Lita Ford
Vocalist, guitarist
Interview Conducted on June 1, 2012
By: Joseph Suto
Lita Ford is back with a vengeance. Her latest release Living Like A Runaway will be out on June 19. She also will be hitting the road supporting Def Leppard and Poison in what should be one of the summer’s hottest tour packages. Lita talked about her upcoming release along with her future plans. Sit back and enjoy!
Rock Show Critique: Well give us the lowdown on your new album Living Like A Runaway that comes out June 19?
Lita Ford: It’s an extremely deep album. It’s definitely something that needs to be listened to more than once. Pay special attention to the lyrics. It’s a heavy album, its got lots of really nice guitar parts in it. Each guitar was carefully thought out, planned out the solo, everything, the riffs, harmony guitar parts. It’s more of a guitar players album. It’s not so much keyboards. There’s only two songs with keyboards on them. Their just used for a little background. It’s very attitude-nal if that’s a word. It has a lot of attitude, cocky attitude which I’m pretty good at.
RSC: What tracks are you most proud of?
LF: I don’t think I have a favorite. I’m really in love with the entire record. I’d say to someone have you heard “Hate”? (they would respond)but I love “Living Like A Runaway”. Have you heard “Relentless”? My favorite song is “A Song To Slit Your Wrists By” it’s really up to whoever is listening to the record. There are no fillers on this record. Each song can stand up to its own. It doesn’t have one great song and then the rest of the album is mediocre. I think the entire album each song holds up to itself.
RSC: How was it working with Gary Hoey on your latest release?
LF: Gary has a studio in his home in New Hampshire, beautiful studio. He had given me an invitation to come up and record. At the time when he asked me I was looking for record producers, it was really perfect timing. I got on a plane and flew up to his house. I thought you know, we’ll give it a shot and see what we come up with. At the time I was writing with different people and looking at different record producers. Once Gary and I wrote our first song together it really took off, it really came out so good that we thought let’s write some more. So we wrote “Branded” which was the second song we wrote. Then we were offered a record contract from SPV Records. My manager Bobby went out and shopped us a deal. It probably took us about a year to complete the entire thing.
RSC: Will there actually be a single released from it?
LF: You know what they did they released “Mother” on Mothers Day. It’s not a first single, it was just a song they wanted to put out on Mother’s Day. A heavy metal mom.
RSC: And you will be touring with Def Leppard and Poison, how did that come about? Will you be doing any solo shows on off-dates?
LF: Yeah we’re gonna do some off shows here and there. My manager put together the show with Def Leppard and Poison’s managers. I know they had a few different artist’s they were looking at at the time. They chose to put me on the tour and of course I accepted their offer. Its perfect timing in conjunction with the album and also this movie coming out. This Tom Cruise movie Rock Of Ages I think its gonna be a hysterical movie, I cannot wait to see it.
RSC: Who will be in your touring band this summer?
LF: Well I’m in the middle of changing over members right now. I just moved to Los Angeles. I’m putting together an LA based band. There’s a freakin’ drummer on every street corner here, literally. I went to a show last night. It was a John Bonham tribute show and each song they played a different drummer got up and jammed. It was really cool. I could have put together the band last night. The room so full of musicians. I’m not really one hundred percent set right now. I was going to use Gary Hoey and Gary’s drummer because they played on the album. I know their east coast, I’m west coast. It makes it difficult when you want to jump into rehearsals or a quick local gig that comes up. It’s nice to have your band close by.
RSC: So no one is leftover from your last tour?
LF: No I wiped the slate clean and wanted to start fresh for no particular reason. The guys I had from the tour were awesome but then again their east coast, I’m west coast.
(Note:- it has been confirmed Scott Coogan will be the drummer)
RSC: Once the tour ends what is the plan?
LF: Probably keep touring, maybe go to Europe. I know we’re gonna do the Monster Of Rock Cruise thats coming up next year. I hope we get to go to Europe because people have asked me so many times “Please come to France, Please come to England, Please come to Sweden” I’d like to go to Europe for a little while and do some shows.
RSC: Mike Chapman worked on your most successful albums, how did you come about working with him?
LF: I just called him up. It’s really not hard to get people you just have to call them and ask them. And he accepted. Sometimes their too busy or sometimes their not interested. The worst thing that will happen is they’ll say no. I got him at the right time and right place. It was great working with Mike, I adore him, he’s fantastic. He’s a pleasure to be around, he’s great in the studio of course and he’s a brilliant songwriter
RSC: So where does Lita Ford go from here? Are there any new avenues in life you plan to explore?
LF: No, just want to work the record. I wanna work on a book. It seems to be the thing these days, you know.. I would like to turn that book it into a major motion film so I want it to be a very visual book. That should take me through the next few years. Their big tasks to achieve but it’s something I really wanna do. I really would love to do a major motion film. I know the Runaways, Joan and Cherie recently did the Runaways movie. Then there’s the Edgeplay movie that Vicki did. I think I would make it more based on like The Doors movie, a movie based on everyday average stuff, than more about a particular band or person. Just a girl wanting to become successful in the music industry. Or a female wanting to become successful in a male dominated world. It would be a different story. It wouldn’t be all about rock n’ roll.
Special Thanks to Jon Freeman for his help in setting up the interview.
For more on Lita and tour dates check out www.litafordonline.com
