Nita Strauss has clarified her status with Alice Cooper‘s band following the announcement that she wouldn’t be joining the shock-rocker on his upcoming fall tour.
“It’s an interesting thing that everyone’s picked up saying it’s a ‘departure,’ but I don’t feel, necessarily, that I left,” Strauss tells Louder. “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.”
Strauss first shared the news in a July Instagram post, writing, “it is bittersweet for me to let you guys know that I will not be joining the Alice Cooper band for the upcoming fall tour.” And while she did not explicitly say she’s leaving the group permanently, Strauss did write, “The past eight years together has been the experience of a lifetime,” which could be read as a reflection on the end of her time with Cooper.
As Strauss now tells Louder, not only is she leaving the door open for a possible return, but so is Cooper.
“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,'” Strauss shares. “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,” she adds. “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 is currently the guitarist in pop star Demi Lovato‘s live band.
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