In a new interview with Guitar World, Lita Ford looks back at life-changing encounters with Tony Iommi and Ritchie Blackmore, explains why Kemper profiling is like “putting a Rolls Royce into a Volkswagen body”, and talks about that time she nearly joined Led Zeppelin
Guitar World: At some point in the ‘70s, you were playing in a club, and the story goes that Led Zeppelin asked you to play bass. Was that before or during The Runaways?
Lita Ford: “The Runaways were playing at Gazzarri’s or The Starwood – I’m having trouble with names because those places aren’t there anymore. It was upstairs… yeah, it was The Starwood.
“It was early Runaways days – you can tell we were like 17 or something. But Jimmy Page and Robert Plant came to see the show, and The Runaways were quite the novelty, being teenage girls that could rip it up, kick ass and rock the house.
“The places were always packed with fans, and our manager at the time, Kim Fowley, said, ‘Okay, girls, gather around and get a picture with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.’ I was scooched in there like, ‘Oh yeah, great!’ I grew up listening to them and I was still growing up.
“Robert Plant said, ‘We’re looking to replace our bass player, John Paul Jones,’ and I thought, ‘I’m not hearing this. I refuse to believe that this is really coming out of his mouth.’ I thought, ‘He’s got to be joking,’ because John Paul Jones is God on bass, as far as I’m concerned.
“But that’s what he said. And I walked away, just thinking, ‘Oh, that was nice. That was nice of him to look at me like that.’ In those days a lot of people didn’t look at us as musicians because we were female and we were young. They never took us seriously as musicians.”
Read more at GuitarWorld.com.
Lita Ford will be a special guest on a couple of dates of the next leg of Foreigner's farewell tour this fall.
“As a young guitarist in The Runaways days, who could forget how Foreigner ruled the airwaves, you just couldn’t hear them enough," says Ford. "Such badass songs that really hit home with everyone! I will be getting my inspiration from Foreigner to set the mood and the energy for each show. Great rock n roll NEVER dies!”
Dates featuring Lita Ford are listed below.
September
27 - Duluth, MN - Amsoil Arena
28 - Mankato, MN - Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center
