Demi Lovato salutes Nita Strauss as "a badass rock guitarist in a male-dominated field”

Nita Strauss on stage with her guitar next to an image of Demi Lovato smiling — (Image credit: Per Ole Hagen/Redferns, RB/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

Pop star Demi Lovato has gone into detail about their decision to hire guitarist Nita Strauss for her band.

Strauss was part of Alice Cooper's live band for eight years, before joining Lovato as a touring guitarist in July. She played her first full live show with Lovato on August 13 at the Grandstand at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, Illinois, and performed the following night with Lovato on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show.

In a recent email interview with Variety, Lovato opened up on their decision to hire Strauss.

“Once the sonic journey that my latest album, Holy Fvck, takes listeners on became clear,” Lovato said, “I knew I wanted to bring in a band for the ‘Holy Fvck Tour’ that is not just very skilled at live instruments, but also know how to have a good time on stage, and are performers in their own right.

”Nita fit that description and more – we have so much fun rocking out in rehearsals and on stage. My band also happens to be all-female, which is empowering to me. Working alongside Nita has helped me rebuild my skills on the guitar and she’s definitely someone who I learn from each day. I admire Nita for being such a bad-ass rock guitarist in a male-dominated field.”

Strauss, who also has her own solo band, previously told Louder that this move doesn’t necessarily mean she will never perform with Alice Cooper again.

“It’s an interesting thing that everyone’s picked up saying it’s a ‘departure’ but I don’t feel, necessarily, that I left,” she said. “I took a step back and I’m stepping back from this upcoming tour but I don’t think anyone has ever used the word quitting or leaving outside of other people.

“When I had my last few shows with Alice, we had what Alice called a ‘Hiatus Dinner’ where he said ‘We wish you the best, we love you, you’re welcome back’. There’s no shutting of a door and changing of the guard, it’s just I’m taking a step back a little bit. Depending on what the schedule looks like next year, I may have the chance to come back.”

In the same interview, Strauss explained how she came to join Lovato’s band, adding that Lovato is a huge metal fan.

"So I actually got a text from Demi’s musical director when I was on the road with my solo band on the Black Label Society tour, and essentially what it said was what we all know now: Demi is a huge rock and metal fan. And Demi wants to go back to her routes and wants to put together an all-female rock band.

“She’s really one of the biggest stars in the world and she wants to take a step into our genre and this style of music that we love so much. When you get that text, that somebody wants to bring that type of music to the forefront, how do you say no? How do you turn down this opportunity to bring this style of music to so many more people? So I was thrilled to hear about it and I jumped at the opportunity.”

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