Lita Ford

In mid-1980s, Lita Ford was engaged to guitarist Tony Iommi, who co-produced her album ‘The Bride Wore Black.’ The album was never released and their relationship also didn’t work out.

In the 1990s, Ford married W.A.S.P. guitarist Chris Holmes, but after a short while, they divorced.

In 1994, Ford started dating former Nitro vocalist Jim Gillette. Soon the couple got married after knowing each other for just two weeks. The couple has two sons—James, born in May 1997, and Rocco, born in June 2010. They moved to Turks and Caicos, where Gillette started a small real estate business. For a decade, Ford stayed away from music, as she devoted her time to her family and homeschooled her children for a number of years.

Lita Ford was born on September 19, 1958, in London to an English soldier father and an Italian nurse mother. When she was in the second grade, her family moved to the United States and settled in Long Beach, California.

She began playing the guitar at the age of 11 after she was inspired by Ritchie Blackmore's work with Deep Purple.

In 1975, when Lita Ford was 16, she auditioned for an all-teenage girl band, and was recruited by the organizer Kim Fowley to join the rock band the Runaways. In 1976, the band bagged a recording contract, and released their debut album the same year. Although the media significantly praised the band, and they toured during the 1970s, the album did not pick up enough momentum to succeed.

From 1976 to 1978, the Runaways released four studio albums, but none could make much impact. By 1977, the band was plagued by internal disputes and soon the producer Fowley, lead singer Cherie Currie, and bassist Jackie Fox left the band. All was not well between the other members as well.

While vocalist/guitarist Joan Jett wanted the band to lean more towards Ramones-influenced punk rock sound, Ford and drummer Sandy West, on the other hand, wanted to continue with dominant hard rock songs, which the band was known for. With neither party willing to compromise, the band eventually broke up in April 1979.

After the breakup of the Runaways, Ford started gearing up to launch a solo career. She released her debut solo album ‘Out for Blood’ in 1983; it was a disaster, commercially as well as critically.

She released the album ‘Dancin' on the Edge’ in 1984. It achieved some success and the rock world started recognizing her. The singles ‘Fire in My Heart’, and ‘Gotta Let Go’ performed well on the Top 10 rock charts.

Lita Ford’s second solo album ‘Dancin' on the Edge’ was moderately successful, and one of its singles, ‘Fire in My Heart’, reached the top ten charts in several countries outside the United States. The single, ‘Gotta Let Go’ also did well on the charts, and reached the number one spot on the Mainstream Rock charts.