Lita Ford's Real Name: Lita Rossana Ford

Quick answer: Lita Ford's real name is Lita Rossana Ford (some older print sources use Rossanna or similar variants). She was born on September 19, 1958, in London, England, raised in California, and performs under her own name as a hard-rock guitarist and singer.

[IMAGE: credited concert photo of Lita Ford playing guitar, with photographer credit]

Real name and The Runaways

Music encyclopedias identify her as Lita Rossana Ford, born in London and raised in Long Beach, California after emigrating as a child (Oxford Reference / Encyclopedia of Popular Music; AllMusic). She is not hiding behind an invented surname—"Lita" is her given name. Where secondary sources disagree on middle-name spelling, this page flags the variant and sticks to the most common Rossana form.

Ford started guitar around age 11. As a teenager she joined The Runaways, the all-female hard-rock band assembled with producer Kim Fowley, playing lead guitar with Joan Jett and bandmates through the late 1970s until the group split (AllMusic; Encyclopedia.com). The Runaways years made her one of the most visible young women guitarists in American hard rock.

Solo hits and later career

Solo albums Out for Blood (1983) and Dancin' on the Edge (1984) showcased her as a frontwoman. After a label change, 1988's Lita—associated with Sharon Osbourne's management and Mike Chapman's production—delivered "Kiss Me Deadly" and the Ozzy Osbourne duet "Close My Eyes Forever," a U.S. Top 10 Hot 100 hit (AllMusic). She continued releasing albums and touring into the 2000s and 2010s, remaining a festival and package-tour draw for glam and classic-metal audiences.

[IMAGE: credited Runaways-era or late-1980s Lita press still, with credit]

Amazon note (tag realname1-20): the album Lita, Runaways catalogs, and greatest-hits compilations are natural slots; skip adult pages.