly, no. And the first one’s my favorite movie of all time.

Lita Ford: It’s so good.

Question: Do you have a favorite song to perform live that still gives you chills?

Lita Ford: Let me think. Well, we’ve been dedicating “Close My Eyes Forever,” of course, to Ozzy (Osbourne) and to the Ozzy fans, and everybody lights the place up in memory of Ozzy. I also love “Only Women Bleed.” We do the two back-to-back. You know, the Alice Cooper track. And then we end it with “Kiss Me Deadly.” So, it’s a very dynamic part of the show. Probably my favorite, and we draw it out and stretch it out as much as we can. “Deadly’s” such a dramatic song. Everyone sings it. The audience joins in. It’s badass.

Question: Outside of music, what brings you joy these days?

Lita Ford: I like to ride my mountain bike. I’ve got a mountain bike that I just take off out my backyard and go up into the hills and that clears my head and just makes me feel good. A girlfriend owns a five-star indoor gun range, so I like to go down there and shoot up a few targets. I make a lot of good food. Healthy stuff. There’s a lot of organic farmers around here. So, I mean, this is my place to recoup when I come home. I just want to decompress and get ready to go back out on the road again.

Question: What can you tell me about the new album you are releasing next spring?

Lita Ford: The theme is a dark, dark fairy tale. The riffs are some of the coolest guitar playing on it, and there are really great chorus melodies. It’s a really cool album. It’s something that I’ve been putting together for a long time, and you just have to hear it when it comes out. I’m excited for the world to hear it.

Question: We’re looking forward to finally having you in Lafayette. The Beach Boys just played Loeb Stadium a couple weeks ago …

Lita Ford: You know, I jammed with them once. They invited me on-stage to play “Barbara Ann.” I played the solo. They said, “Dude, we just want you to play the solo.” And they cranked it through the PA system, and I was like, “Wow.” Everyone heard that solo for sure. It was so loud.

It was in Long Beach, California, at the Long Beach Arena. I can’t remember what year it was. It was a while ago, but it was one of the coolest things I ever got to do.

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Tim Brouk is a longtime arts and entertainment reporter. He writes the weekly Tim’s Picks column, tracking things to do for Based in Lafayette.

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