Living Like a Runaway: A Memoir
By Lita Ford
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Fearless, revealing, and compulsively readable, Lita Ford’s Living Like a Runaway is the long-awaited memoir from one of rock’s greatest pioneers—and fiercest survivors. “Heavy metal’s leading female rocker" (Rolling Stone) bares all, opening up about the Runaways, the glory days of the punk and hard-rock scenes, and the highs and lows of her trailblazing career.
Wielding her signature black guitar, Lita Ford shredded stereotypes of female musicians throughout the 1970s and ‘80s. Then followed more than a decade of silence and darkness—until rock and roll repaid the debt it owed this pioneer, helped Lita reclaim her soul, and restored the Queen of Metal to her throne.
In 1975, Lita Ford left home at age sixteen to join the world’s first major all-female rock group, the Runaways—a “pioneering band” (New York Times) that became the subject of a Hollywood movie starring Kristen Stewart ad Dakota Fanning. Lita went on to become “heavy rock’s first female guitar hero” (Washington Post), a platinum-selling solo star who shared the bill with the Ramones, Van Halen, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Poison, and others and who gave Ozzy Osbourne his first Top 10 hit. She was a bare-ass, leather-clad babe whose hair was bigger and whose guitar licks were hotter than any of the guys’.
Hailed by Elle as “one of the greatest female electric guitar players to ever pick up the instrument,” Lita spurred the meteoric rise of Joan Jett, Cherie Currie, and the rest of the Runaways. Her phenomenal talent on the fret board also carried her to tremendous individual success after the group’s 1979 disbandment, when she established herself as a “legendary metal icon” (Guitar World) and a fixture of the 1980s music scene who held her own after hours with Nikki Sixx, Jon Bon Jovi, Eddie Van Halen, Tommy Lee, Motorhead’s Lemmy, Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi (to whom she was engaged), and others.
Featuring a foreword by Dee Snider, Living Like a Runaway also provides never-before-told details of Lita’s dramatic personal story. For Lita, life as a woman in the male-dominated rock scene was never easy, a constant battle with the music establishment. But then, at a low point in her career, came a tumultuous marriage that left her feeling trapped, isolated from the rock-and-roll scene for more than a decade, and—most tragically—alienated from her two sons. And yet, after a dramatic and emotional personal odyssey, Lita picked up her guitar and stormed back to the stage. As Guitar Player hailed in 2014 when they inducted her into their hall of fame of guitar greats: “She is as badass as ever.”
Lita Ford
Lita Ford was the lead guitarist of the Runaways before embarking on her platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated solo career. In 2014 Lita received Guitar Player’s Certified Legend Award and was inducted into their Hall of Fame. She lives in Southern California.
Related to Living Like a Runaway
Related ebooks
Shut Up and Give Me the Mic Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stick It!: My Life of Sex, Drums, and Rock 'n' Roll Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Story Of Judas Priest: Defenders Of The Faith Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All These Things That I've Done: My Insane, Improbable Rock Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Youngs: The Brothers Who Built AC/DC Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNirvana FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Most Important Band of the 1990s Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rock Stars on the Record: The Albums That Changed Their Lives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTypical Girls? The Story of the Slits Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stranded in the Jungle: Jerry Nolan's Wild Ride: A Tale of Drugs, Fashion, the New York Dolls and Punk Rock Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE Remembering Kurt Cobain: 20 Years Later Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSex, Drugs, Ratt & Roll: My Life in Rock Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slash Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Total F*cking Godhead: The Biography of Chris Cornell Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rocks: My Life in and out of Aerosmith Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dancing with Myself Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not Dead & Not for Sale: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Makeup to Breakup: My Life In and Out of Kiss Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dirty Rocker Boys Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It's So Easy: and other lies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Punk Rock Blitzkrieg: My Life as a Ramone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Regrets Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cherry on Top: Flirty, Forty-Something, and Funny as F**k Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Life with Deth: Discovering Meaning in a Life of Rock & Roll Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tommyland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rainbow in the Dark: The Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Artists and Musicians For You
Yes Please Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coreyography: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Kids: A National Book Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Daily Creativity Journal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/550 Great Love Letters You Have To Read (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frida Kahlo: An Illustrated Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Woman in Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Me: Elton John Official Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Outsider Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Elvis and Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not My Father's Son: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leonardo da Vinci Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bowie: An Illustrated Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of The War of Art: by Steven Pressfield | Includes Analysis Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death, and Drums, Drums, Drums Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Love Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Born to Run Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Violinist of Auschwitz Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Meaning of Mariah Carey Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rememberings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5More Myself: A Journey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Marathon Don't Stop: The Life and Times of Nipsey Hussle Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tommyland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gary Larson and The Far Side Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSounds Like Me: My Life (So Far) in Song Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Walked the Line: My Life with Johnny Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5James Baldwin: A Biography Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Living Like a Runaway
25 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lita Ford is one of those women whose lives I wished I could have lived, but I don't think I would have made it out alive. She is resilient in so many ways and has endured some things that nobody should ever have to. I hope that one day she is able to realize her fondest wish and reconnect with her sons.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Good story!! Worth the read even if you aren't a Lita fan!!
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Initial disclosure: my primary interest in a Lita Ford autobiography stems from her time with The Runaways; my interest in her solo career is tangential. The title, of course, certainly suggests ample Runaways material.It would not be fair to limit a guitarist as talented as Ford to her teenage career, but, in this book, she does herself a disservice by writing as if she were still a teenager: she is the center of every event. Nothing that has ever happened is/was her fault. She is always the good guy. She is misunderstood. Doubtless, these claims are sometimes true, but they're made so often, it becomes impossible to tell when she's telling the truth and when she's not. In the end, it all seems overblown and dubious.Speaking specifically of The Runaways, there is so much that is a mixture of truth and legend: who knows what really happened? However, she tells many stories I have never seen in any other context and which I am extremely tempted to cast as Ford-fables. A primary reason for this, which I will address again, is that Ford tends to be either the hero or the victim in these stories. I admire her for admitting that she first quit the band in 1975 because realizing that some bandmates were gay or bisexual "fucked with [her] head" (p. 29). She does not sugarcoat this reason, and she does attempt to place her ignorance in the context of the what a teenager in 1975 knew. However, on the next page she refers to "[coming] to terms with their behavior" (p. 30), which is not precisely the way I would have hoped she would have phrased this as an adult in 2016.In final Runaways issues, the memoir is truly notable for what it does and does not discuss. I will not parse individual events in a review, but I would suggest comparing this with Queens of Noise by Evelyn McDonnell.I was hoping for a memoir that focused on music and what it has been like to evolve as a female musician from the 70s to the present. This book doesn't even scratch the surface of that. Ford's only refrain is that she wanted to show men she could also play guitar, no matter what anyone said or believed. Potential topics of interest that go unexplored are the role that the presentation/packaging of female sexuality has played in her career, relationships and collaborations with other female musicians (unless I miscounted, she gives unqualified thanks to exactly one other female musician in the book), gender dynamics on- and off-stage-- I could go on. I am not saying that this should have been a theoretical manifesto; my issue is that it's 262 pages of name-dropping, celebrity gossip, and grievances about who has done her wrong. A very specific complaint is that she outs several people in the text, something that I cannot condone. At the same time, she drops a cloth over much of her married life. That's her right if she does not feel safe discussing it, but she is apparently unaware that the same right to privacy extends to other people (in multiple situations involving multiple disclosures). I do not feel like I know any more about Ford as a musician after reading this. I tried to imagine what it would be like for someone entirely unfamiliar with her to read this book, and I'm fairly certain that reader would not even be able to figure out such basic things as which albums were commercial successes. It's as if Ford wrote this book in order to present a very specific picture of herself for some agenda completely unrelated to fans and music lovers. As such, it's extraordinarily alienating.
2 people found this helpful