Lita Ford (born September 23, 1958) is a glam metal singer and guitarist who achieved popularity during the 1980s.

Biography

Ford was born Carmelita Rosanna Ford in London, England. She moved with her family to the United States while still very young. She began playing the guitar at age 11.
Her vocal range is that of a mezzo-soprano.[1]
In 1976 at the age of 17 she became one of the founding members of the legendary teenage all-female proto punk metal band The Runaways, for whom she played lead guitar.
After the group folded in 1979, she began a solo career. Her guitar playing was well respected amongst her peers, both when she was a member of The Runaways and as a solo act. During her solo years she was iconically sporting a B.C. Rich mockingbird guitar, becoming a trademark of her visual appearance. Her first two albums, Out For Blood and Dancin' on the Edge were relatively successful, and in 1985, Ford was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Performance for "Gotta Let Go", along with Wendy O. Williams and Pia Zadora.
Nothing was heard from Ford for the next four years; a follow-up to Dancin' on the Edge, titled The Bride Wore Black, was abandoned and never released, as Ford switched from Mercury Records to RCA Records. By the time Ford returned again, the lighter pop-metal she had long favored had broken through to mainstream audiences, which set the stage for her most commercially successful album, 1988's Lita. With Sharon Osbourne as her manager, and slickly produced by Mike Chapman, the album featured Ford's first commercial hit, the #12 "Kiss Me Deadly". Its follow-up ballad, a duet with Ozzy Osbourne entitled "Close My Eyes Forever", provided both artists with their first Top Ten single.
Lemmy of Motörhead (whom she'd met in 1975 when she was with the Runaways) was in LA staying at the Park Sunset hotel when Lita Ford came in the hotel and told him she needed songs. Lemmy wrote the song "Can't Catch Me" there and then for her (he wrote it as a twelve-bar, but she didn't record it that way).
Lita Ford was married to Chris Holmes (from W.A.S.P.) from June 1990 to July 1991. She has been romantically involved with Nikki Sixx, Rainbow singer Joe Lynn Turner, Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi, Hurricane / ASIA drummer Jay Schellen, and finally, with successful business man and former bodybuilder Jimmy Tavis of Lostboys, Odin and The Anti Social.
Currently, she is married to Jim Gillette, of the band Nitro. With him she has two sons, with their first son having been born on Jim and Lita's third wedding anniversary.
Lita was asked by VH-1 to be in the cast of "The Surreal Life" for its 7th season, in 2007. She declined.

Tributes

• An achievement in the Xbox 360 version of the game Guitar Hero II, is titled the "Joan & Lita Award" in tribute to Lita and Joan Jett. It is awarded to two players who can get a 100 note streak in cooperative mode.