Legendary Runaways producer and Los Angeles rock legend Kim Fowley died today after a long battle with cancer, although no official cause of death has been released at this time, according to Rolling Stone. He was 75.

The son of actors, the Los Angeles, CA-born Fowley began his career in the music business in 1959 and spent the 1960s working with acts such as Paul Revere and the Raiders and Gene Vincent. His career as a solo artist yielded a minor hit when his third LP, 1968’s Outrageous, broke Billboard’s Top 200. Many credited Fowley with the advent of the raised lighter concert salute after he encouraged the crowd to do it while MCing John Lennon’s Toronto Rock and Roll Revival performance in 1969.

A lot of people counted out the gals from The Runaways when Kim Fowley’s manufactured girl group split entered in the late 70s. But those people had not taken notice of the considerable forces that are Joan Jett and Lita Ford. By 1984, singer/guitarist Jett had already established herself as the queen of a new generation of female rockers and lead guitarist Lita Ford was reinventing herself as a sultry heavy metal goddess who would give all of the male axe-slingers a run for their money throughout the golden age of the guitar hero.

Here below is Lita Ford with the official video for “Gotta Let Go,” the second single from her second solo album Dancing On The Edge.

Guitarist Lita Ford and singer Cherie Currie, have reunited for an original holiday single called “Rock This Christmas Down,” which is the first time the queens of noise have recorded together since 1977 when they were in the all-girl hard rock band The Runaways.

The new song will be available as an MP3 Download starting December 3, 2013, but USA Today is previewing the song right now!

Since her breakthrough in the 1970s with all-girl hard rockers The Runaways, Lita Ford has become one of the world’s foremost guitar-wielding goddesses. Twice. She managed to come back from a 13-year music hiatus to fight her way back to the top of her game and is still releasing punchy hard rock albums that leave many of her (few) peers in the shadows to prove she is still the first lady of rock.

Last year, Ford released a new solo album, Living Like a Runaway, and this week saw the release of the live album from its tour, The Bitch Is Back…Live.

As well as cranking out albums full of hard rock, Ford has set up a Facebook page dedicated to raising awareness of Parental Alienation, of which she is currently a victim after her divorce from singer Jim Gillette.

Lita Ford is one of America’s greatest living rock stars, but her story did not start in the U.S. We got a chance to talk to her recently about her upbringing, music, touring, and what’s to come for the tattooed queen of rock.

Today, November 5, 2013, sees the release of Lita Ford‘s new release The Bitch Is Back…Live, a 12-song live album recorded at a show at Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, CA in early October 2012, available now on CD and MP3. The CD is an “AutoRip,” which means with your physical copy, you’ll also get a FREE MP3 download of the entire album.

If you want to check out the album right now, Yahoo! Music is streaming all 12 songs online for free! Check out the audio embed of the album here below and take a listen.