After taking temporary leave to join Demi Lovato’s new all-female band for an extensive tour last year, Nita Strauss will be reuniting with Alice Cooper for a run of North American dates later this year.
The tour, dubbed Too Close For Comfort, will kick off in April, and will be the first time Cooper and Strauss have shared the stage as formal bandmates since the latter left to link-up with Lovato in July last year.
The move put a brief pause on the pair’s musical relationship, which began when Strauss joined the band back in 2014, though the door for Strauss’s return had always been a possibility when the electric guitar hero said the move wasn’t a formal departure and that she “may have a chance to come back”.
“She's back!” Cooper said of Strauss’s return. “Nita asked for a leave of absence to work with someone else, something I always encourage my band members to do. I like them to challenge themselves and try new things.
“I'm thankful to my old friend Kane Roberts for stepping up and filling in for her, but she'll be back with us for the new tour that starts up in late April. It's going to be great to have her back."
“From the studio to the stage, it's always an immense honor to make music with Alice Cooper,” added Strauss. “I'm very excited to be rejoining the band on the road for the 2023 dates, and so I'll see you on the road in April. Let the nightmare return!”
The tour is set to kick off in April at the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort, with Cooper’s band set to play a run of headline shows that will conclude on May 18 at the Beau Rivage Theatre. A slot at Welcome to Rockville on May 20 will cap off the run.
In August, Strauss, Cooper and co will then join up with Def Leppard and Motley Crue for six shows, before heading out on a co-headline tour with Rob Zombie throughout the remainder of August and most of September.
When Strauss made the move to Lovato’s band, she told Guitar World that the career change had partly been motivated by a desire to inspire a new generation of fans to play music, and to introduce guitar to individuals who otherwise might not have been interested in the instrument.
“If we can reach this next generation of passionate and intense fans, and inspire them to play music, isn’t that a wonderful thing?” she said. “They might pick up a guitar or bass, try out drums or see Dani [McGinley] on keys and think, ‘I could do that!’ Some of these younger fans might not have been reached through a traditional rock show.”
Though she left Cooper for his 2022 tour – and was replaced by the vocalist’s former axeman, Kane Roberts – Strauss rejoined the band for a one-off performance wielding a Jackson Jeff Loomis signature Kelly.
Strauss’ return to the fold almost seemed like an inevitability, after the guitarist reassured fans that original reports of her departure had turned it “into a much bigger decision than it was”.
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