Alice Cooper recently chatted with Ultimate Classic Rock, discussing Nita Strauss‘ return to his camp and whether things were bittersweet between the two rockers after her absence.
The guitarist announced that she would leave Alice’s band to tour with Demi Lovato only a few months ago, and as the press loves speculating, Strauss’ departure led to rumors that she and Cooper had a bit of bad blood.
However, as the 75-year-old rocker is now hitting the road for the ‘Too Close for Comfort’ tour across the U.S., Nina shared that she would be back and reunite with her bandmates on stage. So, although it’s apparent that there’s no feud between the guitarist and Cooper, he still wanted to open up about whether things were a bit bittersweet.
Well, it seemed that Alice never had problems with any of his band members leaving his camp, often encouraging them to try new things out and leaving an open door for them to return anytime they wished. So, when Strauss came up to him and discussed her plans with Demi, Cooper didn’t hesitate to encourage the young rocker to go for it.
The singer’s ‘open door policy‘ seemed to help him establish good relations with his bandmates and surely got in the way of any personal turbulence since he knew not to take things personally, and his maturity often would pay off as his bandmates would return, just like Nita. As for now, the rocker is happy that she’s back since he can play some old classics he normally wouldn’t because she can ‘represent the Kane Roberts era.’
Cooper on why he didn’t have any bad blood with the guitarist:
“I have [a] revolving door kind of policy. I told her right up front, ‘You should go [do] this [tour with Demi],’ but I said, ‘The door’s always open,’ and she came back. There was never any bad blood about stuff like that, and I got to bring Kane Roberts back for a while, which was fun.
To me, that’s music, and that’s showbiz. It’s weird when people get angry with people for leaving. When they have an opportunity to do something, I’m like, ‘See you. Come back any time you can.’ So Nita’s back in the fold, and that’s going to add that other element she brings. I can open up and do some songs that I don’t normally because she can represent that Kane Roberts era.”
So, Nita and Alice never had any bad blood since the singer supported the guitarist’s wish to leave while encouraging her to come back anytime she wanted. And Strauss isn’t the only rocker who received Cooper’s blessings to leave his camp, as you can check out how Kip Winger decided to leave Alice’s band and why he thought working with the older rocker would get in the way of his career.
