When the Runaways first hit the national scene in the 1970s, breaking down walls for the rocking females to come, Lita Ford was all of 16.
“And I was the oldest in the band,” she said, breaking into a dry laugh. “Joan Jett was 16, too, but she was born September 22 and I was September 19.”
A lot has changed since those days — most people now know Ford plays her own guitar — but one thing remains the same. When it comes to rock ’n’ roll, she still lets loose with a throaty “Yeah, it’s the best.”
Ford, back on the concert trail, performs Saturday, Aug. 27, with Whitesnake and Tesla at Mount Pleasant’s Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort. And when she’s not traveling, she’s in the studio, putting the final touches on an album she said is pure Lita.
“Recording has changed so much; it’s easier now,” she said. “You just have to get in the groove. Touring has changed, too, and the way you sell records. Everything is online now.
“Everyone’s moving into other things, too. There’s a book out for everybody.”
Ford almost did a reality show for TLC, too, but it fell apart before they closed the deal.
“We’ll get it next time around, when we have something different and new,” she said.
Her career is one for reality TV, beginning with the pioneering Runaways.
“It was really hard for me, when we broke up after five years together, to establish myself,” Ford remembered. “I had to go to such extremes because no one would take me seriously as a guitarist.”
With a quick laugh, she added, “I was always in my hot pants and (lead singer) Cherie Currie was running around in her underwear, so I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they didn’t look on us as musicians.”
But she set out to change that, pulling together a three-piece band — bass, drums and guitar — that would leave no doubt on who was making the music. And she was rockin’ hard, moving into metal.
“I wanted all the attention,” she said. “I wanted people to say, ‘Gee, it really is her.’ I had to prove to the fans that girls can play guitar.”
It was another story with fellow musicians — “They knew me personally, and we played together somewhere along the line,” she said. “But fans were devastated. ‘She’s doing what? She can’t do that!’ Please, oh, yes, I can. You’re looking right at it.”
“Gotta Let Go” and “Kiss Me Deadly,” named one of the best hard-rock songs ever by VH1, were convincing evidence, and collaborations with Meatloaf on “I’d Do Anything For Love,” and Ozzy Osbourne on “Close My Eyes Forever” furthered her exposure.
“Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne fed off each other and it as wonderful for both of them,” Ford said. “I thought she was fantastic, and I asked if she would be my manager.
“I was sitting on the Queen Mary, where it’s docked now in California, with all these little restaurants and oyster bars inside, and I gave her a call. It was crazy, I already had everything in place, I had signed with RCA, but I just wanted her to fill those shoes.”
Ford made the call — “Sharon was a very powerful lady but I figured the worst that could happen is that she’d hang up on me,” she said — and Osbourne answered with a drawled out, “Yes, of course.”
“I celebrated on the spot with my oysters and Bloody Marys,” Ford said.
In the years since, she’s blazed the trails for many more women, in music and out. Bands from The Donnas and Bikini Kill to the Bangles and the Go-Gos built their careers on the foundation Ford built in the business.
“I"m really proud of people who can stand up and follow their dreams, and if I was part of the soundtrack, well, that’s what it’s all about. Go for it, girl!”
That’s just what she did nearly 15 years ago, when she was pregnant with her first son.
“I wanted to devote myself to being a mom,” she remembered. “I had been touring so long — I started on the guitar when I was 11 and I was 38 then —and I decided, after 27 years, it was time to disappear.”
A second son came along, and now, she said, “they’re at the point where they don’t need me hanging around all the time,” she said. “And I missed rock ‘n’ roll. It’s still great, and there are still people who don’t get it.
“But when I get out there, yeah, it’s the best!”
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