LITA FORD On Changes In Music Industry: 'So Long As We Can Still Keep Playing Music, Then All The Rest Just Doesn't Matter'

Before her concert in Idaho last month, Lita Ford was asked by KPVI's Deanne Coffin about how she has dealt with all the changes in the music industry since she launched her professional career nearly 50 years ago. She said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I mean, you know, music is music, and everything else just kind of evolves around it. And so long as we can still keep playing music, then all the rest just doesn't matter."

Asked who her musical inspirations were when she was starting out, Lita said: "Well, anybody who was badass enough to play guitar riffs. I think my greatest inspiration was probably BLACK SABBATH. It was weird because back then Ozzy [Osbourne] was the lead singer, and the first rock concert I ever went to was BLACK SABBATH. I was 13. And later on, I ended up having a Top 10 hit single with Ozzy. It was his first Top 10 hit single of all time, because BLACK SABBATH could not make the Top 10, because they were BLACK SABBATH; it just wasn't going to make it. So, when I did the duet with Ozzy, it went Top 10 in America. And I'm, like, 'Yeah.'"

Lita recently completed work on her new album for an early 2024 release. The follow-up to 2012's "Living Like A Runaway" was once again helmed by guitarist/producer Gary Hoey, who contributes some guitar playing to the disc, alongside the rest of Lita's longtime backing band, consisting of guitarist Patrick Kennison, drummer Bobby Rock and since-departed bassist Marty O'Brien.

In a recent interview with "THAT Rocks!", the weekly YouTube series hosted by Eddie Trunk, Jim Florentine and Don Jamieson, Lita stated about her next LP: "The problem is we've had so many things happen over the last few years. Our manager died; George Marshall died a year ago, [in] '22. And then my songwriting partner died. And it's just been devastation. But we take all that pain and everything and we just put it right back into the album. And then we recorded the drum tracks in Minneapolis during Black Lives Matter and COVID. Everything was locked down and the place was boarded up and the guys had shotguns and Rottweilers. And then we went in and did drum tracks. And it was awesome. Just memories of just pure badassery And so the record is almost done. [There are] a couple things I have to fix and change. And it looks like we might be signing with Frontiers [Music Srl]. But they've gotta to do me right before I put pen to paper. And they're pretty cool over there. So, we're talking March release. 2024, March release."

Regarding what her plans are for live shows in support of her upcoming LP, Lita said: "Well, what I would like to do is put together a theatrical show, sort of like a rock guitar opera kind of thing. It's been done before and different bands have done it before, but I think in this case, it might be a little different and just to bring the whole show not to life just for audio, but for visual reasons also. So we're going to go into rehearsals mid-November and start putting that together for 2024, the Lita Ford rock guitar rock opera. I'd love to have Hoey with me too, if I can get Gary Hoey to [do] the tour."

In a separate interview with "The Kenny Aronoff Sessions", the podcast hosted by Kenny Aronoff, Lita said that she wanted to get her new album out "for the fans. I'm having a little bit of an ordeal with record labels because here we are, 2023, going on '24, and it's not the same," she explained. "And they're not the same, and everything else is just… I don't wanna hope and pray that it gets treated the way it should, because it's not a cash grab. This record is a real record and I want the fans to have it, hear it and see it because it's very visual as well as riffy and stuff. It's just a killer record. So I would like to get that record out and for the fans. That's on my bucket list."

As for what is so special about this record, Lita said: "There was a lot of things that happened during the process of this record. My manager died, my songwriting partner died. There was drug rehab, drug withdrawals — just all kinds of stuff that happened. And this record is real. It's almost like I had to live it before I could write it. And it took a long time. It wasn't something that was written in a weekend. And so the songs are coming from a really hardcore place, because they're just real. And I think a lot people will be able to them in their own way. Plus it's rocking. It's a killer record."

In May 2022, bassist Marten Andersson (STEELHEART, LIZZY BORDEN, LYNCH MOB) officially joined Lita's touring band. Andersson replaced O'Brien who became the touring bassist for DAUGHTRY.

In January 2021, Lita told SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" that her new album contains "some of the best guitar playing" she has heard "in decades." She added: "And I'm not blowing smoke up my own ass, but Gary and I just nailed it with the guitar playing on this record.

"I'm a huge fan of people like Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter from Alice Cooper's 'Welcome To My Nightmare'. I mean, there's some really great duo guitar players — [JUDAS PRIEST's] Glenn Tipton, K.K. Downing… Those guitar players don't exist anymore — they just don't exist. If you wanna hear them, you have to go back in time a little bit and dig them up into your favorite library, favorite music catalog. But I think Gary and I really nailed it on this next record. It's, like, oh my God. I'm crying — I'm just, like, crying listening to this stuff. It's so badass."

Ford's last release was 2016's "Time Capsule", a collection of songs that were recorded by Lita in the past, but never before made available.

Seven years ago, Lita released an autobiography, "Living Like A Runaway: A Memoir", via Dey Street Books (formerly It Books),an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.