Lunatic's Serenade
Lita Ford:
Still a runaway at heart!
I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Lita Ford for a quick chat. The former Runaway is embarking on a tour that began earlier in Houston and is now heading north of the border into Canada with stops in Montreal (Heavy Montreal) and culminating in Toronto at the Phoenix concert hall.
Lita has been one busy musician since returning to the scene in 2009, after a lengthy hiatus raising her family. Her last two studio recordings have seen the passionate rocker blazing a path of musical superiority, while proving she can indeed continue to shred her guitar and rock out with her adoring fans on stage. Both Wicked Wonderland (2009) and Living Like a Runaway (2012) proved her mettle in spades and now she’s in the process of writing new material and working on a book to boot!
She will be backed by an impressive cast of musicians during this tour and for those fans able to catch her live you are in for a real treat. Lita will be playing the Phoenix this Sunday night here in Toronto, along with local sensations Diemonds and Fallen Heirs, so don’t you dare miss it!
So without further ado let’s step right in with this short, but rather revealing interview from what we can expect on Sunday night.
HMS: So you are coming to Toronto in August and it’s a show I am eager to come check out. What can you tell me about the tour so far? You opened in Houston on the 24th, so how did it go?
Lita Ford: Houston was awesome! Our drummer Bobby Rock is Houston born, our guitarist, Patrick Kennison, is San Antonio born, and I lived out-side of Dallas for a little while. There’s a little Texas in all of us. Houston rocks. But... then again, so does Toronto.
HMS: What can we expect in terms of the setlist?
LF: We do songs from the 70’s (Runaways) the 80’s, the 90’s and The Bitch is Back. We take you on musical journey in chronological order. Hahaha!!!
HMS: Can you tell us a bit about your backing band?
LF: Great question; we have Hollywood California’s finest hard rock musicians and they will blow your socks off! We have Bobby Rock on drums (Vinnie Vincent invasion and others), Marty O’Brien on bass, (Tommy, We Are the Fallen) Patrick Kennison on guitar (Union Underground, Heaven Below). He’s such a bad to the bone guitarist who sings his ass off! Together we are rolling thunder.
"We have Hollywood California’s finest hard rock musicians and they will blow your socks off!"
HMS: When was the last time you played live in Canada?
LF: We played here last year, but before that it was with the Runaways, at the El Macombo club - my name is under 6 coats of paint somewhere on the woman’s bathroom wall!
HMS: In 2013 you got together with former Runaway Cherie Currie to record “Rock This Christmas Down”. Can you tell us how the collaboration went?
LF: Singing with Cherie was a lot of fun. We both felt a little stiff at first but afterwards we both loosened up and had a blast.
HMS: What’s in store for the remainder of 2015?
LF: Finishing the book, and finishing the album, both due out in the Spring of 2016. The book will be an autobiographical documentary about a girl in a rock band; it will be called Living like a Runaway.
Kenneth Gallant, HMS
Lunatic's Serenade Menu