LITA FORD Says Her Upcoming Album Is 'A Concept Record': 'There's A Big Story Behind It'

In a new interview with Joe Rock of Long Island's rock station 102.3 WBAB, '80s hard rock queen Lita Ford spoke about her long-awaited new studio album. Ford's upcoming 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. She said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The studio, for me, has always been trying to teach everybody what I wanna hear. And a lot of that is because they basically don't know themselves as a producer or an engineer. I've had some of the greatest engineers and I've had some of the greatest producers, and this album — we're finished with it now — [was produced by] Gary Hoey. Gary Hoey is a great musician, great guitar player. And Gary and I — I can throw any idea at Gary, and he would try and make it happen. And the thing about being in the studio is you try and make things happen, and if they don't happen, then they don't happen. You can only try. And so we got real creative with guitars and we played — there's a lot of great guitars on this new record. I'm really excited about it."

Asked if she has a target release date for her new album, Lita said: "No, not yet, because I went round and round with some record labels. I just wanted to find the record a really good home, as I think it deserves after decades of rock and roll. It's a really great record and it just deserves a good home. And I know some of the labels are — they are not enough for me. And so I had to sort of hold off and try to negotiate with the biggest and the best labels I could possibly find. So, nothing's signed yet, but we're working on it. So that's a step in the right direction, and we're on the right path."

Lita went on to say that the creation of her new album was completely in her control. "There were no songwriters that I had to work with because somebody else wanted me to work with them," she explained. "This is strictly Lita and what Lita wanted to do. And it's a concept record. There's a big story behind it. And so it's gonna open a lot of doors for a lot of things. And a lot of people are gonna be able to relate to this record. And it has some great musicians. Bobby Rock played drums on it. Jean Beauvoir wrote one of the songs with me. And it's just a great record. And Gary Hoey, of course, produced it. Max Norman, who mixed it — Max Norman did a lot of stuff for Ozzy [Osbourne] and MEGADETH, and he's just a metal guy. So it's all in the right hands. I've got all the badass people behind me. Got a new manager, and it's all good."

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

In a 2023 interview with "THAT Rocks!", the 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 [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."

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."

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.

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