Tagged: Lita Ford
What triggers sexism in some rockers?
So Lita Ford is about to release a new album soon, and it was, as usual, on Blabbermouth yesterday.
Another thing that’s “as usual” are all those strange individuals on Blabbermouth who are filling the newspages with the weirdest comments…
The article was 100% about Lita’s music, yet the very first comment on there was: “Gonna do some MILF porn Lita?”
Another brainiac continued with another ever so intelligent comment that included, among other things “she s***ed Chris Holmes nasty alcoholic c**k for a few years in the 80’s“
It’s an interesting phenomenon, because I’m pretty sure that the pimplefaced teenage boys (I hope to god that these stupidass comments were NOT written by any ADULT….) got a heartattack just SEEING a picture of a WOMAN on their macho metal pages. All those sexually frustrated, morons turned into Beavis & Butthead in about two seconds by the mere sight of a woman among their male heroes.
Oh horror – I mean, really?! How DARE she exist in their little narrow macho-metal world?! Only LEMMY is allowed to rule that world of theirs, definitely no chick. They forget that this particular chick has even recorded a song she wrote with said legend….
[Lemmy and Lita = Can’t Catch Me]
But it’s always, always the same shit when a woman enters the world of metal. It’s all that sexist bullshit she has to listen to from a bunch of insecure dweebs who are convinced that they are exerting an imaginary power by acting as if sexuality is something that they are entitled to by nature, whereas women should be grateful if they “GET” some. You know, kind of what they were thinking back in the 50’s.
Especially in this case, when we’re talking about Lita Ford – THAT kind of behavior becomes nothing but BRAINDEAD and embarrassing. Why? Because she is not the kind of chick who gets offended by rough talk. First of all, she’s more vulgar than most of those little teenage nerds. If you think that the usual sexist talk is intimitading to someone like her – think again.
Back in the late 80’s, early 90’s, she was interviewed by RIP or Metal Edge, I forget which one it was – and stated that if she hadn’t made it as a musician, she would have pursued a “career” as a callgirl. Because she liked the idea of unbridled, unconditional sex.
That was a pretty “shocking” statement back in those days. She was very “SO FUCKIN’ WHAT??”
Her songs have always been about sex in all forms, I guess her last one, Wicked Wonderland, was no exception. And her stories and pics from her and her ex-husband Jim’s “sex-room” and their endorsement of a site that sells sex-toys and what have you….
The whole thing with the nervous teenage boy who’s trying to be cool in the safety and security of his anonymity, just becomes even more stupid. He chose the wrong chick to try his amateur, clumsy version of classic master suppression techniques on.
That crap is just such old news, and I don’t know how it still manages to survive among some retarded groups out there, in 2012.
It’s always the same. I saw some pretty nasty shit being said about Elize Ryd of Amaranthe for instance.
What is a guy thinking when he writes a comment to a music video, saying “She can sit on my face!”? And then there will be OTHER Beavis and Buttheads out there cheering it along.
I heard all that stuff back when I was singing in a band too. I’m not easily offended either. I mean, I joined my first band when I was a teenager, and trust me – I heard more intimate stories than I bargained for. The guys forgot I was a chick when they acted like boys do – so, yeah, every exaggerated sexual conquest was reviewed in the rehearsal studio.
After a lifetime of that, you get jaded, to a degree. But sometimes, in some situations, I still can’t help thinking “when is this shit gonna be OLD NEWS, it’s just getting so… old“.Every time I got up on stage, there was some dude, whose pals he was trying to impress, that yelled: “Show your tits!!”
In the end, I got so sick of hearing it, that I decided to address it with a sense of humor instead of bitching about it.
So, one evening I put on a whole bunch of t-shirts, tried my best to make it look like it was only one, and then did a bit of a “striptease” – taking off one t-shirt after the other, layer after layer.
I thought they would get the irony of it, but when I got to the last top, there was still some idiot who yelled, with a beer in his hand, “show your tits!”. I gave up. Some just don’t have a sense of humor or the IQ to understand irony and when they are being mocked.
I just hoped and wished that things would be different in 2012. I’ve been a rocker since I was 13 years old. When I started, there were very few female role models, and Lita was my first real source of inspiration – just because she did things her own way.
“Better sexy than ugly” is what she used to say with a laugh. She made being feminine something cool, something fun – not something political or aggressive. It was just the way she was. I admired her for it.
And after all the work she’s done her whole life, there are still caveman-people out there making the same stupid remarks now that they did back in 1983.
It’s not all just negative, that’s not where I’m going with this. Things HAVE changed a lot. We see more and more women at festivals – both in the crowd and on stage.
Last year, at Sweden Rock Festival, people worshipped Joan Jett and they got up early, dispite their hangovers, to see Lee Aaron.
Doro has always had extremely loyal fans who absolutely adore her and Girlschool have most certainly earned their legend-status just as much as their male colleagues.
It’s definitely better than it was in 1983, but I just wish that some of these “developmentally disabled”, to put it nicely, would become a thing of the past, altogether.
Maybe another…20 years from now…? Who knows.
Lita Ford – the first lady of metal
Christmas-party at work had one easy to remember dress-code: There had to be something RED in our outfit. Those who know me also know that when you open my closet, there’s gonna be nothing but BLACK in there. So I started digging through piles of clothes, looking for something red.
Suddenly this old, worn out, washed out, greyish t-shirt from the late 80’s fell out from somewhere. My old LITA FORD t-shirt!
I loved that one back when I found it, because it was so difficult to get hold of certain things back then, before the internet made everything so available… Lita Ford-stuff wasn’t easy to find in Sweden, and this one cost me a fortune to import. So I wore it all the time.
I was a huge fan. Lita was extremely inspiring to a young teenage female rocker. Some people thought I was “wired the wrong way” because I was walking around with a t-shirt that had a half-naked woman on it, not to mention all the posters on my wall in my teenage-room. Lita was never known for wearing a lot of clothes….!
THIS is what Lita looked like in 1983-84 when I first heard of her…. As vulgar as it gets, perfect for a rebelling teenage girl who needed a role model! :)
But I think that maybe even that was a part of my fascination for Lita – she was totally fearless. I remember in one interview she said that if she hadn’t made it in the music business, she would have become a professional callgirl.
I couldn’t believe someone would make that statement, it was so “politically incorrect”. And for me, coming from a pretty strict family, that was unheard of, so it was so damn cool that she was so open and natural, very in-your-face with her sexuality.
What I liked about it was that she was such a badass. Many female artists use sex to get more attention (as well as male artists) but most of them end up looking like bimbos and brainless idiots. Lita was never a weak bimbo. She was cool and confident. and did whatever the hell she felt like doing, and that was inspiring.
I collected everything there was with Lita. Had every expensive hard-to-get picture vinyl single and imported LP I could get my hands on. I’ve followed her career most of my life actually. Always thought she kicked ass.
Maybe I didn’t like the “Black” album that much and I didn’t know what to think about the comeback-CD “Wicked Wonderland“. It was pretty obvious that it had more to do with her husband than with Lita, but at the time I was so happy that she was back after her long isolation on a desert Caribbean island, that I probably loved it just because she had made a new album after all those years of silence.
But honestly, I haven’t listened to it after I reviewed it. However, I did read and watched all the interviews on the web.
When she played Sweden Rock Festival, I was sitting there in Jon Oliva’s dressing room, which was just across from Lita’s, and couldn’t BELIEVE she was there! Kevin, my friend from Oliva’s band, walked in and started laughing:
– Do you realize that you look like a 13-year old fan right now?!
When she played, he got me up on stage to see her, cause I didn’t have the right credentials to be on Lita’s stage, but when escorted by someone who did, it was OK.
So I stood there just going “wow“. Her show, honestly, was a major disappointment and disaster. Probably one of the worst I’ve seen on Sweden Rock. It was embarrassing at times. Later on I was told that her guitarist never made it over to Europe, so everything sounded weird when it had been rehearsed with 2 guitars. I don’t remember if she ever mentioned that when she got on stage, but she should have.
This is from the stage – we stood there drinking wine, listening to Lita, couldn’t have been better! :)
That year, I got to do an interview with Lita and I was so nervous I could DIE…! She was the LAST of my heroes that I hadn’t met or talked to. So it was a huge deal to finally get her on the phone after all those years, I was freaking out…! But she was so cool about the whole thing, she was laughing, talking like an old friend and just made me relax.
I loved her attitude and her way of thinking. Maybe that’s why I’ve always felt it was easy to relate to her. She does what she wants, she lives the way she think is right, regardless what anyone else thinks. I’m the same. Maybe I’m not as extreme as she is, but somewhere deep inside I kind of wish that I was.
Looking forward to her next album that will FINALLY be all LITA again…!
Two clips from my interview w. Lita back in 2009:
1: Lita talking about abandoning her career to go live on a desert island
2: Lita talking about how she feels about her sons seeing and hearing things she’s done in the past.
Happy Metal Day!
I so wish I had VH1 today…! http://www.bravewords.com/news/165406
I like the idea of a Metal Day – although to me, every single day, is a celebration of my love for rock music, one way or another. :)
I was just talking to a friend the other day about why heavy metal in particular has the most loyal fans in the world. The music industry is a pretty insecure place to be (many one-hit-wonders, or no-hit-wonders out there. Here today, gone tomorrow) but metal always stands strong.It’s always been that way. Well, except for the Great Metal Depression in the mid 90’s where many rockers went through an identity crisis. Hair spray and spandex was not in anymore, party metal was uncool, lyrics were about being depressed and killing yourself (Nirvana: “I hate myself and want to die“…. that sort of thing). Yet, even the grunge-crap sold a lot of records.
Bands like AC/DC, Kiss and Motley Crue have been filling arenas for the past 30+ years, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop anytime soon. Maybe one day when they get too old and retire. But as we all know – metal keeps you young. A metahead can be butt ugly but still look the same when he’s 60 as he did when he was 20. Angus Young was ugly in the 70’s and he’s still ugly, but at least he doesn’t look like he’s really AGED.
So why does metal have the most loyal fans? Maybe because it’s one of the few things that is consistent. You know what you’re gonna get. It’s always like coming home. There’s actually a feeling of comfort, peace and security knowing that the next Kiss or Aerosmith-album is going to sound pretty much like you expect it to. Not too much over the top experimenting there.
But it’s not just that. It’s not just MUSIC. It’s a whole lifestyle, it’s an attitude. A true rocker will always be a rocker. Once it gets under your skin, in your blood – you’re in it for life. It’s a love that lasts forever.
I’ve spent my whole life celebrating rock’n’roll, loving everything about it, living it to its fullest.
I’ve even already “designed” my tombstone in my head, the love for music will go with me to the grave. It will be a guitar.
Everything has come and gone, people, places, schools, jobs, situations, politicians, trends, fashion…. everything has changed through the years, and I’m Gemini – we get bored pretty easily. The ONLY thing that has never bored me, is music – give me my metal and I’m happy. :-)
I remember the day when I first discovered heavy metal. It was like a religious experience, on the same level as people remember their first love, first kiss, first time they had sex, first whatever. Whatever rocks your boat.
For me, it was Judas Priest – Unleashed In The East.
I’ll never forget that day. I bought the LP at Record Heaven after having checked it out for weeks. I was curious because my best friend Camilla had played British Steel one day when I was over at her house. Her mom worked at Åhlens music-department, so she borrowed LP’s all the time and recorded them on cassette. Criminals back in the 80’s, hah! :)
Record Heaven had all Judas Priest LP’s and I chose Unleashed In The East because of the cover. I thought they all looked so cool, so I wanted that.
For a 13-year old innocent teenage girl who had only listened to the Beatles and Elvis up until then, it was very exciting, cause it felt rebellious to get an album like THAT.
Back in those days girls didn’t listen to heavy metal. That was 100% for guys. Not only that, parents were sure NOT to like it. In other words – all the right reasons to get the record!
It was a summer day, really hot, cause I remember coming home after school, going straight to the balcony to vent the living-room (where the stereo was). My dad was a tech-junkie back then, and had the best Tandberg-stereo from back then. The wooden speakers could blow the roof off anything!
Nobody was home, so I took out the brand new, shiny vinyl and turned up the bass-knob to the max. The pickup slowly touched the vinyl and there it was……. the first teasing sounds of Exciter.
I turned it up LOUD. It was just somehow natural to do that, I did it instinctively. When the distorted guitars filled the room – then slowed down – and then started again, this time followed by a voice that was like nothing I had ever heard before. Fucking hell….Wow. My jaw just dropped.
There are no words that could describe that feeling. The power, the intensity, the agressive, pure energy, it just charged me like a battery. I sat there like I was about to get high.
Holy f**kin’ shit…! What IS this?! Why haven’t I listened to this before??
I fell in love right there and then.
It just shook my foundations completely, my life changed in those few minutes. Nothing was ever the same after that. I dedicated my life to metal by being a part of that world in every aspect. I knew everything about every band by the time I was 15.
My parents were sure it was just a “passing phase” and informed me that it would never put food on the table. Well, when it actually DID, they ran out of arguments. Same thing about that “phase” thing. I never “got out” of the metal-phase and never understood why I should.
Nothing makes me as happy as music and this life that I love so much is all thanks to that. My best friends, my career, my travels – none of that would have happened if I hadn’t bought that Unleashed In The East back in 1982 or whatever it was….
I might have gotten a little bit jaded but in general I’m still as enthusiastic as I ever was. Whitesnake is coming to Sweden and Denmark next week. I’m crazy happy about that already! And I’ve seen them a million times. Some things just never get boring. :-)
So…..HAPPY NATIONAL METAL DAY! Hope you’ll all celebrate the rock’n’roll that brought us all together. :)
My #1 role-model from the early days – the one and only Lita Ford (a VERY early solo-performance). I couldn’t have said it better!
SWEDEN ROCK FESTIVAL – MEMORIES #2
Like I said in the last Sweden Rock Memories-post, there is a LOT more where that came from.
I found a whole bunch of photos and videos that I thought I’d share with you.
This one, for instance, is a classic…! It’s from Sweden Rock Festival 2006.
Venom had just finished their set and they had actually left the stage maybe 10-15 minutes before this was filmed. THIS Venom-fan apparently never even noticed that. He was TOTALLY into his headbanging, whether or not it was accompanied by the soothing sounds of…Venom:
Or this – Skid Row were doing a spontaneous photo-shoot outside the press-tent. They were actually posing for the photographer when I walked by and Scotti just walked out of the group-shot cause he was so happy to see me…! :-)
These guys are really like old friends, we “grew up together”. I met them for the first time in 1989, we were all in our early 20’s and our careers had just begun. I love them, the most wonderful guys one could imagine:
Rachel Bolan on stage before the show:
So what else have we got here…. On stage during Lita Ford’s set. Jon Oliva’s Pain played that year, I think it was 2009, and their dressing rooms were right next to Lita’s.
Since JOP’s bassplayer Kevin is a good friend, he knows that I am a HUGE Lita-fan (well, check out the URL for this blog “lita77777” – guess where the “lita” part comes from ;-)). So, he just grabbed me by the hand and pretty much dragged me up on stage during her show. There I was, as close as I’ll ever be during a Lita Ford-concert. :) Thank you Kevin, one of those things that will definitely stay in my memory for a long time! :)
Kevin behind the stage, about to go up there and rock people’s asses off:
Jon Oliva’s tour manager Anett on the stage during early sound check:
And why not a few clips from some of the press conferences…. there is just so much more, I need to find all that stuff – press conferences with Ronnie Dio, Sebastian Bach, Heart…. Every band that’s ever had a press conference at Sweden Rock Festival… Well, pretty much. It’s all here somewhere.
Judas Priest-short clip from 2008:
Blackie Lawless (W.A.S.P):
And just some random photos of artists, fans, stage area, backstage area and just other…stuff!
Guest pass (for Alice Cooper), typical Sweden Rock fans, Spike (Quireboys), Suzi Quatro, backstage-bar, stage (Heaven and Hell), Meatloaf, Nightwish, Wilson-sisters of Heart, Judas Priest, Dio, Sebastian Bach, Rudy Sarzo…
And a few snapshots from the camping-, food-, and merch areas taken by my friend Beatrice in 2005 (I think, might have been 2004):
IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR 