Lita Ford

Lita Ford's trailblazing career began in 1976 as the lead guitarist of the groundbreaking all-girl punk rock band, The Runaways, whose hard rock/punk edge spawned cult classics like "Cherry Bomb", "Wasted" and "Queens of Noise." Additionally, the band contributed a great Slade cover to the annals of rock with their rendition of "Mama We're All Crazy Now". Their legacy was re-ignited in 2014 when "Cherry Bomb" was featured in Marvel/Disney's Guardians of the Galaxy. This earned a Grammy nomination, cementing the band's enduring influence on rock music. In addition to the Guardians movie, Lita's "Kiss Me Deadly" was part of the 2019 Captain Marvel movie soundtrack, which had Captain Marvel cast in a female role.

After The Runaways broke up in 1979, Lita had to reinvent herself. Lita influenced the shock rock world with her leather costuming (thank you Neil Merryweather) influencing bands like Motley Crue and WASP. Even her signature BC Rich guitars caught on with the aforementioned bands.

She launched her solo career in 1983 with Out for Blood, establishing herself as the premier female force in hard rock and heavy metal. Her follow-up album, Dancin' on the Edge (1984), earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance and produced her hit, "Gotta Let Go." By 1988, she had become a household name upon the release of her multi-platinum, self-titled album, LITA XX. This huge album was produced by Mike Chapman (The Sweet, Tina Turner, Pat Benatar and featured the chart-toppers "Kiss Me Deadly" and "Close My Eyes Forever" (a duet with the late Ozzy Osbourne), the latter spending 25 weeks on the Billboard Top 10; a first ever top 10 for Ozzy. Lita is also proud to have been the first female on the cover of Lonn Friend's RIP magazine - this was also to be the largest selling edition ever printed.

Lita went on to release Stiletto (1990), Dangerous Curves (1991), and Black (1995), producing more hits like "Hungry," "Playin' with Fire," and "Shot of Poison"-and earning further Grammy nominations. The year 2012 gave us Living Like a Runaway and in 2014, including the Guitar Player Lifetime Achievement Award and the Guitar Player Certified Legend Award, she was also inducted into the Guitar Player Hall of Fame. Finally, Lita Ford was honoured as the First Lady of Rock Guitar at the She Rocks Awards in 2017.

Lita has appeared in film, television, and video games, and her 2016 Harper Collins memoir, Living Like a Runaway became a national bestseller, earning her the "Outstanding Writer" award by the Producers Choice Honors. Her iconic and influential B.C. Rich Warlock guitar was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's permanent collection in 2021.

Now more active than ever, Lita Ford is extensively touring across the United States and Europe. In addition to her relentless tour schedule, Lita is set to release a highly anticipated new album in 2026 which promises to deliver the fierce energy and signature guitar work fans around the world have come to love. This new album boasts a wealth of writing and production talent including Gary Hoey, mixing Max Norman, and including a duet written, produced, and sung with Jean Beauvoir.

With a legacy that spans nearly five decades, Lita Ford continues to inspire generations of musicians-solidifying even more, her place as an icon, pioneer, and true Queen of Rock.

Steelheart

The aptly named SteelHeart is the rock n' roll band fronted by internationally known Croatian-American musician Miljenko Matijevic. Miljenko's powerful multioctave vocal range is and always has been the steel, heart and soul of what is SteelHeart. With much heart and steely determination, this band has been going strong and rocking hard for 30 years. SteelHeart shows no sign of riding into the sunset as they are once again on the horizon with a new album on the way.

The group's self-titled debut album 'SteelHeart' was released May 10, 1990, (later re-released with a new cover in 1991); brought the group almost immediate commercial success. The original line up included Miljenko Matijevic (vocals, guitar, piano), Chris Risola (guitar), Frank DiCostanzo (guitar), James Ward (bass), and John Fowler (drums). The guys found themselves hitting the big time as their first album reached #40 on the Billboard 200 chart in 1990, being certified Gold by the RIAA in 1991. The band's fanbase growing swiftly around the world. "SteelHeart" sold 33,000 albums on its first day in Japan alone. Power ballad "She's Gone," hit #1 on the international charts, staying there 17 weeks. The second single, another power ballad, "I'll Never Let You Go (Angel Eyes)" reached #14 on the Billboard charts. Another song, "Can't Stop Me Lovin' You" further showcased Matijevic's vocal range, but this time, Risola's lead guitar skills were also noticed SteelHeart's next effort album wise, "Tangled In Reins," released July 10,1992, had a more mixed eclectic song style. With heavy hitting, hard driving songs like "Loaded Mutha," "SteelHeart," "Electric Love Child," and fun loving "Sticky Side Up," to tear jerking ballads such as "Mama Don't You Cry," to name a few. The song "SteelHeart" featured Miljenko hitting the highest note of his song catalogue. The ballad "Mama Don't You Cry" chart- ed #1 in many Asian countries, prompting their live unplugged performance in Hong Kong. The album did not reap the same commercial success as SteelHeart's debut album, reaching only #144 on the Billboard charts, sig-naling the grunge sound invasion was starting to take force in the music business.

But, then, momentously, SteelHeart was asked by heavy metal band Slaugh- ter to perform a show with them on Oct. 31, 1992, Halloween night. Steel- Heart had just performed the 49th and final show of their tour, not ready to go home yet, decided to keep rocking. It turned out to be momentous in a way they didn't expect as tragedy struck. The last show of the tour, in Den- ver, Colorado, Steelheart took the stage one last time with the original line up, that fateful Halloween night. That night would forever be remembered by SteelHeart fans as one of the scariest ever. While performing "Dancing in the Fire," from their "Tangled in Reins" album, Matijevic decided to climb a lighting truss, which was improperly secured, forever changing the lives of Steelheart and their fans. Trying to dodge the massive rig without success, the thousand-pound truss hit the back of his head, hard, driving one of the greatest vocalists of all time face first into the stage: breaking his nose, cheekbone, jaw and twisting his spine. Talk about SteelHeart: Matijevic miraculously found the strength to walk off the stage and was immediately hospitalized. Of course, this was the end of the SteelHeart in one formation, but a new beginning to a total rise from the ashes. SteelHeart ended that night, at least for a while, after a very impressive career.

Four years later, in 1996, after much physical rehabilitation, Matijevic formed a new version of SteelHeart: Kenny Kanowski (guitars), Vincent Mele (bass) and Alex Makarovich (drums) - to record and release the album "Wait." This album was very different to the previous two. The single "Wait" went #1 in many Asian countries and the re-released song "Momma Don't You Cry" (Tangled In Reins) performed by Miljenko in an acoustic setting was the vessel for a 1997 Asian tour. This intensive unplugged tour saw SteelHeart performing 26 shows, spread out over 28 days, with 21 flights, to various countries across the Asian Continent. The song "We All Die Young" was later used in the 2001 Mark Wahlberg / Jennifer Aniston film, "Rock Star." Miljenko played a huge part in the "Rock Star" movie by lending his voice to Mark Wahlberg's character Chris Cole in a Steel Dragon cover band, and later, as his alter ego Chris "Iggy" Cole of Steel Dragon.

In 2007 SteelHeart released the 'STILL HARD' 2-disc DVD SET showcas- ing their live tours. The DVD welcomed rave reviews by fans around the world. Showcased on the DVD is their Japan Tour '90, Bootleg Concert Toad's Place '91, Hong Kong MNET show acoustic '92, Official Videos from 'SteelHeart' album, Extra's like Interviews, Photos, and TV Spots.

The story does not end there. Rock star to the end, Miljenko has been working non-stop on music since the accident. In 2008, he released "Good 2B Alive," which he wrote, produced and engineered with producer Kit Woolen. Miljenko joined Ray Manzerak and Robby Krieger in 2010 as the lead singer transcending the late Jim Morrison of "The Doors". Two remarkable tours performing theaters and festivals throughout the US and Europe in- cluding a 52-piece orchestra in London, Dublin and Wolverhampton with "The Royal Phil Harmonic Orchestra." Matijevic delivered remarkable per- formances every night with rave reviews.

Miljenko then returned to his roots with SteelHeart, and toured with his band for many shows throughout the world, performing on several continents: Eu- rope, Asia and North America. Early January 2016, Miljenko was in Korea for six months, a country where he's a superstar, performing on various TV shows, and festivals including The Dream concert. Miljenko is the only for- eign artist ever to perform this concert to a 60,000-audience strong and tele- vised to many countries. Miljenko's performance that night received out- standing reviews with the whole stadium singing the chorus alone. He also penned two songs, one late 2015 and another early 2016, for two of OST Korea tv's top hit dramas, "My Love Is Gone" and "Stay." Miljenko then took just one week off from touring/playing Korea to join three festivals in the US and perform at the Hollywood Bowl for the sold-out Los Angeles Korean Times Music Festival on May 7, 2016. Next day, he jumped on the plane headed back to Korea for still more shows. After six months in Korea in the summer of 2016, Miljenko came back the US for more SteelHeart touring.

Steelheart has recorded the band's first new album since the "Good To Be Alive" album in 2010. The new album was released September 15, 2017 by Italian label Frontiers Records. Currently SteelHeart is working on their 30th Anniversary box set. To be released in the fall of 2019.