Lita Ford

Carmelita Rossanna Ford, best known as Lita Ford, was born in September 1958 in London, England (she is of Italian heritage though). She moved to the United States with her family when she was young. She started playing the guitar by the age of eleven. After attending her first Black Sabbath concert, when she was thirteen, she decided to become a guitarist. When she was 14 she was able to buy a four-hundred dollar chocolate color Gibson SG. In 1976 Lita covered for a friend’s bandmate who got sick leaving the band without a bassist. Kim Fowley from a band called the Runaways was looking for female musicians to join the group. Kim saw Lita perform and asked her to audition for the Runaways as bass player but she explained that she was a guitar player. Lita played Black Sabbath and the Deep Purple song, "Highway Star" giving her a spot in the band. In the beginning Lita got along great with all the girls, but later on she quit the Runaways due to Kim's degrading remarks towards them.

After six months passed she was called and asked to rejoin the group, which she did. The Runaways were able to release five albums (three of them featuring Cherie Currie as the lead singer). The group was not very popular in the U.S., often considered teenage jailbait, but they were very popular in Japan. In 1979 the group disintegrated and Lita Ford began her solo career. Ford took voice lessons and by 1983 she released her debut album Out for Blood, which was followed the next year by Dancin’ on the Edge.

In 1985, Ford was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Performance on Gotta Let Go with Wendy O. Williams and Pia Zadora. In 1988, under Sharon Osbourne’s management, Lita Ford released her most successful album Lita. The album featured Ford's first hit, the number 12 "Kiss Me Deadly"; its follow-up, a duet with Ozzy Osbourne entitled "Close My Eyes Forever," provided both artists with their first Top Ten single. But commercial success did not linger for her, records like 1990's Stiletto and 1991's Dangerous Curves failed to match the previous accomplishments of Lita.