How I Wrote..."Close My Eyes Forever"

Lita Ford looks back at her badass signature 1989 power ballad.

- JOE BOSSO

GO AHEAD AND call "Close My Eyes Forever" a power ballad. Singer/guitarist Lita Ford won't mind. In fact, she enthusiastically embraces the term. "I don't know why power ballads have such a bad rap," she says. "I think they're badass. And 'Close My Eyes Forever' is as badass as it gets."

Ford's dark and dramatic duet with Ozzy Osbourne was a career high-chart-wise, that is for both artists, hitting number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1989. "That's pretty incredible," Ford says. "For all the success that Ozzy had in Black Sabbath and as a solo star, he'd never had a Top 10 single. And in terms of my career, it put me on a new level entirely. For so many reasons, it's a very special song to me."

EVERYBODY INTO THE POOL