Carmelita Rosanna Ford was born in Britain and moved to the States at age 4. At age 11, she picked up a guitar and that was it. By 16, Lita was a member of the seminal all girl rock band The Runaways along with Joan, Cherie Currie, and Sandy West, making her mark in the all boys' world of hard rock.
Her first solo album, Out For Blood, failed to chart in the U.S., but she didn't let that discourage her. She continued to tour, playing constantly in every place imaginable. Her second album, Dancin' on the Edge made moderate waves with singles like "Fire In My Heart" and "Gotta Let Go," which was a Number One hit and her biggest single to date. A follow up album, Bride Wore Black was never released because she hated the finished project and left her label Mercury, for RCA.
She didn't hit the charts again until 1988 with her self-titled album, Lita. Self-produced, this third album resulted in Lita's biggest commercial success with hits like "Kiss Me Deadly," "Back to the Cave," "Falling In and Out of Love," co-written with Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue and the power ballad duet "Close My Eyes Forever" with Ozzy Osbourne. She followed this album up with Stiletto, Dangerous Curves (which featured her final charting single "Shot of Poison" and finally, Black. She basically disappeared for the remainder of the 90's.
In 2008, Lita formed a new band and released Wicked Wonderland in 2009. She continues to rock out wherever she can. Being a woman in a man's world like this meant she had to not only rock harder, but put up with a lot of sexist crap, including videos where some guy covered her guitar work while she was forced to scamper around in a barely there costume "seducing" the guitar and the "male" viewers. I respect her because she pushed through to find her own path, strumming her ax her way.
Here's a clip of Lita jamming with Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath on her pink B.C. Rich. Check out her skills...
Fun Factoid
Micki Steele from The Bangles once played bass guitar in The Runaways along side Lita and Joan.
Hope you are all enjoying the big A to Z. I thank you for stopping by and visiting. To check out my fellow awesome bloggers in this challenge please click here.
