Earlier this summer, guitarist Nita Strauss announced she was leaving Alice Cooper’s band and that she was canceling select solo festival appearances likely due to scheduling conflicts. She posted online at the time: “I don’t know what the future will hold after this, but I am forever thankful.” Rumors swirled about what band Strauss might join. Some fans speculated that Strauss may join Evanescence, but Strauss ended up with singer Demi Lovato, who went decidedly more rock with her latest effort, “Holy Fvck.”
Lovato and Strauss also performed twice on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”. They played Lovato’s recent singles “29” and “Substance”. And as quickly as it seemed Strauss switched to her new gig, the virtuoso guitarist might be soon be looking to join another band after Lovato announced that her current tour will be her last. The singer, who is touring for her eighth studio album “Holy Fvck,” took to Instagram stories and shared, “I’m so f*cking sick I can’t get out of bed. I can’t do this anymore. This next tour will be my last. I love and thank you guys.”
The current “Holy Fvck” tour will go on, and she added, “Gonna power thru it for you guys, I’ll need help singing so sing loud for me bb’s!!” She added a sick emoji. Lovato did not give any more details on her illness but has since deleted the post. Alongside a mirror selfie backstage at her show in Santiago, Chile, Lovato wrote, “I barely have a voice, I’m gonna be pointing the mic to the audience a lot tonight.” The tour kicked off a month ago in Iowa, and the singer most recently was in South America. The remainer of her tour is stateside.
In a recent interview with Louder, Strauss said that the door isn’t closed on her possible return to the Alice Cooper group despite Cooper recently announcing the return of longtime guitarist and collaborator Kane Roberts. “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, I may not. But it definitely doesn’t feel as final to me and to the people in Alice’s band and the inner circle as it has been portrayed out in the world.”
Strauss also revealed how she ended up with Lovato. “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. This was all way back in May. It’s been in the works for a really long time.”
She continued: “I’ve seen a lot of stuff out there saying, ‘She jumped ship really fast’. There was nothing that happened fast, I think people just found out about it all at once. First and foremost, I went to Alice and [his wife] Sheryl for their blessing which they were so happy to give. Then I went to Alice’s management and started rehearsal with Demi. I did my first TV appearance with Demi, I believe it was three days after the last Alice show, so it was really out of the frying pan and into the fire. But her team has been really fun to work with, the band is incredible, the musical director, Demi herself, it’s just been a really good experience overall.”
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