GUITARIST VIVIAN CAMPBELL DISCUSSES THE FIVE ALBUMS THAT CHANGED HIS LIFE

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Guitarist Vivian Campbell shares the five albums that changed his life with Joe Bosso of Classic Rock, see his list below.

* Rory Gallagher – Live in Europe (1972):

“This is the first record I ever owned and dropped a needle on. I just loved it, and I spent hours trying to learn the guitar parts on it. Rory has been a huge influence on me. He’s one of the best guitarists I’ve ever heard.

This is a live album, and by that I mean it’s all live. It’s not one of those records where they went back and re-recorded parts. Rory’s studio albums were a mixed bag, but on stage he was in his element. I got to see him play live, and I can tell you that what he did in concert is just what you get on this record.

Rory was a complete blues player. He had so much energy, and he never played the same thing twice. One of the first songs of his I learned was Messin with the Kid, and when I saw him live I was struck by how it wasn’t anything like the studio version. But that was typical of Rory – he plugged in and played. There was no pretense about him.”

* Thin Lizzy – Live and Dangerous (1978):

“I came to learn in later years that this album isn’t quite as ‘live’ as Rory Gallagher’s Live in Europe, but most of it’s live. I saw Thin Lizzy many times – Sweet Savage opened about 30 or 40 shows for them – so I can say for a fact that this record is a very good representation of them on stage.

Aside from the tremendous guitar parts of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson, what I got from this album was the incredible charisma of Phil Lynott. It’s all there on this record. He simply oozed that aura of being a rock star. You get that in the tracks, but also in the repartee between the songs. You feel like you’re watching him. He was a total original.”

* Deep Purple – Come Taste the Band (1975)

“I know this album bucks the trend, because in many people’s eyes it’s not the ‘real’ Deep Purple. This is when David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes and Tommy Bolin were in the band. But, there’s a part of me that really likes funk music and syncopated rhythms, so I loved this record a lot.

I borrowed it from my friend Raymie. I was familiar with the other Deep Purple records – Fireball and In Rock – but when Raymie dropped the needle on this album, I went, ‘Wow! Can I borrow this?’ I played the s–t of it for a couple of months and really developed an appreciation for Tommy Bolin. He was more of an American-style guitarist, and I thought he was terrific.

Sweet Savage did a mixture of covers and originals, and we played Love Child from Come Taste the Band. We tried to do Gettin’ Tighter, but we weren’t funky enough. We were too white to play it convincingly.”

* Horslips – The Táin (1973)

“A lot of people have never heard of this band. They were out of Dublin, and they basically grew out of being a traditional Irish folk band. They fused that style with progressive, guitar-driven rock. It was a very unique sound and musical setup – they were fascinating. Because they were Irish, I got to see them live a bunch of times.

The Táin represents the pinnacle of the band’s career. There’s a song on it called Dearg Doom that has a great guitar riff. Being a young kid, I was fascinated by anything that had a good guitar tone. The guitar player in the band was a guy named Johnny Fean, and he played a gold Les Paul. I was so seduced by everything he did. This was a big record for me.”

* Kate Bush – The Kick Inside (1978)

“I was in school when this record came out, and I was immediately fascinated by it. There wasn’t a guitar on it that I could hear, but that didn’t matter. Kate’s voice pulled me right in. It was all about her. As an artist, she was, and still is, so creative.

She’s always been so daring. Very few artists follow their own muse the way Kate has. She’s never capitulated to whatever current style is popular; she’s always done everything her own way. I respect her so much for that. A one-of-a-kind artist.

The first song I heard from The Kick Inside was Wuthering Heights, and that made me go right out and buy the record. It was a different album for me – I’d never gone that far away from guitar music, but I just loved Kate’s voice, so I was in.”

Read more at Classic Rock.

source: classicrock.teamrock.com

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STEVE VAI, ZAKK WYLDE, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, NUNO BETTENCOURT AND TOSIN ABASI COME TOGETHER FOR “GENERATION AXE – A NIGHT OF GUITARS.” TOUR BEGINS APRIL 5TH, TICKETS ON SALE FEBRUARY 19TH

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The term “supergroup” gets thrown around on a regular basis these days, however, a new tour featuring some of the greatest guitarists of all time is about to truly give the term a whole new meaning. Introducing: Generation Axe, featuring Steve Vai, Zakk Wylde, Yngwie Malmsteen, Nuno Bettencourt, and Tosin Abasi.

Beginning on April 5th in Seattle, Generation Axe – A Night Of Guitars is hitting the road for 26 performances in North America. Tickets for all shows go on sale Friday, February 19th.

“The Generation Axe show is a unique performance of five fiercely talented guitar players coming together to create a 6-string extravaganza that is sure to amaze and delight,” commented Steve Vai.

The Generation Axe fan experience will go way beyond simply gathering five guitar greats on one stage to jam. Each tour stop will include a variety of collaborations by the five players, including everyone performing together as one cohesive band with a rhythm section including Pete Griffin (Dweezil Zappa, Stanley Clarke, Edgar Winter) on bass and Nick Marinovich (Yngwie Malmsteen) on keys. Vai, Wylde, Malmsteen, Bettencourt and Abasi will perform songs from their various catalogs and join forces on some well-known songs (as well as probably a few unexpected, unearthed gems).

Making this rare tour experience even more special, Generation Axe VIP packages will be offered, giving fans access to these guitars masters and exclusive one-of-a-kind memorabilia. A front row package (including a meet & greet), a meet & greet package, and a VIP tour package will be available. For more information, visit generationaxe.com.

Generation Axe tour dates:

April 5 Seattle, WA – Paramount Theatre
April 6 Vancouver, BC – Queen Elizabeth Theatre
April 8 Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
April 9 Las Vegas, NV – The Joint
April 10, San Diego, CA – Humphrey’s
April 11 Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern
April 13 Denver, CO – Paramount Theatre
April 15 Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theatre
April 16 Salina, KS – The Stiefel Theatre
April 17 Dallas, TX – Bomb Factory
April 18 Houston, TX – Revention Music Center
April 20 Jacksonville, FL – Florida Theatre
April 21 Orlando, FL – Hard Rock Live
April 23 Wilmington, NC – Cape Fear Community College
April 24 Washington, DC – Warner Theatre
April 25 Cincinnati, OH – Taft Theatre
April 26 Indianapolis, IN – Murat Theatre
April 27 Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
April 29 Chicago, IL – Copernicus Center

May 1 Madison, WI – Orpheum Theatre
May 2 Royal Oak, MI – Royal Oak Music Theatre
May 4 Toronto, ON – Massey Hall
May 5 Upper Darby, PA – Tower Theater
May 6 Westbury, NY – Theatre at Westbury
May 7 Hampton Beach, NH – Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
May 8 Providence, RI – Providence Performing Arts Center

About the Generation Axe Members:

While many artists fit easily into a single category, Steve Vai remains unclassifiable. Vai is a virtuoso guitarist, visionary composer, and consummate audio producer who sculpts musical sound with infinite creativity and technical mastery. He is one of the most in-demand, versatile, eloquent and soulful guitarists in the business. The GRAMMY Award-winner has sold over 15 million albums and toured the world as a solo artist, a member of G3, and with Frank Zappa, Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth, and Whitesnake. Vai launched his successful solo career with the release of Flex-Able in 1984 and has written, produced, and engineered all of his solo albums. He has appeared as a guest artist on more than 40 albums and created music for blockbuster films, best-selling video games, national sports franchises, and corporate brand initiatives. Vai has earned honorary doctorates from Berklee College of Music and Musicians Institute. For more info, visit vai.com.

Grammy Award-winner Zakk Wylde’s legendary career includes a lengthy tenure with Ozzy Osbourne in which Wylde co-wrote and recorded several albums, including the multi-platinum No More Tears, Osbourne’s largest selling solo album featuring the classic hit single, Mama, I’m Coming Home and the bulk of the double platinum 2002 set, Ozzmosis. With Osbourne, Wylde has played on countless world tours and television appearances, with his signature bullseye Les Paul in tow. Wylde has his mitts imprinted on Hollywood’s Rock Walk of Fame; guest-starred alongside Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston in the movie Rockstar; and even momentarily joined Axl, Slash and Duff in Guns N’ Roses. But nothing offers the pure expression of Zakk Wylde’s animalistic “id” like Black Label Society, the stomping, heavy, bluesy, recklessly unhinged hard-rock-metal quartet who are quick to rip up a solo as to dip into a piano-fueled anthemic ballad. For more info, visit zakkwylde.com.

When Yngwie J. Malmsteen hit the scene in the early 80s, he turned the entire guitar world upside down; never before was guitar playing like his ever heard. Drawing inspiration from his love for Baroque and Romantic classical music, Malmsteen employs classical violin techniques such as four and five octave arpeggios, pedal notes, and harmonic minor, diminished and Phrygian scales, flawlessly delivered at mind-boggling levels of speed and clarity. In doing so, he has singlehandedly created a brand new style of guitar playing and composing that is still derived from today. In addition to having written and produced 35+ neoclassical rock albums, Malmsteen composed and orchestrated the Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra, which he recorded with the prestigious Czech Philharmonic in Prague, conducted by Yoel Levy of Atlanta Symphony fame. Malmsteen subsequently performed the piece live with the the New Japan Philharmonic and the Taipei Symphony, among others. Malmsteen has received numerous Grammy nominations, hundreds of magazine covers, dozens of Reader’s Poll and Composer of the Year Awards, a plaque on the Rock Walk of Fame, signature model guitars, amps, pickups, strings, picks, pedals, microphones, and more. TIME Magazine placed him as one of the top ten guitarists of all time. Some 35 years and 25 million+ album sales later, Yngwie shows no signs of slowing down, with his brand new record World on Fire due for release in April 2016. For more info, visit yngwiemalmsteen.com.

Guitar virtuoso, singer-songwriter, and record producer, Nuno Bettencourt rose to international prominence as a guitar player with the Grammy-nominated, Boston-area band Extreme, one of the most successful rock acts of the early to mid 1990s selling over 10 million records worldwide. Musically, Extreme is dominated by Bettencourt’s blistering guitar riffs, often with funky, syncopated timing, and incendiary, high-speed rock/metal solos. Bettencourt penned the acoustic ballad More Than Words that went to number one on the Billboard charts and Hole Hearted that reached number four. He has released multiple solo albums as well as with bands he founded including Mourning Widows Population 1, Dramagods and Satellite Party. Bettencourt has written, produced and performed with many legendary artists including Rihanna, Steven Tyler, Paul McCartney, Janet Jackson and many others. For more info, visit facebook.com/nunorocks.

Oluwatosin Ayoyinka Olumide Abasi, better known as Tosin Abasi, is a Nigerian American guitarist known as the guitar player and founder of the instrumental progressive metal band, Animals as Leaders. Abasi’s compositions of intricate music have garnered critical acclaim in a few short years. Abasi is part of the breed of new contemporary players who are raising the bar on the concept of electric guitar virtuosity. His approach to the guitar stems from a passion for advanced techniques and harmony. Using 7, 8, and 9-string guitars have allowed Abasi to create a highly unique and individual sound. For more info, visit facebook.com/animalsasleaders.

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JUDAS PRIEST’S “BATTLE CRY” LIVE CD/DVD/BLU-RAY TO BE RELEASED ON MARCH 25TH

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Judas Priest’s tour in support of their 17th studio album overall, Redeemer of Souls, was one of the most extensive of the group’s entire career – consisting of 130 shows in 33 countries, and offering a setlist that touched upon selections from nearly all of their classic albums. And now, fans can relive the live Priest experience once more, with the release of the new CD/DVD/Blu-ray, Battle Cry, on March 25th, 2016, through Epic Records.

Recorded live on August 1st, 2015 at Germany’s Wacken Festival in front of an audience of 85,000, Battle Cry is available on a 15-track CD, with the entire show on Blu-ray and DVD (running over 94 minutes), as well as digital audio and video formats. The DVD and Blu-ray also contains 3 bonus tracks shot in Poland on December 10th, 2015 at The Ergo Arena, Gdansk, Poland.

What makes the show’s track listing so appealing is it balances new classics (Dragonaut, Halls of Valhalla, Redeemer of Souls) along with headbanging classics (Metal Gods, Electric Eye, You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’), as well as key album tracks from yesteryear (Devil’s Child, Beyond the Realms of Death, Jawbreaker).

Check out Judas Priest’s Battle Cry teaser below.

Battle Cry CD sequence:

1. (Intro) Battle Cry
2. Dragonaut
3. Metal Gods
4. Devil’s Child
5. Victim of Changes
6. Halls of Valhalla
7. Redeemer of Souls
8. Beyond the Realms of Death
9. Jawbreaker
10. Breaking the Law
11. Hell Bent For Leather
12. The Hellion
13. Electric Eye
14. You’ve Got Another Thing Coming
15. Painkiller

Battle Cry DVD/Blu-ray sequence:

1. (Intro) Battle Cry
2. Dragonaut
3. Metal Gods
4. Devil’s Child
5. Victim of Changes
6. Halls of Valhalla
7. Turbo Lover
8. Redeemer of Souls
9. Beyond the Realms of Death
10. Jawbreaker
11. Breaking the Law
12. Hell Bent For Leather
13. The Hellion
14. Electric Eye
15. You’ve Got Another Thing Coming
16. Painkiller
17. Living After Midnight

Recorded live on August 1st, 2015 at Wacken Festival, Germany.

Bonus Songs:

18. Screaming for Vengeance
19. The Rage
20. Desert Plains

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FORMER WIFE OF KISS DRUMMER, PETER CRISS, SAYS HIS BOOK IS “NOT ACCURATE”

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Greg Prato of Songfacts spoke with original KISS drummer Peter Criss’ ex wife Lydia. Excerpts from interview appear below.

Songfacts: Was Beth about you or the wife of Peter’s bandmate from a pre-KISS band?

Lydia Criss: Originally, the song wasn’t a sweet song like it is now – it was a mean song. It was written about Peter’s guitar player’s wife [when Peter was in a band called Chelsea]. His name was Michael Brand, and her name was Rebecca – and everyone called her “Beck.” You know, Becky. So when the song was written, it was written like, “Beck I hear you calling, but I ain’t coming home right now. Me and the boys are playing.” It’s like, “It’s too bad for you” – that type of song.

I’ll never forget, Peter was so excited when he first wrote the song. We were waiting for him – we were having dinner in a restaurant – and he showed up late. He said, “I couldn’t leave. We were finishing the song, and it came out so great!” He used to tape everything on a little cassette deck that he used to carry with him, so he played us the song in the restaurant. It was on an acoustic guitar and it wasn’t that nice of a song. So it’s like, “Fine. Whatever. We’re hungry, let’s eat.”

He was in Chelsea in 1970 to 1971, then he was in Lips – it was written with one of the guys from Lips, which is Stan Penridge. Then he presented it to KISS, because he wanted to get a song on an album, because basically, all the songs were written by Gene and Paul. So he presented it to them, and they didn’t like it. They said, “We’re not putting a ballad on. We’re not that type of a band.” And [KISS manager] Bill Aucoin insisted that they do it.

So, Gene was a little perplexed. He says, “Well, we can’t call it ‘Beck,’ because of Jeff Beck.” Gene will never give me credit for this, because I know he takes credit for it, but it was me that named the song “Beth,” because it was funny that Becky was a twin, and [head of Casablanca Records] Neil Bogart was married to a Beth, and she was a twin. It just kind of related. It got in my head, and I remember sitting in a limo one day… I don’t think Ace was around and I’m not sure about Paul, but I know Gene and Peter were in the limo, and I was there. And I said, “How about ‘Beth’?” They didn’t say anything…

Songfacts: How would you describe the personalities of the original KISS members?

Lydia: They’re all really nice guys. I know a lot of people say certain ones are a–holes and this and that, but Gene is – as you know – intelligent. He’s very business-oriented. When I would have a conversation with Gene, that’s primarily what it would be about: finances. Paul was a type of guy that was always trying to make people laugh. We’d always talk about blouses and clothing, and the different things that are in style. And then we would also talk about diets and stuff like that. That was how I related to Paul.

But Paul was actually the closest to Peter, because they shared a room – when they had to share rooms at the beginning. And we didn’t live too far from each other. We lived on 30th Street, he lived on 52nd. So it was only about 20 blocks, which is a mile. We went on vacation together and we used to go to clubs together.

As far as Ace goes, Ace is just a happy-go-lucky guy. He was probably my favorite of the band.

Peter is a very sentimental, sweet guy, but yet, if you say something wrong, he’ll snap. I think he even says he’s schizophrenic.

Songfacts: Did you get a chance to read Peter’s book [2012’s Makeup to Breakup: My Life in and Out of KISS]?

Lydia: I did read Peter’s book. I read it – believe it or not – with a highlighter. [Laughs] So everything that was wrong, I highlighted. And let me tell you, there is a lot of highlighted parts. He’s not accurate. He’s also an exaggerator. There were some things that I was a little bit surprised to hear, but kind of felt it always in the back of my mind. I didn’t know a certain part of his life: When he was going through rehab and stuff like that, I wasn’t with him. I heard about it vaguely through my mother, who had a friend that knew someone that was in the rehab place with him. I’d hear drips and drabs of things that were happening, but didn’t really keep in touch with him.

Peter put in the beginning of the book – which kind of saves his ass – “The names have been changed to protect the innocent.” He talks about something that happened with Bill Aucoin, but yet, he says it was Sean Delany – or vice-versa. The thing is, the people he really says bad things about aren’t around anymore, so they can’t defend themselves and they can’t sue him – like Sean Delany and Bill Aucoin.

Songfacts: I really believe that your Sealed with a KISS book is one of the best books on KISS out there, and I have a feeling it is one of more accurate books, as well.

Lydia: It is the most honest and it’s the most accurate. I wrote down a lot of things. I had a little bit that was a diary when we went to Europe, but then I had a composition notebook, which there is a picture of in my book, where I kept all of the records of Peter’s shows before he was in KISS. And some of the stuff that is on the list is also KISS before Bill Aucoin. So it’s some of the Daisy and the Diplomat and the Coventry – those shows.

It’s accurate with how long they played, what they played – I actually have what their salaries were, but I didn’t put that in the book, because it was a joke. [Laughs] They were lucky if they got paid that night, after they would pay some of their little help. They had a couple of road guys: Peter’s brother, Bobby McAdams, and Eddie Sloan. If they got $35, that was a lot. I kept records of everything, because my background was bookkeeping. I never planned on doing the book, but for some reason, it helped.

Songfacts: And there is a newer revised version of the book, right?

Lydia: The thing is, by the time I was finishing my book, I was practically on the verge of a nervous breakdown. It took me a whole year, without seeing any of my relatives. I would stay up until 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning, the sun would come up, I would go to sleep, get up at 2:00, and start all over again. I got to the point where I was going to put the list of all of Peter’s shows and some extra photos, and I just said, “I’m going to leave it out. I’m not going to put it in the book.” It already had 368 pages.

I wanted to get the book out for Christmas, so you have to get it out in the summer – before the fall. So I successfully got it out – I think it was the beginning of September – and then when I finally sold out of the book, I was a little calmer by then, and I said, “Let me put what I didn’t put in the first book in the second printing.” So that’s what I did.

Read more at Songfacts.

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source: songfacts.com

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THE SCORPIONS TO RELEASE A TOUR EDITION OF “RETURN TO FOREVER” IN APRIL

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The Scorpions will release a tour edition of 2015’s, Return To Forever, on April 22nd, in North America.

The expanded version features seven bonus songs along side the original record, plus two brand new live DVD’s presenting two complete concerts from last year. One from the French Hellfest, and the other from the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn.

The April release coincides with The Scorpions Las Vegas residency this Spring.

Blacked Out In Vegas is a five night run at The Joint at the Hard Rock Casino in May, with special guest, Queensryche.

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source: hennemusic.com

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LITA FORD DISHES ON TONY IOMMI, JON BON JOVI, RICHIE SAMBORA, AND OTHERS, IN HER BOOK, “LIVING LIKE A RUNAWAY”

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Larry Getlen of the New York Post has written a feature article about guitarist Lita Ford’s new memoir, Living Like a Runaway. Excerpts from the article appear below.

No one lived larger than sexy heavy-metal guitarist and singer Lita Ford.

When Ford recorded her 1984 album, Dancin’ on the Edge, in New York, Jon Bon Jovi and guitarist Richie Sambora were ­recording nearby, and would ­often hang out.

After a night out at the club Traxx — with Ford’s best friend Toni and keyboardist Aldo Nova also in tow — Ford brought the crew back to her room at the Broadway Plaza Hotel.

Ford and Bon Jovi were making out in one bed and Sambora and Toni on another, as Nova “watched, sipping his red wine, as we tried to fit him in, too.”

All the wine got to Bon Jovi, who “began puking in the corner, right on the bedroom carpet.”

At that point, Toni felt generous. “Toni hopped off Richie,” Ford writes, “as if to say, ‘Here, Lita. Try mine.’ So I got in bed with Richie.”

The room then turned into a scene from “Caligula.”

“Holy s–t,” Ford writes in her new memoir, Living Like a Runaway (Dey Street). “Richie Sambora is the king of swing, I must say. Jon recovered from puking and Aldo finally made his way into the action, and it turned into girl-on-guy fun at the Broadway Plaza Hotel.”

Lita Ford was a rarity then, and now — a female solo artist in hard rock, a style of music that enthralled her early on…Ford, who began playing guitar at ten and writes that she mastered Led Zeppelin’s licks by age thirteen.

…Throughout the book, Ford details a series of mentors and lovers — often the same person — that reads like a who’s who of rock royalty.

She got crabs from Dee Dee Ramone and freaked out Who bassist John Entwistle when, after removing her pants, she had black and blue marks along her legs. While “John was looking at me like I was into sadomaso­chism or something,” the bruises had come from horseback riding, and ultimately gave Entwistle no pause about spending the night.

Her friends with benefits ­included Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore and Judas Priest guitarist Glenn Tipton, both of whom she describes as perfect gentlemen, and Edward — not Eddie — Van Halen, as she says he actually disliked his commonly used nickname.

Ford shares the time in 1980 that she and Van Halen were drinking vodka and trying on each other’s clothes in her living room. Ford had a T-shirt that read, in part, “Beat me. Bite me. Whip me. F–k me,” among other such sentiments. They were fooling around on the floor when she felt someone kicking her ankle, and found Mark, a large man she had recently broken up with, staring down at them. He had “climbed up the balconies and came through the sliding-glass door.”

Van Halen, drunk, freaked out. He “backed his way toward the bathroom and said, ‘Well, if you’re going to kill me, just bury me with my guitar.’ Then he slammed shut the bathroom door and locked it.”

Ford got Mark to leave, but when she checked the bathroom, Van Halen was gone, despite the only exit being one “tiny, tiny window” over the shower.

He had, in fact, “managed to squeeze his body through that window, scraping up his entire stomach, [and] dropped down four stories.”

At the height of his fame, he had to borrow a dime from a kid on the street — while wearing Ford’s T-shirt — to call 911.

Years later, Ford…got to open for Black Sabbath, and spent time after with her idol, [guitarist] Tony Iommi. “He seemed so charming, confident and handsome,” she writes. “I would later find out that looks are deceiving.”

They “fooled around a bit” that night, but “that’s as far as he was able to get because he was so high,” she writes, having noted the copious amounts of cocaine present.

“He was impotent from his constant drug use, and he was very embarrassed. I felt bad for him and didn’t really know what to do. Eventually, I got him off.”

They stayed in touch, the relationship progressed and she was thrilled when Iommi invited her to England to meet his “mum.”

The couple were on the plane, and as soon as it started moving, Iommi, “out of nowhere . . . hauled off and punched me in the eye.”

She was now stranded on a 10-hour flight with a man who had just mysteriously transitioned from lover to abuser, and spent the entire 10 hours in the flight attendants’ station. She planned to fly right back to LA when they landed, but Iommi acted like nothing had happened, and she decided to stay, she writes, “like a moron.”

Iommi’s mother saw her black eye, and Ford learned that abuse ran in the family, as the guitarist’s father used to do the same.

She and Iommi were eventually engaged, and he would go on to physically abuse her four or five times during their relationship. The worst came shortly after he gave her the ring.

“After snorting tons of blow, he got angry and choked me unconscious,” she writes. “When I woke up, I saw him holding a chair above my head. It was a big, heavy leather chair with studs around the arms, and he was about to smash it over my face. I rolled over, and luckily I moved fast enough that he missed me and the chair smashed into the ground.”

She ran outside and thought of the safest place she could go. Eliminating her parents’ house, since her fathered would have “murdered” Iommi, she drove to the home of ex-boyfriend Nikki Sixx from ­Mötley Crüe.

Sixx told her, “I’ll be right back. I have something that will help make you feel better.” He drove, Ford writes, to the home of Ratt guitarist Robbin Crosby, and returned with heroin. While not her drug, Sixx told her it would take the pain away. She snorted some and fell asleep.

She broke with Iommi — who, in a final indignity, recruited her band to work with him instead behind her back — but he wouldn’t be the worst she would face.

About 50 pages before the book’s end, Ford includes an Author’s Note, stating that, “out of respect for my children, I have chosen not to write in detail about their father, my husband of almost 18 years.”

Ford was married to Jim Gillette — she refers to him in the book by his last name only — who previously sang for an impossibly screechy ’80s metal band called ­Nitro.

She strongly implies that many of the changes in her life — from a move to Turks & Caicos, which she hated, to her getting four tattoos that paid tribute to her husband, to the release of a 2009 comeback ­album, Wicked Wonderland, that was quickly regarded as her worst — were happening under coercion.

At one point, Ford flew to LA to meet with TLC about a possible ­reality show for the family. She claims in the book that upon her return, both her husband and her two young sons refused to speak to her. That was six years ago, and her sons have not spoken to her since. She’s now divorced.

…Lita Ford will appear Monday, Feb. 22, at Word Bookstore at St. Vitus Bar in Brooklyn, and Tuesday, Feb. 23, at Barnes & Noble in Tribeca, both at 7 p.m.

Read more at the New York Post.

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[Dana’s note: Thank you to Michael, for passing this along.]

source: nypost.com

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