As their joint North American tour goes on, Wolfgang Van Halen and Nita Strauss discussed various topics on the YouTube channel of Heavy Consequence, including the gender-based success accusations against Strauss.
During some point in their chat, the guitarist reminded Wolfgang of his quick responses to the criticisms on social media, and then Van Halen talked about how funny it becomes when some people don’t get it. Nita continued from where he left:
“No, and it’s never anything that makes any sense. It’s like these critiques, like I had somebody say something about the performance that we were talking about, and they’re like, ‘You know what? She doesn’t deserve that gig. She only got that gig because she has a vagina. They should go to a great guitar player like Randy Rhoads.’ I was like, ‘Oh yeah, how are you gonna give the gig to Randy Rhoads? You want to call him to see if he’s available?'”
Further Addressing Social Media Criticism
Wolfgang stepped in and said:
“Yeah well, that’s the thing. It is that the one thing in common with people like that is they don’t really think. They don’t have that capacity.”
The guitarist added:
“You kind of go like, ‘Yeah, you know what you want to write back.’ You’re like, maybe I should just stop, maybe I should just stop everything I’m doing. Clearly, I don’t deserve it, but yeah, it’s silly.”
The Mammoth WVH frontman noted:
“That’s the thing you find out is that that really is because so many people through the internet, have just a fast-track highway to you directly.”
Strauss On Merit And Gender
Nita also noted, speaking to Audio Ink in 2019 that she doesn’t demand any special treatment due to her gender, as she only wants to be celebrated with his guitar work. She explained:
“I think you’ll just be treated the same as anyone else that’s there to do a job. Go in, do a great job, be super-professional. Don’t go in asking for special treatment or expecting special treatment because of your gender, and just work hard – treat people with respect and leave no doubt with whatever it is you wanna do.”
Strauss is supporting Mammoth WVH in their ongoing tour. It kicked off on November 4 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and will end with a final show in Los Angeles on December 9.
You can watch the entire chat below.
