80’s hard rock queen Lita Ford is back and as she describes, is “rolling thunder”. At the young age of 16 she became the guitarist for The Runaways. It’s been noted that the all-girl metal band was groundbreaking in the industry during that time. Ford went on to a solo career releasing two albums, Out for Blood (1983) and Dancinˊ on the Edge (1984) but it was her self-titled album Lita (1988) that she saw great success. Kiss Me Deadly was Ford’s first hit, and her ballad with Ozzy Osbourne, Close My Eyes Forever, was her first top 10 single. Then going on to releasing Stiletto (1990), Dangerous Curves (1991) and Black (1995).
Lita Ford then stepped out of the music industry to focus on family and be the “ultimate mom”. After 16 years of marriage and a devastating divorce, Ford returned to her first love – music. Penning her life and heartache into her lyrics, releasing the album Living Like a Runaway (2012) Ford started her comeback as the “Queen of Metal”.
Music Life Magazine had the honor of sitting down with Lita Ford at the Sirius XM Hair Nation press conference on August 17th at the Rainbow Bar and Grill in West Hollywood, California to discuss the upcoming “Hair Nation” festival, what challenges she faced moving into the digital age, her autobiography “Living Like a Runaway: A Memoir” and her recent album release Time Capsule.
Hello Lita, let’s talk about your longevity in the business. With the music industry dramatically changing over time, what changes did you have to go through as an artist?
Well, I had to learn how to change from analog to digital and that was not easy. Just trying to record with no tape and you know it just changed. Now trying to buy a record, the record stores are disappearing and trying to buy a CD or… you know I have a CD player in my truck, so I like CDs. Of course I have stuff on my phone too but I like things that you can actually hold in your hand.
I prefer to have a physical copy, that’s all I play in my car.
Yes, and people want to use them you know. I think they’re so good. That was the biggest change.
Did you ever feel you’d still be doing this after four decades?
You know it is who I am. It is just who I am.
You took a little break I believe when your kids were younger, is that correct?
Yes.
You’ve made a comeback and still going strong.
Yes… Yes! I wanted to be the ultimate mom and my divorce was horrible and my ex-husband has alienated my children from me. For those people who know what “Parental Alienation” is, it is a form of emotional child abuse. It is severe child abuse. It is not physical, it is emotional so I, unfortunately, am going through that which I don’t deserve.
No one deserves that.
Nobody does, especially the kids.
I believe our trials and tribulations make us who we are today. Your book “Living Like a Runaway: A Memoir” was 
released earlier this year. Opening up the life of “Lita Ford”. What motivated you to write this book?
Well, after my divorce was final one of the things I wanted to do was put out a memoir to my life and because I’m really a unique artist, almost one of a kind. I wanted to put out a book so people could see what I had to do in my life and the hurdles I had to jump to become Lita Ford.
We just spoke about your book, you’re a child activist for child abuse, also activist for parents alienation, because you’ve experienced this in your life. Can you go into a little detail about this, especially the “Parental Alienation”?
Well parental alienation is really hard to explain if you don’t know what it is and even those that have experienced it don’t know that there is an actual terminology for it.
I was unaware of the terminology.
So the best thing for them to do would probably be go to “Lita Ford’s Parental Alienation Awareness” on Facebook and read, look at the pictures and you get an idea for what it is about. Basically there is a huge, huge fault in our family legal system. They don’t help the “Parental Alienation” they actually encourage it because they get more money. But it is destroying our families. It is destroying the families and that’s wrong. That is not worth the money that they are getting.
And the children.
The children, it destroys the mother, the father – whoever is being alienated. Their families and it destroys the children because they are being stripped away from their parents or parent. In my case, I’m the one who lost the children because the father took them away. He is like I got custody. Yes, sure you do, you paid for it and you lied.
Are you allowed to see them or you haven’t seen your kids?
I don’t even know where they are.
I know the feeling.
A lot of people know that feeling. It is horrible, it is like the ultimate worst nightmare.
Is this new?
It is new for you because you just found out, but it is not new. It has been happening for decades and that is what is so sickening about it. Now it is starting to come out of the closet and it needs to stop. We need to change our legal system. That is huge. That is going to take some serious power, so I think a lot of the legal systems are starting to get nervous. I’ve noticed that some of my old attorneys are starting to Google me because I’ve seen them on my Facebook snooping around. It is like talking about how screwed up they are.
At least mine were. Maybe somebody else’s aren’t. Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin went through this years ago and Alec Baldwin put a book out on parental alienation. Everyone thought oh it was Alec, oh Alec is a bully, he beat Kim or whatever, when in reality it was her that alienated their kid Ireland, from Alec. So he wrote a book and there are talk shows and all kinds of stuff you can go to and look and see at what he says about it. He is more diplomatic about it then I am, I just throw it out there, spit it out there, it needs to come out of the closet.
Yes, you have to do that, to be a force to be reckoned with is to speak out.
Yes, it needs to come out of the closet, like a lot of things have, over the years. This is one of them.
2016 you’ve been busy. The release of your book we just spoke about and you also released a new album, Time Capsule Can you tell us a little bit about the album?
Yes, Time Capsule was a little gem that I had hidden in the closet and it was recorded at a period of time where I wasn’t working and I went into the studio with all these great musicians that just happened to hang out and show up, ended up on these songs. The songs are great.
I was listening to it last night while writing this interview and loved it! I’ll defiantly add it to my collection.
Cool! It’s fun, it’s cool great songs, great artists. It is just a little piece of rock and roll history in this time capsule. When you listen to it again, King of the Wild Wind is about Sturgis bikers.
Who are some of the artists that you recorded with?
We have Rick Nielsen and Robin Zander from Cheap Trick, who sings backing vocals on The Killing Kind. That song also has Billy Sheehan on bass and Dave Navarro plays mandolin which is wicked. He is so talented. They all are. Gene Simmons is on it, he plays bass on Rotten to the Core. Jeff Scott Soto sings a duet with me. His voice is just …. yes, amazing. So I could go on and on. There is a lot of people on, it is ridiculous.
Do you have anything else in the works?
Well, the book was just drafted in February so it is still new and then Time Capsule was released in April. So we’re still working those two projects and we have a Halestorm tour coming up in October, then we are working on the new album, so we are recording.
I read you don’t like having time off so it is always keeping your brain working and up to date on things…
Constantly, kill me with rock and roll.
No better way to go.
Right, I agree.
Saturday, September 17th at Irvine Meadows, Irvine California, will be the “Hair Nation Festival”. What can the fans expect to see from Lita Ford?
Well we are one tough band to follow. I wouldn’t want to be the band after us. Sometimes I listen to our stuff and I think damn I would not want to be the band following that. We have Bobby Rock on drums, Patrick Kennison on guitar and vocals, Marty O’Brien on bass and we’re Rolling Thunder.
Later this evening you will be one of the judge’s at the “Hair Nation Festival Battle of the Bands” at the iconic Whisky a Go Go, West Hollywood, California. Seven unsigned artists are competing for two spots to play at the “Hair Nation Festival”. What will you be looking for in that band?
There’s a lot of things you can look at. First of all, you have to look at their musicianship and their songs, their presentation and how they appear themselves to look. You know if they are wearing flip flops and shorts I’m not going to be interested. But if they are rocked out, they look decent and sound decent then they are worthy of playing the festival.
I’m really look forward to seeing you on stage at the “Hair Nation Festival”.
Thank you. Have you read the book?
Unfortunately, I have not read the book, only sections that had been posted. It touches home for a lot of people.
Woman to woman, you have got to read the book.
It is really good that you have that voice to speak out.
You are damn right, and I am going to use it. Go to “Lita Ford Parental Alienation Awareness” on Facebook.
Perfect. Thank you very much, it was a pleasure meeting you.
You are very welcome, see you soon.
Congratulations Lita Ford for being awarded the “2017 She Rocks Award” by The Women’s International Music Network!
Connect with Lita Ford online: (Website) (Facebook) (Twitter) (YouTube) (Instagram)
This song was written about Parental Alienation off the album Living Like Runaway:
Thanks again Lita. – Still looking forward to discussing various ideas for awareness and taking action.
Sorry to hear about your kids.