Tuff Act to Follow : These masters of self-promotion will soon be an opening act at the Ventura Theatre, T-shirts and all.

Lita Ford didn’t want to talk to the press. Gee, that’s tough. Actually it’s Tuff, the kind of band that could keep the hair-care industry in the black.

Tuff will be opening for Ford on a hard rockin’ Saturday night at the venerable Ventura Theatre.

Listen up, you rock ‘n’ roll wanna-bes out there, you don’t get signed by wishin’ and hopin’. Being talented is obviously a plus, but there’s no justice in rock ‘n’ roll. Half the bands on MTV can’t compete with some of the great bands in Ventura and Santa Barbara, who no one but their moms will ever hear.

Not Tuff--these guys know how to play the music biz game. Pushier than a bunch of developers arguing over the last vacant lot and so upbeat they could sell a raincoat to a cactus, Tuff has tooted its own horn loud and long enough to get signed to a big-time label.

“What Goes Around Comes Around” just came out on Atlantic Records, and that’s what it’s all about. Fighting with the record company, going on tour, destroying hotel rooms, creating creative differences, breaking up and all those lawsuits come later.

“We’ve always been self-promoting,” said drummer Michael Lean in a recent phone interview. “We have a really good fan base and we’ve always been a big draw in L.A.

“We had sold-out concerts and major press before we ever had a record deal. Our biggest break was a gig with Warrant at the Roxy in 1987. They got a deal and we sort of took over for them, and became the highest-paid band in L.A. It’s all about hustling. We’re very good at that.”

And part of the rock ‘n’ roll hustle is marketing, with particular emphasis on the rock ‘n’ roll T-shirt, which often costs more than the rock ‘n’ roll ticket.

“Hey, man, we have tons of T-shirts, maybe 30 different ones. We also sell caps, posters, girls’ panties, headbands, pins and all that stuff. I probably have 200 different rock ‘n’ roll T-shirts in my closet,” Lean said.

If the theory is true that every rock band sounds like either R.E.M. or Guns N’ Roses, then Tuff is most like the latter. They do the hard rock, corporate rock, arena rock thing that makes all those metal kids stick their little fists in the air and howl like banshees.

“Every band in rock ‘n’ roll from Elvis to Skid Row has influenced us,” Lean said. “We listen to every kind of music except country. We’re not thrash and not glam; we’re just for everything that’s positive. Some of our stuff is rowdy and rocking, some is psychedelic and we do some pop stuff, too. And there’s always a new generation of kids. Every year, there’s more 13-year-olds.”

Then again, maybe the band can use some of that T-shirt money and maybe 1% of their hair budget and hire some real mean goons to guard their stuff.

“We just lost all of our equipment in Memphis,” Lean said. “Somebody took a whole Ryder truck, and what they didn’t steal, they burned to the ground. They caught a couple of guys. We have a lot of endorsements though, so this won’t be the acoustic gig. But that’s the way it goes--the more you make, the more you spend. It’s all more, more, more. You have to spend money to make money. A band is a business that takes a lot of hard work.”