The first time I saw Lita Ford play her guitar I was about nine years old. It was a cold, winter night in Toronto, Canada, and I was waiting for the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game to start. Every Saturday night, the lead-up program to the game was the CHUM Top 40 Countdown. My family would gather at my grandmother’s house – where most Italian families gather on at least one day of the week – and we would eat, watch the Top 40 Countdown and argue about the music videos, and then watch the Maple Leafs blow a three-goal lead in the third period. It was a ritual. I distinctly remember the evening in question because I fell in love with a BC Rich Warlock that night, and it left such an impression on me that I only worked up the courage to buy one – a Lita Ford signature model Black Widow Warlock, loaded with the SH-6 Distortion in the bridge and the SH-4 JB in the neck, no less – two years ago. More importantly, I watched the screen and I saw a woman playing that Warlock. And she wasn’t strumming a couple of open chords either – she was shredding like it was nobody’s business.