Alice Cooper guitarist Nita Strauss announced that she’s leaving the shock-rocker’s band after nearly a decade and is canceling her festival dates with her solo band for the rest of the year.
“After this absolutely incredible run in Europe, it is bittersweet for me to let you guys know that I will not be joining the Alice Cooper band for the upcoming fall tour,” Strauss wrote in an Instagram post, which you can see below. “I will also regretfully have to cancel the festival dates my solo band had planned for the rest of the year.”
She continued: “I AM NOT PREGNANT!!! There is no drama whatsoever and my touring year is still VERY full — in fact, I’m on a flight straight into the next adventure as I post this, and I’ll be onstage again much sooner than you think! But that’s news for another day.
“The past eight years together has been the experience of a lifetime, and I could not be more grateful to Alice and Sheryl Cooper, Shep Gordon, the amazing band, crew and fans for welcoming me to all of your nightmare,” she concluded. “I don’t know what the future will hold after this, but I am forever thankful.”
Strauss joined Cooper’s touring band in 2014, replacing Orianthi and playing alongside Tommy Henriksen and Ryan Roxie. She did not play on either of Cooper’s solo albums released during her tenure in his live band, 2017’s Paranormal and 2021’s Detroit Stories.
The guitarist previously played in an all-female Iron Maiden tribute band called the Iron Maidens and a rebooted version of the ’80s glam-metal band Femme Fatale. While performing with the latter group, Strauss caught the attention of Winger frontman and former Cooper collaborator Kip Winger, who recommended her when Cooper began holding auditions for a new guitarist.
In a 2017 conversation with UCR, Strauss addressed the sexist criticism and skepticism she’s faced throughout her career, despite gracing the covers of prestigious guitar magazines, endorsing Marshall amps and receiving a signature Ibanez guitar and DiMarzio pickups.
“I try not to comment back on Facebook on all of the negativity too much, but I did have to say at one point, somebody was really starting in on me, naming all of these guitar players that were better than me that should have the recognition, that should be on the cover of Musician’s Friend — which I was on the cover in December,” she said.
“‘Why is she on the cover? Because she has boobs.’ And I said, ‘Well, when all of those guys spend their entire lives in vans, hungry, cold and tired, driving through the night, hoping to sell enough T-shirts at the next show to get you to the show after that; when all of those guys take time away from their families and studies and their friends to pursue their dreams, then they can be on the cover of all of those magazines.'”
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