Lita Ford has worked hard forging a comeback after missing in action for 14 years. You could say 2009’s Wicked Wonderland is technically her comeback album; however, Ford herself insists 2012’s Living Like A Runaway is her “true” comeback album. Indeed, this 12-song record, produced by Gary Hoey, is a return to form for the guitarist and singer. It’s also a statement about Ford’s own past and present life — from the teenage Runaway of the 70s to a real-life runaway of today trying to regain her momentum after a messy divorce and the alienation of her two sons (which she touches on in the following interview).
In order to get the word out about Living Like A Runaway to the masses, Ford buckled up with a rock solid band and hit the road. An opening slot on the Def Leppard and Poison tightened the band and its repertoire up; additional headlining gigs allowed them to broaden their set with a bigger mix of old and new — enough to fill a live album. So they made one. What’s even better is that the resulting live album The Bitch Is Back is taken from a single performance.
In the following interview, Lita Ford doesn’t hold back. We hear about the motivation and drive behind The Bitch Is Back and Living Like A Runaway. She talks about her band, her personal life, her recent reunion with Cherie Currie and Kim Fowley, and her hopes for a reunion with the Runaways. Through it all, she’s candid and forthright, gracious to be rocking, hopeful for a more resounding future — in her career and beyond. By the grit and grace of The Bitch Is Back, Lita Ford is ready to reclaim her crown as one of the original queens of noise.
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The big news, of course, is your first live album The Bitch Is Back.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Really pleased with it. Very happy to have done it and so glad it’s getting such a wonderful response. The fans are digging it — it’s way cool.
And you did that at the Canyon Club in Los Angeles. Is that a good room to play at?
Yeah it is. It’s a good sounding room. It’s home, you know. So it’s a familiar venue and it was good for us because we had our engineer here and people that helped work on the record, they were all here, you know, our managers. So it was a good room for us to record in. Easy to mic, easy to capture the room sound. So it was good. It was just kind of a spur of the moment kind of thing. “Hey, let’s record.” “When?” “Tonight.” “OK guys, everybody’s here. Let’s set up.” So we recorded. We were gonna record bits and pieces of the Def Leppard/Poison tour, which we did do, and we’ve ended up using none of it. It was all good, we just didn’t want to piece together the show. So we just did it at the Canyon Club in one night, and it rocks. Have you heard it yet?
Yes and I’m loving it. I guess it was good enough to your ears to say, “Why not put a live album out?” Is that kind of how it worked?
Yeah, it is. And you know, live albums are just that: live. There are imperfections and little things that go on, and that’s what makes it fun, you know. One of my favorite live albums is the Deep Purple live album they did years ago. I just remember (Ian) Gillan screaming his ass off.
You know, the mix, it isn’t like a regular album that you’d do in a studio. So it is what it is. And some people like live albums and some people prefer studio albums. I personally have never been a big fan of live albums. I listened to the Live In Japan album from the Runaways — I think that one’s one of my favorites — and Deep Purple. And then, The Bitch is Back just rocks.
Yes, it does. Made In Japan by Deep Purple is one of my favorite live albums. “The Bitch is Back” — is that a song you personally identify with?
Oh absolutely, yeah. I do. I’ve always made fun of myself and I used to wear belt buckles that said “Bitch.” It’s a term of endearment to be taken either way, to be taken nasty, or it could be taken funny. I take it as a term of endearment. I’ve been out of the music industry for so many years now, I feel like this is my real comeback album, with Living Like a Runaway. It seemed like a no-brainer to call the album The Bitch is Back. And, of course, Elton John — who the hell doesn’t love Elton John? Our younger generation, those that don’t know that song, they know it now.
Has Elton John heard your version?
He has, yes. He has. I got his vote of approval. We sent it to him before Living Like A Runaway came out, before we put the studio album out. They were playing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and I was in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at the time and shook his hand and said, “Thank you.” And he said, “Thank you.” He was very kind.
You were talking about Living Like A Runaway, which as you said, is your true comeback album, and you have several songs from it on The Bitch is Back: “Relentless,” “Living Like a Runaway,” “Devil in my Head” and one of my favorites, “Hate.” How is it for you playing that material live? Seems like those songs sort of lend themselves to the live stage.
Yeah, they do because of the way that we recorded them. We didn’t add a lot of effects and we didn’t add a lot of backing tracks. We were able to just pick up the album and play it. We did that on purpose. It was premeditated because Gary Hoey, who is the producer of Living Like A Runaway, we initially talked before we recorded the album and said, to each other, “Let’s make this album a basic album. Let’s not go nuts with keyboards and overdubs. Let’s make it real; let’s make it raw.” And we tried to stick to that and that’s what makes it easier to play live. You don’t have all these backing tracks and things that you need to add. So it really came together well.
You have a lot of stuff from the Lita album on The Bitch is Back. There’s “Can’t Catch Me,” a song you wrote with Lemmy with a really great riff. .
That was a blast.
You partied for three days and wrote that song?
Yeah, you’ve got to love Lemmy. There’s no way getting around that part of it. You either do or you don’t. But he’s a great man and he’s a great songwriter. We just happened to have fallen into “Can’t Catch Me.” It wasn’t something that we had to arrange. It was just meeting up at the Rainbow and falling down the hill and starting to write a song. So three days later I had to have my girlfriend come get me. “Get me out of here! I can’t get out!” That was fun.
You were rescued, huh?
Yeah, it was fun. It was really a good time and we got a great song out of it.
You’ve been touring like crazy this last year, and you were away from the scene for a number of years. Is there anything you’re finding different about being out on the road these days as opposed to back in the 20th century when you were touring?
Oh, it seems like everything is different. You know, everything is Internet and that would have never existed when we were touring before. You could just turn on TV and watch MTV and see your favorite video. I guess now you could do the same, you’ve just got to turn on your computer instead of your TV. No, everything has changed.
You have Mitch Perry on guitar, Bobby Rock on drums and Marty O’Brien on bass. Listening to the live record, it sounds like you guys have a really great chemistry between you. Is that something that’s constantly developing, or how did you arrive at that?
We really do. Actually, the drummer on the live album is Scot Coogan. And Scot left … Bobby Rock picked up where Scoty left off. Bobby, Bobby is a huge addition to the band. Scoty kicked ass on the record and we all did have a good chemistry; we still do — it actually got better with Bobby. He’s just a great person to be around, which is hard because you want to be able to get along musically as well as your personalities. You have to learn to live with each other and we all just go with the flow and nobody complains. It’s very, very cool. You can feel on stage, you know, when we get together and play, you can feel the vibes from the stage. There’s no bullshit, there’s no animosity or anything like that. It’s just, “Let’s rock.”
I’m really happy to see that Mitch Perry is playing with you. He’s really a great guitar player.
Yeah, he’s awesome. I love him to death.
You guys are doing some writing together, aren’t you?
We wrote a Christmas single.
I heard about that.
Cherie Currie and I sang it, and Mitch and I wrote it. It’s just a kick-ass song. Can’t wait for that to come out. That’ll be released after the Thanksgiving holiday probably.
I do want to ask you about one other song that is not on the live album, and it’s really a very powerful song you did called “Mother.” I was wondering if you could tell me a little about what that song is about.
It’s about parental alienation. And if you don’t know what parental alienation is, it’s a horrible, horrible form of child abuse. And you need to Google my Lita Ford’s Parental Alienation Facebook site. It’s a cause. It’s under “causes” — it’s quite difficult to understand, which is why I suggest that you Google it if you don’t already know what it is. A lot of people don’t. The people that don’t know what it is don’t have a clue. People that know what it is, understand the severity of it.
Yeah, I actually did look that up and I noticed that there’s a video. You did a video for “Mother” with you in it, and there’s also a video for your Parental Alienation awareness that uses the song as well. So this is an actual organization that you have going on?
It is. The second video was created by a school teacher in Canada who witnesses parental alienation on a regular basis. Because she’s a school teacher, she sees the kids come to school and they talk to her. She’s cool. She’s somebody you’d want to hang out with and talk to. She plays guitar and she’s a cool woman. Has a little baby and a very pleasant woman. She’s involved with me on the parental alienation awareness. She created that video — her students helped. It’s quite something. It pretty much says a lot about the cause.
Obviously this stemmed from your own personal situation. I don’t want to get into the dirt and everything but I am interested — have you reclaimed a relationship with your sons?
No.
Hmm…
Especially with the holidays. You know, it’s just brutal. Really brutal. I can only imagine how my children feel. They are being lied to. I just pray to God that they’re OK.
So you’re not in touch with them at all or anything?
No. Not in any way, shape or form. The father has managed to completely disconnect me from my kids. No Facebook … I’m cut off. I can’t even send them a Facebook message. It’s like … really? I can’t even access my children through Facebook? You’ve got to be kidding me. What could I possibly do? It’s just retarded. It’s horrible. It’s absolutely horrible. But the stupid thing about it is it’s legal in the United States. It’s legal worldwide. It needs to be illegal. I don’t know how something so horrible and abusive can be legal. It just blows my mind.
I’m really sorry to hear this. I did want to tell you that I interviewed Cherie Currie and she said because you and her are really the only people that became parents in the Runaways, that’s sort of a connection between you two. It’s just amazing that you two have reconnected. How did that happen?
Well, I was trying to put the Runaways back together. My manager had spoken to Joan Jett’s manager and Cherie got involved. I just called her and asked her if she wanted to have dinner with me. And she did. So we kind of picked up where we left off in 1978. We wrote the Christmas song and sang it together. Well, Mitch and I wrote the song. But Cherie and I just knocked it out of the ball park.
Did Kim Fowley produce this?
No, Kim has nothing to do with this.
But you did do some recording with Kim and Cherie, didn’t you?
Um, yeah. Kim and Cherie wrote something, and I went in and put a couple of guitar licks on it. I don’t know any further about that. You’d have to ask Cherie.
You personally didn’t ever have any problems with Kim, did you?
No, I never did. I personally never did. Kim said he was always afraid of me.
Oh really?
(laughs)Yeah. Which is good. I’m glad. I think he’s a good person. He was a genius to put the Runaways together. And I don’t know if I would be where I am today without Kim.
Do you have good memories of those days with the Runaways?
I do have good memories of the Runaways. I mean, there’s some bad ones, but just, you know, rock ‘n’ roll.
I’m sure everyone is curious about your story because, as you know, this movie, “The Runaways,” that came out a few years ago, you’re not really in it a whole lot. It’s more about Joan and Cherie. Have you seen it?
No. It’s on my to-do list.
But you’ve obviously heard about it.
I have, and everybody says the same — that I’m not in it much. And I figured. I figured. And what they do portray of me is probably not very nice. So I don’t know. Whatever.
I guess that brings me to my next question. The Runaways reunion: Is that anything that we’re getting closer to, or is that off the table?
Oh, I would love a reunion. I think it’s time. We had talked about it, I think it was 15 years ago, and the music scene was heavily into grunge. I personally think the timing was wrong for the Runaways 15 years ago. I think now would be perfect. I think now there’s a large group of people that want to see and want to hear the Runaways. Unfortunately, we don’t have our drummer, Sandy, but I would still like to work with Joan. So we’re trying.
Have you been in touch with Joan Jett at all?
That’s easier said than done. Her new album just came out and I know she’s working the new album. So, I don’t know. We’re hoping. Cherie’s hoping, I’m hoping. We miss her. We feel happy together, Cherie and I. It was really fun the other day; we had our photo session for the Christmas single. It was a blast. And we came out of there going, “Oh this is so much fun. Where’s Joan?” We hope that she wants to work with us.
Cool. Are you working on a follow-up to Living Like a Runaway? Any studio recordings you’re working on, doing some writing? What’s going on there?
I do. Actually I’m working on a book now for Harper Collins. So we’ve got the live album that came out yesterday, a Christmas single that will be out Christmas and March 2014, we have the book. And I am working on the next album. I’ve got a few songs written and we just need to record them. But we’re off and running. Always good.
So next year is going to be busy for you?
Yeah, I hope so. I hope so. You know, I just feel like God is watching over and well I feel like I’m being guided by angels right now. So I’m just following them.
On the live album, you give a shout-out to Ozzy Osbourne. I’m sure he’s in a better place than back in the days when you recorded “Close My Eyes Forever.” Were you in the studio together when you cut that track, or did you send that over to him?
No, we were together. It doesn’t look like it, but we were in the studio together when we recorded the song, yeah, because they didn’t have emails back then. Everything was analog, not digital. And Mike Chapman put us in a room together facing each other. And the video was done in a broken old train station, I believe in Long Beach. I think it was in Long Beach or someplace down there, San Pedro or something like that. Anyway, Ozzy’s up in the upper part of this train station where they have this like a doorway — I don’t know what was up there; I don’t even know how he got up there. It was like, whoa, what a wacky place to put him. It was really cool. And I was down on the floor, sitting in a chair. So it’s cool. It’s just a cool video. But people ask me all the time: Were you together?
It sure would have been cool if he’d been up on stage at the Canyon Club and sang that with you, huh?
It would have been. I wish he’d do it just one time. Someday.
Have you heard the Sabbath reunion album, 13, that came out this year?
I love it. I love to hear them back together. They were one of my first initial inspirations and influences. You know, “Paranoid” and “Changes” and all those early Sabbath songs. I just love them. It’s good to see them back together. Then again, you wish Bill Ward was with them.
Yeah, I’d love to see Bill Ward back with them as well. But I did see them, actually, out here at Irvine Meadows and they did a pretty good show. I just have one last thing to ask you about, Lita. And that’s looking at the cover of The Bitch Is Back, I noticed that you’re still a B.C. Rich guitar player. What is it you love so much about BC Rich guitars?
Well, when I came back from my long hiatus, I started fiddling around with different guitars. I went through a lot of different types of guitars. Dean Zelinsky made me a beautiful black Bolero. It’s just drop dead gorgeous, plays like a dream. But I couldn’t find anything other than the Bolero that just kicked ass the way I wanted, the sound I was looking for — that original, typical Lita Ford sound. It’s what I like about my guitars. One of the only things I did get out of our divorce were my old guitars. And I said, you know what? I’m going to play my old guitars because that’s the way I like it. And I like crunch, I like the sound. There was nothing like those guitars. Bernie Rico made the best guitars. It’s just such a shame he’s gone. I miss him so much. But BC Rich will never be the same, but now they are trying their best to duplicate my Warlock, which is a very nice guitar that BC Rich makes now. So that’s a duplicate. I do have Lita Ford BC Rich Warlock out for sale. It’s a duplicate of mine. I sent it to them and they studied it for a while, took dimensions and all that stuff. But, you know, everything’s changed, even the wood. The wood was such a big part of BC Rich. They used such great wood to make the instruments. And now, today, it’s like new cars. The new cars are like driving a video game. More so now than a few years ago, say back in the ’80s, the new cars — they’ve changed so much. They were so much heavier and thicker and solid, like the guitars, I find. And now they’re starting to come up with lightweight Les Pauls. And I’m just like, “Eww!” Why would I want a lightweight Les Paul? What the fuck are you thinking? It’s just wrong. I don’t know. That’s my opinion. To each their own.
They have the self-tuning guitars, the Robot.
Oh, God. Yeah, well that’s interesting. I mean, modern technology — you’ve got to try to fix everything and please everybody. You either do or you don’t. So, I don’t know. I like the basics. I’m old school. What can I say?
