LITA FORD Says Her Forthcoming Album Contains ‘A Lot Of Substance’

BLABBERMOUTH.NET

Prior to her January 25 performance in Milan, Italy, Lita Ford spoke with Rock Rebel Magazine. The full conversation can be streamed below. A few excerpts follow (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). On becoming a professional musician: Lita: "It was just the way my life was going to go. It wasn't an option. It wasn't something where I sat down and made a list — 'What do I want to be? A doctor, or a musician?' There just wasn't any other way for me to go." On her early years in music: Lita: "THE RUNAWAYS for me [was] very much a learning process. We were young girls and we had to come into our own. That, to me, was huge — to learn how to be Lita Ford... That was the biggest thing that I got out of THE RUNAWAYS — how to be me, to be a performer." On the band's legacy: Lita: "It's wonderful to be able to be in 2020 and still be able to [hear] the music you played when you were a kid. It's come full circle now, but I knew that in THE RUNAWAYS. We all knew that we were before our time. We were just hoping that eventually, it would come full circle, and I think now it really has." On going solo: Lita: "It was difficult for many reasons, breaking away from THE RUNAWAYS and then trying to create and give myself an image and write songs and learn how to sing. I wasn't a singer in THE RUNAWAYS — I was just a backing singer, so it was a lot of work. Once you get over that hump and do all those things in putting together a band, I think everything else fell into place." On her 1990 album, "Stiletto": Lita: "Herb Ritts shot [the cover], and I don't think he put his name on it. I think he just did the photo shoot and didn't want any credit for it, which was fine. He put me on a rooftop in Los Angeles and he wanted to use sunlight for the lighting, and I was blind. Then he would say, 'Open your eyes'... It was hard, so every time I look at this picture, I think of that sunlight in my eyes... Musically, one of my favorite solos was 'The Ripper'. I love that guitar solo. 'Lisa' was a song I wrote for my mom — she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and she was given just a few months to live. I wanted to give her a song — I wanted to give her a gift. You know [how] some people write songs after the people are dead? I didn't want to do that — I wanted her to hear it, and I wanted her to be there at the video shoot, and she was. That was pretty cool... It's a magic song." On her 1991 album, "Dangerous Curves": Lita: "The title was given to me by my dear friend Sammy Hagar. We started writing a song and never finished the song, so I just used the title. I don't know where that song went — I'll have to check that out..." On her 2012 album, "Living Like A Runaway": Lita: "I broke away from my ex-husband, and I was living like a runaway. We went straight on tour and we never stopped. A lot of the songs in this album are true life stories. [It's] pretty hardcore if you listen to it." On the modern music industry: Lita: "The music industry has changed so much, just like everything has changed over the years. I do miss the old-school, because it was just bigger and better and easier. I'm just happy to be still be out performing now. I feel lucky that we are still able to go out and perform now." On her future plans: Lita: "We've got a great new record. Hopefully we'll get it out by the time we start touring with Alice Cooper in the spring. We're shooting for that time frame. It's a great record. I don't want to talk about it yet — once it hits, then we can talk about it — but I'm very excited. It's been a long time in the making, so there's a lot of substance to the record." Ford's new album — her ninth — will serve as the follow-up to 2012's "Living Like A Runaway". From April through June, she will tour with Alice Cooper.