Nita Strauss surprised her fans after announcing that she left Alice Cooper’s band with whom she had been performing for almost a decade. More unexpected news came after this decision when Strauss made her debut as Demi Lovato’s guitarist during a live performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. The guitar player recently spoke to She’s with the Band and reflected on the criticism she received after her career move.
“[They are] totally different worlds,” noted Strauss when comparing rock fans to Demi Lovato’s fanbase. She continued, “I will say that Demi’s fans were incredibly receptive to this new band, these new genres, and new styles of music. In our community, in the rock scene, anytime an artist completely changes styles, it’s always met with a lot – like very, very polarized reviews.”
Strauss then stressed that rock fans can either be very harsh or supportive as there’s no in-between, saying, “Some people like, ‘Yeah, I love it. Do whatever you want.’ Other people like ‘No. Stick to what you are. Stick to the reason why we love you.’” Therefore, the guitar player was astonished by Lovato’s fans, who embraced her regardless of her genre. Nita added, “It was really amazing to see Demi’s fans, the Lovatics, just really embrace this new genre of hers without any judgment and without any criticism.”
The guitarist later stated that her fans could’ve reacted negatively to the pop star’s music change since they performed rock music, which was far from Lovato’s usual sound. Nita Strauss explained, “It would be really easy for a fan base to go, ‘This is not why we are fans of you. We like your pop songs. We want to hear your sort of pop-R&B style.’ Here we were playing this pretty heavy rock set. We didn’t do a single watered-down pop song in the whole thing.”
Furthermore, Nita said her fans had the best time during their shows instead of being critical. She recalled, “The entire set was on ten, start to finish, and nobody left. Everybody stayed, they cheered, and they had a great time. They tagged us, and they said it was the best show they’d ever been to, and it was just wonderful to see that kind of support for an artist. I think Demi deserves it, and it’s just nice to see somebody getting supported for doing the kind of music they want to do.”
While Demi Lovato received support from her fans, Nita Strauss’ decision was heavily criticized by her and Alice Cooper’s fans. A few months ago, the guitarist stated that she did not expect people to be so mad at her for leaving Cooper’s band, even though she had Cooper’s blessing during the entire process. Despite her fans’ opinions, Strauss seems happy with her decisions, and some fans still fully support her.
