Lita Ford has a song on her new album written to her kids – but her former bandmate husband won’t let them hear it.
Living Like a Runaway is her first record since splitting with Jim Gillette, a prominent force in her comeback release Wicked Wonderland.
She later said that album was too much about Gillette and not enough about her – and now they’ve split up, her latest work is closer to the music she wants to create.
But one track, called Mother, is a personal message to her two sons with Gillette – and Ford is worried they’ll never be allowed to hear it.
She tells Decibel: “My kids are with their dad. He brainwashed them and took them from me, telling them, ‘Oh, you don’t want to go with Mommy. Mommy’s bad.’ He put the entire weight of the divorce on my kids, which is the worst thing any parent could do to their child.
“It’s like losing your child to some sort of freak, like in the mall, or somebody hanging out in bushes or at a bus stop. You hear all these horror stories. Only, I know where they are – that’s the only difference.”
Talking about the track she wrote for her children, Ford says: “He won’t let them hear it. He won’t let them have anything to do with me. He won’t let them look at any photographs. It’s the worst thing that’s ever happened in my life.
“I wrote this song to tell them how much I love them, that I didn’t mean for this to happen and it’s not my fault. I didn’t do this to them – although they think I did.”
Ford says her older son James has a knack for guitar. She explains: “We did this tour in 2008. They didn’t go to school – I was their teacher. When we came back from these shows I was in the other room and I heard my guitar solos coming out. Firs thing I thought was, ‘They’re listening to a tape or a performance on YouTube.’ But it was James – he was playing my solos. I couldn’t believe it.
“I bought him a gold-top Gibson Les Paul for his tenth birthday. My ex-husband was saying, ‘He doesn’t want that. You’re buying that for yourself.’ And I said, ‘No, I’m buying it because he’s going to play it.’ Sure enough, he picked it up and he was playing the solo to Close My Eyes For Ever. It blew me away.”
Reflecting on her situation, Ford says the biggest lesson she’s learned is: “If you ever get angry at your spouse, don’t take it out on your kids. Keep them out of it. They don’t need to know. Just let them be a kid.”
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