Ahead of the release of her latest solo album, ‘Call of the Void,’ Nita Strauss sat down for an interview with Ultimate Guitar. The guitarist talked about her 2022 stint with Demi Lovato, mentioning the differences between performing in rock and pop bands. She especially addressed whether Lovato ever asked her to limit her performance style.
Claiming that she never had a pop experience with the ‘Cool for the Summer’ singer, Strauss said:
“I got so lucky with the Demi gig because she wanted to do a rock tour. She put together an all-female rock band, and we did a rock show. So I wish I had more of that pop, I wish I had a good story about being in the pop world to tell everybody like, oh, it was so different, and it was so regimented or this or that, but we really just went out and did our thing. We had a good time, we threw it down every night, and we had a blast.”
She went on to add:
“We all… in that band got very lucky because we were hired because she liked us. She liked our personality and our performance style. So there wasn’t like, you know, [any directives like] don’t go too far here or don’t play like this. We were there to be ourselves and create this rock show with her. So that’s what we did.”
In a different interview with Loudwire, the Hurricane commented on Lovato’s genre change and pointed out the audience’s reaction to it by explaining:
“The cool thing that I found is that Demi changed her entire style. She changed her clothing, her musical style, and she reworked all her huge hits. She has a song ‘Cool for the Summer’ that has billions of Spotify plays, and she did a full-on rock version with a little Metallica thrown in there for good measure.
And the fans loved it. The fans supported her and absolutely screamed their faces off until the end of the show. There was no pushback. There was no, ‘This is not what you’re supposed to sound like. This isn’t what we signed up for. We want the old Demi back…’ type gatekeeping that we see in the style of music that we’re more used to. “
Following her run with Demi Lovato, Strauss rejoined Alice Cooper‘s line-up for his 2023 tour. The coming months promise more performances, with the Godfather of Shock Rock set to work with Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe in August. After that, he will co-headline the ‘Freaks On Parade’ tour with Rob Zombie until September.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LWBzsc_e8k
