It was a case of ‘game recognizes game’ over the weekend as Alice Cooper surprised fans by dishing out a shock rock-ified take of a grunge classic.

Just a few gigs into his latest tour, which sees 22-year-old Brit Anna Clara handpicked as Nita Strauss’ maternity cover, the veteran rocker paid homage to ’90s rock legends Nirvana by covering Smells Like Teen Spirit at his Coopstock festival in Phoenix.

Coopstock is the School's Out songwriter's annual charity fundraiser, where he leafs through his Rolodex to raise funds for his Solid Rock Teen Centers to put on a star-laden show. Ultimately, the event is designed to help the next generation reach their full potential.

Alice Cooper and his band headlined the 28th edition of the festival at the Las Sendas Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona, with Kiss guitarist Tommy Thayer, and Rock Hall of Famer John Oates also on the bill.

The Nirvana cover was a shock, but a pleasant one at that. Kurt Cobain had drawn from the Pixies for its juxtaposition of quiet verses and loud choruses, but, though not a direct influence, a little of Alice Cooper’s teenage angst – see I’m Eighteen – also bleeds into the track.

It was long-serving guitarist Ryan Roxie who broke out into the song's unmistakable guitar riff on his Sunburst Les Paul, and Coop certainly makes its tense verses that little bit creepier. Roxie stayed faithful to the simplistic guitar solo that ices the song's bridge.

As for Cara, she’s limited to a supporting role here, but she’s taken her dream gig in her stride. Strauss has hailed her “precision and soulful, emotional playing,” as the young shredder was welcomed into the band, having previously worked with Cooper’s other guitarist, Tommy Henriksen.

In related news, Cooper’s Trash era guitarist John McCurry has lifted the lid on the iconic Poison riff’s unlikely origins.

Alice Cooper has announced his temporary replacement for Nita Strauss, who is taking a break from his band to welcome her first child this summer.

Anna Cara, a 22-year-old guitar player from Newcastle, England, has been chosen for the role, having been handpicked by Strauss herself to be her replacement. Indeed, Strauss recently singled out Cara as her favorite up-and-coming guitarist in an interview.

Cara arrives in Cooper’s band already with an impressive resume. She’s racked up quite the following on social media thanks to her playthrough videos, and in the past has worked with Marc Storace of Krokus, and Tommy Henriksen, who plays with both Cooper and Hollywood Vampires.

“This is like a dream come true, to join Alice and his great band,” Cara says. “Back when I started playing guitar at 14, I was watching Alice Cooper live shows on YouTube dreaming of joining one day!

“Nita Strauss is a tough act to follow, and she's been so encouraging to me this past month, so I am looking forward to showing everyone who I am and what I can do.”

She joins the band with a glowing recommendation from Strauss, who plans to return to the Cooper lineup further down the line after the birth of her child.

“When I was asked in an interview who I thought was the best up and coming guitarist, I had no hesitation in answering ‘Anna Cara.’ Anna's precision and soulful, emotional playing will make her an amazing asset to the Cooper tour!” Strauss says.

“Working with Alice for 12 years has been the experience of a lifetime and I look forward to seeing you all back on the road (with a +1 along for the ride!) Until that time comes, I know that the show is in good hands and the fans are in for a treat!”

It’s an astonishing piece of feedback and a remarkable gig to get for the 22-year-old, and Cooper himself is already singing her praises.

“Nita found a brilliant British female guitarist to fill in for her while she is on maternity leave,” the singer says. “Anna Cara is a beautiful dynamic shredder in the vein of Nita but with a style of her own. She will fit in with our gang perfectly while Nita is away and we can't wait to meet her.”

Cara is set to make her live debut with Cooper tonight (April 2) and will be part of the band as they navigate a hectic touring schedule over the next few months, including the Alice’s Attic tour across the US and Europe.

Head over to Alice Cooper’s website for more details.

Tommy Denander’s musical experience includes work on over 3,500 albums, of which over 100 are gold or platinum, and credits on eight Number 1 Billboard LPs.

“The list of who I’ve worked with looks like a guy who couldn’t hold down a gig to save his life!” he happily admits. “Michael Jackson, Anastacia, Steve Perry, Yngwie Malmsteen, Stephen Pearcy, Bernie Marsden, Eric Singer, Bruce Kulick, blah-blah-blah!”

His A-list collaborations span from the late ’80s to the present day, and also includes Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, Paul Stanley and Ace Frehley. “Those guys were on posters on my wall when I was a kid in Sweden,” Denander laughs. “So we really are talking about a dream coming true!”

He’s most proud of a quote from producer Mutt Lange – who rarely speaks in public. “Tommy has always been the consummate live player,” the rock icon said. “I recently found out that he’s the consummate studio guitarist as well. Excellent and so egoless to work with – great feel and a perfectionist, too.”

Denander, who signed his first record deal at the age of 15 and always knew he wanted to be “a studio musician, songwriter and producer instead of a rock star,” is also proud of his VGS signature guitar, which he states never goes out of tune thanks to the use of Evertune bridge and True Temperament frets.

“I’d been endorsed by Hamer, Steinberger, Yamaha, PRS and more, so when VGS asked, I said only if we could create my actual dream guitar. I’m close friends with Evertune, who asked me at NAMM one year if I’d like to be the first to have it on a real model.

“On the flight home to Sweden it just struck me that we should use the True Temperament invention, with the bent frets. It’s the first guitar to stay in tune and maintain 100 percent intonation.”

Denander’s guitar made it to a second model about 14 years ago, but then business issues got in the way. “The main company had the money – they just didn’t see a future in the products. What a miss!”

What’s the session industry like these days?

“Real music is coming back. Kids love great music played by top-level musicians again, so bigger studios are coming back as well. You need a collection of rare skills, gigantic determination and a strong sense of brand building – you need to find the balance of how and where to promote yourself, and when not to.

“Always answer people fast, deliver fast ,and leave your ego out of it, because no matter how sure you are of something, it’s always the client’s wish that matters. I like to suggest things and maybe give them too much, so they can pick the parts they like best.

“There are opportunities to become a solid touring musician too. It’s rare that the people you see on tour also play on the albums. It takes equal skill and time to do both, but in the studio no one can see you, so looks don’t matter. Live, they do!”

What’s the worst aspect of session work?

“Something that’s more important these days than in the ‘good old days’ – it’s when credits are missing. It happens more often now and it pisses me off big time. It happened with Paul Stanley, and he was pissed because I’d been in the album press release, that he put together himself. He said an idiot messed it up for the product.

“Then Ace Frehley ‘forgot’ that I wrote the music to a song on his latest album. I missed credit on, like, 25 variations of vinyl and all the CD and digital versions. It’s corrected now, but I lost a lot of media and PR was lost.

“Once, Ricky Martin decided he wanted big photos of himself all over the CD booklet of an album we did with Desmond Child, and put all credits on his website. I don’t even know what to say!

“I often work for much less money than than I should, because of the names involved. Getting those credits adds to my value which leads to income. When people are sloppy and miss it, we get screwed twice. So sloppiness bugs me!”

Regardless of the downsides, how was it to work on Paul Stanley’s 2006 solo album Live to Win?

“I saw a Kiss poster in a record store when I was 7 years old. That poster was why I started to play guitar, and to this day I’m a huge fan. Ace Frehley was my first guitar idol – I co-wrote Up In The Sky on his latest album 10,000 Volts.

“When I was asked to play on Paul’s Live To Win it was a surreal and beautiful moment. I ended up playing on the title track and Wake Up Screaming. First time I heard Paul’s voice through the big monitors in the studio, I just sat there smiling – I couldn’t even play!”

Working with Alice Cooper was another dream come true, wasn’t it?

“Yeah! In the mid ’80s I started writing songs with Alice in mind. I told my friends that I’d be perfect to write for him. My dear friend Desmond Child introduced me to Bob Ezrin around 2010, and that’s how I ended up playing on I Am Made of You on Alice’s Welcome 2 My Nightmare album.

“Then Bob and Alice asking me to work on Paranormal. I ended up co-producing it with Bob and I co-wrote half the songs. I play guitar on all the songs – including the ones with the whole original Alice Cooper Band.

“The song Fallen In Love started when Bob asked if I could write a take on Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water. I thought I’d done it quite well until Alice said, ‘Well, it has a ZZ Top feel to it.’ Then he asked Billy Gibbons to play on it. Cool!”

What about your rather minimal appearance on Deep Purple’s Infinite (2017)?

“When Bob Ezrin invited me to help with Infinite it meant I’d completed a triple of posters from my wall in the ’70s! They were almost done with the album, but Ian Gillan wanted to re-record his vocals and Don Airey wanted to add a keyboard part.

“They were in Stockholm and I worked at the biggest studio in Sweden, so it was perfect. Roger Glover and I recorded Ian’s vocals; it was stunning how professional these guys were. Don came over and nailed his part in one take, too.

“Then Roger said, ‘We’re missing one chord on the guitar.’ I said, ‘Can we get Steve Morse over from the hotel?’ Roger said, ‘No – Bob says you’re a great guitarist, so you can do it.’ I was like, ‘Did Roger Glover just ask me to play on a Deep Purple album?’

“I grabbed my Kemper and my VGS guitar. I knew that Steve used ENGL amps, so I found a profile that matched the recording perfectly. Roger was impressed! He showed me the missing chord – a missing D on a breakdown – and I recorded three takes: two mono for left-right panning and a stereo one with a small chorus.

“It hit me that I’d just had my Spinal Tap moment. I’d been playing guitar full-time for 25 years at that point, and when I got to play on a Deep Purple album it was just one chord!”

Your connection with Alice Cooper led to your work with the Hollywood Vampires, right?

“Right. I’ve done five or six albums with Alice. When we were doing Paranomal he invited me to play with the Vampires at a charity concert in Phoenix. Hanging for 12 hours with Johnny Depp, Joe Perry, Sammy Hagar, Korn and others, jamming and having way too many laughs, was a super-fun day.

“For their second album Rise (2019) the Vampires decided to recorded a song I wrote for Paranormal that hadn’t been used. Johnny wrote a cool lyric about a true event – it’s called Welcome to Bushwackers.

“Alice and Jeff Beck had talked for years about doing something together. To my big luck it ended up being my song! So it’s me, Johnny Depp and Joe Perry on rhythm guitars, and the stunning Jeff Beck on solos.”

You’ve also done solo work, usually under the banner of Radioactive. The first album, 2001’s Ceremony of Innocence, featured members of Toto. How did you swing that?

“I was living in Los Angeles and I’d become friends with all the Toto guys. I asked them if I got a solo deal would they play on it? I got an instant ‘Yes!’

“Luckily a friend at Sony Records was there too, and I got signed in a few days. Recording my first album, aged 23, with Jeff, Mike and Steve Porcaro and David Paich as my backing band was amazing.

“I was very close friends with Jeff and Mike Porcaro during those years. I miss them a lot. I’ve released six albums as Radioactive, and the list of legends on them all is pretty astonishing.”

Do you have any missing dream collaborations left?

“It sometimes feels like I have worked with them all! But Peter Gabriel has always been a major wish. I absolutely love his music, but also I feel deeply connected to it, and his way of writing. I think I’d be able to contribute something worthy. Then Sting, John Mayer, Stevie Wonder… the list is still long!”

And is there one who got away?

“The song Grace, from my first Radioactive album, was totally written with Richard Page from Mr Mister in mind. I managed to send him the song and he really loved it. But he said: ‘I’m aware of the value of my voice. I’d love to do but my price is …… dollars.

“He was and is worth every cent, but it was way out of my reach at the time, despite serious discussions about making it happen.”

• Keep up with Denander’s projects via Facebook.

Alice Cooper is the latest high-profile artist to pay tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne live on stage, after he – and a special guest – covered a Black Sabbath classic during a recent gig in London, England.

Last Friday (July 25), days after news of Ozzy’s death had been announced, Cooper added Paranoid as a last-minute addition to his setlist, slotting it in after I Love the Dead and right before the curtain closer, School’s Out.

It came after Cooper released an emotional tribute to Ozzy online, after he heard of his friend’s death “just minutes before going on stage in Cardiff, Wales”.

For the cover during the London gig, Cooper was joined by actor/guitarist Johnny Depp, who made a late entry onto the stage and locked in alongside Nita Strauss, Ryan Roxie and Tommy Henriksen to hold down Tony Iommi’s iconic riff.

Depp also had a stab at a solo, noticeably forgoing a guitar pick and instead noodling around the lower register of his Gibson Flying V using a fingerpicking style and some whammy bar action – something he most certainly picked up from his old friend, Jeff Beck.

Writing on social media prior to the Cardiff show, Cooper wrote, “Well, we all know that time is going to take us rockers, but when the giants fall, it’s really hard to accept. Even though everybody saw it coming with Ozzy, it just took our breath away when it happened.

“So Ozzy and family – your records and your music and your legend and all that you brought – the humor to the rock business – will live on forever and we’re gonna miss you man.”

Ozzy Osbourne passed away last week at the age of 76, weeks after his Back to the Beginning farewell show. In the wake of his passing, the guitar world has come out to pay tribute to his life, legacy, music and memory.

Wolfgang Van Halen has also paid tribute to the late Black Sabbath singer on stage, adding Mama, I'm Coming Home to his band's setlist after they heard about Ozzy's death during their soundcheck.

Zakk Wylde, Ozzy's longest-serving guitarist, recently sat down with Guitar World to look back on their final moments together onstage.

It seems preposterous to say that the guitarist who wrote Alice Cooper classics School’s Out, I’m Eighteen and Elected is underrated – that the player who lit up the unimpeachable Billion Dollar Babies does not get his dues – but consider this: when was the last time you heard Glen Buxton’s name when talking about hard-rock’s GOAT?

This discursive oversight has not gone unnoticed, and one player who has been paying attention all this time is new Alice Cooper hire, Gyasi Heus, the über-glam Les Paul-wielding hot-shot who has just made his debut on The Revenge of Alice Cooper – remarkably the first album from the Alice Cooper Band since 1973’s carnal shock-fest Muscle of Love.

Speaking to Guitar Player, Heus says Alice Cooper is underrated. Period. But everyone is sleeping on Buxton’s gifts as a guitar player who knows exactly what’s required to make the song work.

“I felt like Alice Cooper is underrated – at least to me in my world,” he says. “Man, what a great band. The riffs, the guitar playing just caught my ear much more than it ever had before.

“I think Glen is a hugely underrated guitar player; the parts are so right, and maybe that was part of the reason I had overlooked it before and not really noticed it, because it was so perfect and almost doesn’t stand out as, ‘Oh, wow, what a flashy, exciting guitar player.’”

Heus has a point. Think of those classic Cooper cuts and it’s not the solos that come to mind. It’s the jangly anarchy of the School’s Out riff, the wide-open spaces in the chord changes of I’m Eighteen.

Heus argues that guitar duos don’t get much better than Buxton and Michael Bruce – and Buxton’s guitar, that is the song’s quintessence.

“You take that away and you lose the whole song,” he continues. “And then Glen and Mike were just a perfect team.”

With the Alice Cooper Band back online, it made sense for the Godfather of Shock to reach out to long-time collaborator Bob Ezrin to produce The Revenge… Ezrin’s magic touch in the control room yielded the band a four-album hot streak that began with Love It to Death (1971) and culminated in its highest-grossing album, Billion Dollar Babies (1973).

Ezrin agrees with Heus, and he witnessed Buxton’s greatness at first hand.

“Glen was unique and different from any other guitar player I’ve ever worked with,” says Ezrin. “Sometimes he was so off the wall it was hard to know where the notes were coming from, and sometimes so spot-on that all of us would look at each other and just nod and say, ‘That’s our Glen.’”

Heus brings a similar energy to the role. Ezren says “he was full of Glen already” when they reached out to him. And Heus’s glam image is 24/7.

“When he played with the band – just two songs to see if there was chemistry there and whether the sound was reminiscent of the original Alice Cooper group,” says Ezra. “He fit right in. Early on he started playing some really cool guitar lines, and the guys were looking around going, ‘That’s kinda great!’”

And you can judge this for yourself soon. The Revenge of Alice Cooper is available to pre-order, out July 25 via earMUSIC.

John McCurry has spent his career as a session ace for artists such as Cyndi Lauper, Billy Joel, Julian Lennon, and Alice Cooper. His passion for guitar is as wide-ranging as his skillset, which kicked off as a youngster. “I was in love with the guitar while I was an accordion player as a child,” McCurry tells Guitar World.

McCurry recalls wanting to switch to guitar, but his father wasn’t for it. “It wasn’t until I was 19 that I finally started to learn guitar,” he says. “I learned very quickly, thankfully.”

The young guitarist’s quick-study nature served him well, as he banged around his home state of Connecticut in cover bands, leading to a career in session work kicked off by a chance meeting with producer Phil Ramone.

After meeting Ramone, McCurry became something of a low-key hitmaker, appearing on notable albums such as Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors, Billy Joel’s The Bridge, Belinda Carlisle’s Heaven on Earth, and Alice Cooper’s Trash, among others.

Elsewhere, friendships with Desmond Child, Kane Roberts, and Julian Lennon accentuate a career that has been hallmarked by McCurry’s six-string Midas touch. “My naivety regarding many of the artists I was blessed to work with helped me to get through those amazing experiences,” McCurry shrugs.

“I am self-taught with no music reading ability and only started playing guitar five years before I landed the Cyndi Lauper gig,” he explains. “Maybe a bit of ‘ignorance is bliss’ going on? Looking back – and forward – I’m realizing what an amazing career I’ve had. I truly am beyond grateful.”

How did you get into session work?

“I got into session work through Neil Jason, an amazing bass player, writer, and lifelong friend. He was doing sessions for the producer Phil Ramone, and I was on a touring break for a few weeks, and he had me come by the Hit Factory and play a solo over an artist’s track.

“Apparently, I passed the ‘audition.’ I immediately started working for Phil on several recordings he was working on, and I worked with him for several years after that. It changed my professional life completely.”

What led you to join Cyndi Lauper’s band, and did she give you much feedback as far as guitars go?

“A friend of mine told me about an open audition for a new artist named Cyndi, who had a record coming out and was looking for a touring band. I auditioned and got the gig. Cyndi had a lot of feedback to give me and the band right from the first rehearsal.

“She had a very clear vision of how she wanted the band to sound and look. I had the advantage of being a redhead, so she really focused on my look, and it was a learning experience on every level from day one. Also, she was very particular about sounds and my replicating the album.”

What gear did you use with Cyndi in the early days?

“I was given two Roland Jazz Choruses as my live rig, which I’d never used. I brought my old-school MXR ‘Script’ Compressor pedal, along with a Boss Super Overdrive and Electro-Harmonix Memory Man delay. I didn’t need a chorus pedal as two Jazz Chorus amps are more chorus than anyone needs, though you couldn’t have too much chorus in the ‘80s. [Laughs]”

What was it like recording Cyndi’s True Colors?

“I was the only member of the touring band asked to participate in the True Colors album. I did know many of the session players on it, so I felt more comfortable than I thought I would. It was recorded at the Power Station in NYC, and I did acoustic and electric guitars on it.”

What was the key to lending a hand to her pop-leaning tracks, which usually don’t focus on guitar outwardly?

“Working with Cyndi Lauper was very different for me, to be sure, as I was all about rock, blues, and solos. But I was only playing in the local NYC scene, jumping from club to club, sitting in with any singer who would have me.”

“Cyndi was signed, and I was hired to be part of her touring band to support the record. There’s plenty of great guitar on that album, but not at all the style or sound I was familiar with. So, after getting hired and panicking before our first rehearsal, I really listened to the record.

“While learning the parts, I not only learned the set, I learned a whole new style of guitar playing and guitar sounds. A remarkable band to be a part of and an incredible artist and singer to watch perform night after night.”

How did you end up playing on Belinda Carlisle’s Circle in the Sand and Heaven on Earth?

“I met the producer and songwriter Rick Knowles in New York City when he was working on songs for a John Waite album he was scheduled to produce. A few years later, Rick was producing Belinda’s record, and he thought of me for it – a really great studio experience with a lot of creative ideas that took place during the sessions. I played electric/acoustic, and I think bass on a song or two.

The guitar parts on Heaven Is a Place on Earth are pretty riffy underneath all the vocal layers. Do you remember laying them down?

“We did that album in LA with Rick Knowles producing and writing a lot of it. Rick and Belinda gave me a lot of room for guitar parts and sounds, so it was a very chill experience. The studio had a ton of great amps, so I had Marshalls, Mesa Boogies, and vintage Fender amps at my disposal.

“There are probably seven or eight guitar layers on Heaven Is a Place on Earth, including clean chorus parts as well as heavy power guitars. There are a few choice riffs parts I did as well, so thanks for noticing them! I used my ‘63 Strat, a couple of Les Pauls, and my trusty ‘80s Strat, complete with a Floyd Rose and humbucker bridge pickup – very '80s gear. [Laughs]”

You played guitar on Bonnie Tyler’s version of Hide Your Heart. How did that come about?

“Desmond Child had an arrangement worked out with Bonnie ahead of time, and the amazing band we had for it sort of fleshed it out as we ran it. I was given quite a bit of freedom when it came to the solo, and it’s still one of my favorites to listen back to today.”

What was it like working with Bonnie in the studio, and what gear did you use?

“Bonnie’s sessions were done at Bearsville Studios, where I worked on several other artists’ albums, which were all produced by Desmond Child. I had my two favorite Marshall 50-watt heads with two Marshall slant bottoms, which were already at the studio for the previous albums I was working on.”

Were you surprised that Hide Your Heart became such a big hit to where Kiss and Ace Frehley both covered it about a year later?

“Well, in typical me fashion, I somehow wasn’t aware of the other versions of the song, so it was brand new to me. [Laughs] The room had an awesome sound, especially for guitar overdubs, and I would always play in the control room to better communicate with the artist and producer. I wasn’t surprised Bonnie had a big hit with it because she’s an amazing singer and person. The album felt like it had many hits on it.”

How did you hook up with Alice Cooper, leaning to his biggest ‘80s hit, Poison?

“Once again, working with Desmond gave me the opportunity to work with Alice Cooper, for which I’m eternally grateful. Alice is one of the nicest people I’ve met, never mind working with.

“Poison and my contribution to the song came about when Alice asked me to try to come up with an unusual riff to start the song and sort of weave it through the song.”

How did Alice respond to the Poison riff?

“While in the studio, Alice and Desmond came to me in the live room and told me they were working on another song for the record, and Alice really wanted a signature riff for it. He gave me a few examples of what he was looking for, and I happened to have a riff I used to warm up with from a couple of years before.

“When I played it for him, he just smiled and patted me on the back. Desmond heard it and agreed it was right for the song. I was thrilled, of course, and even more so when it became the intro of the song Poison.”

Alice had already established that sound with Kane Roberts. Was Kane’s style ringing in your ears?

“I’m embarrassed to say that at the time of the start of the Trash album, my total awareness of Alice’s catalog was I’m Eighteen and Schools Out, so I wasn’t aware of the more recent stuff. But after I moved to LA in 1990, I became close friends with Kane and learned all about the modern Alice stuff.”

Can you recall recording the guitar tracks for Poison and what gear you used?

“Yes. I used a guitar made for me by John Suhr, before he created his current company, Suhr Guitar. It was a Strat-style guitar, but with a Gibson scale and a Floyd Rose tremolo; it was my favorite guitar.”

“I had it for three years before it was stolen on my move from NYC to LA. As for amps, I recorded through two Marshall Jubilee 50-Watt [amps], with a power soak and a stereo chorus with a Boss Super Overdrive [SD-1].”

You worked with Kane on his Saints and Sinners album. How did that go down?

“At the time of that recording, Kane and I had already become friends. I was super flattered that he asked me to be a part of it, as he can play circles around me, especially when it comes to shredding. I was able to add some pretty cool rhythm stuff, especially to I’m Just Looking for an Angel. We really grooved well together in the end.”

You seemed to have developed amazing chemistry with Julian Lennon over the years. Tell us about that.

“I met Julian through Phil Ramone when they were recording The Secret Value of Daydreaming album, Julian’s second record. We hit it off right out of the gate, and to this day, he’s one of my nearest, dearest friends. I worked with him from Secret Value to Here Comes Mr. Jordan, produced by Pat Leonard, and Help Yourself, produced by Bob Ezrin.”

What can you say about Julian as far as his sensibility and his expectations for his guitarists?

“Jules is wonderful to work with in every way. He’s open-minded but always knows where he wants the song to go and always gave me lots of room on our co-writes, and space for guitar parts and solos.”

Could you help but have John, Paul, and George’s style and parts in the back of your mind while working with Julian?

“I’ve been a huge Beatles fan since I first saw them on the Ed Sullivan Show, so of course it was always in the back of my mind. I think Julian and I had sort of an unspoken rule that we’d avoid those references, as tempting as it was to go there. But when he sings, it’s just magical to me.”

What’s your best piece of guitar-related advice for someone looking to get into your line of work?
“I think, as much as the business I came up in has changed, the basic premise has not. If you have the dream and desire to play guitar or any instrument, you can definitely make it happen. And it’s a beautiful thing to have in your life, and it’ll be your best friend throughout your life.”

John McCurry's resume is quite the read. The session guitarist has written, recorded, and toured with David Bowie, Alice Cooper, Katy Perry, and many more across a seasoned and genre-hopping career.

Yet, despite having played with those household names, landing the gig as Cyndi Lauper's lead guitarist just five years after first picking up an electric guitar might just be his biggest achievement.

He’s perhaps best known – in guitar circles, at least – for his contributions to Alice Cooper’s seminal late 1980s LP, Trash, in particular for his iconic riff on Poison, which started life as McCurry's warm-up routine.

That, however, may have never been possible if the Time After Time songstress – and a pop producer before her – hadn’t taken a chance on McCurry’s still-blossoming talents. Together, they skyrocketed his career.

In a new interview with Guitar World, McCurry reflects on his entry into session work, and recalls how the opportunity came through bass player Neil Jason, who was working with producer Phil Ramone (Billy Joel, Paul Simon).

“I was on a touring break [with New York post-punk group Cool It Reba] for a few weeks, and he had me come by the Hit Factory and play a solo over an artist’s track,” he says. “Apparently, I passed the ‘audition.’ I immediately started working for Phil on several recordings he was working on, and I worked with him for several years after that. It changed my professional life completely.”

He soon found himself wading, knee-deep, through the ever-competitive session world. So, when he heard Cyndi Lauper needed a band to tour her debut album, She’s So Unusual, McCurry threw his hat in the ring. Much to his surprise, he got the nod.

“A friend of mine told me about an open audition for a new artist named Cyndi, who had a record coming out and was looking for a touring band,” he remembers.

“I am self-taught with no music reading ability and only started playing guitar five years before I landed the Cyndi Lauper gig,” he reflects, decades on. “Maybe a bit of ‘ignorance is bliss’ going on?”

Time in the singer’s band proved highly educational. Lauper was exacting – encouraging, too, but she ran a tight ship. McCurry learned a lot.

“Cyndi had a lot of feedback to give me and the band right from the first rehearsal,” he remembers. “She had a very clear vision of how she wanted the band to sound and look, she was very particular about sounds and my replicating the album. It was a learning experience on every level from day one.”

The tour was a success, and McCurry then had the rare honor of being the only member of the band who was invited to work on the record’s follow-up, True Colors. He played acoustic and electric guitar on six tracks and was surprised by how “comfortable” he felt during the experience.

That’s probably because, when he bagged an audition for the backing band gig, he dove head-first into preparation.

“Working with Cyndi Lauper was very different for me,” McCurry says, ruminating on the challenges. “I was all about rock, blues, and solos. But I was only playing in the local NYC scene, jumping from club to club, sitting in with any singer who would have me.

“There’s plenty of great guitar on [She’s So Unusual], but not at all the style or sound I was familiar with. So, after getting hired and panicking before our first rehearsal, I really listened to the record.

“While learning the parts, I not only learned the set, I learned a whole new style of guitar playing and guitar sounds. [She was] an incredible artist and singer to watch perform night after night.”

Guitar World’s full interview with McCurry will be published online in the very near future.

Gun N’ Roses guitarist Slash may have rubbished talk of his legendary Sweet Child O’ Mine riff starting life out as a warm-up exercise, but the same cannot be said for another iconic ’80s riff – Alice Cooper’s Poison.

In a new interview with Guitar World discussing the origins of the 1989 hit – which became the shock rock icon’s first ever top 10 hit as the 1990s dawned – Cooper’s Trash era guitarist John McCurry has lifted the lid on the riff’s unlikely origins.

McCurry got the gig in Cooper’s group shortly after completing work on Julian Lennon’s fifth album, Mr. Jordan. Before that, he’d played on records by Cher, Billy Joel, and Bonnie Tyler, and so he came into the writing process well-equipped for whatever Alice Cooper threw at him.

“Alice is one of the nicest people I’ve met, never mind working with,” he reflects. “Poison and my contribution to the song came about when Alice asked me to try to come up with an unusual riff to start the song and sort of weave it through the song.

“While in the studio, Alice and Desmond [Child, producer] came to me in the live room and told me they were working on another song for the record, and Alice really wanted a signature riff for it,” he continues. “He gave me a few examples of what he was looking for, and I happened to have a riff I used to warm up with from a couple of years before.”

The riff never got a verbal reaction from Cooper – Child was far more forthcoming – but McCurry didn’t need it. The pair knew the riff would be a hit.

“When I played it for him, he just smiled and patted me on the back,” he continues. “Desmond heard it and agreed it was right for the song. I was thrilled, of course, and even more so when it became the intro of the song Poison.”

Interestingly, it was the second time McCurry had worked his warm-up riff into a song, but Cooper’s hit greatly outshadowed John Waites’ Encircled, which had arrived two years prior with that same hook.

“McCurry told me that Alice was looking for something that sounds a bit like Sweet Child O' Mine, that kind of attention-grabbing riff and a big banger to start the album,” says Chris Sutton, author of Alice Cooper in the 80s [via The Booked On Rock Podcast].

Fortunately, the camps were able to come to a quick agreement so that the riff could happily live its double life as a Cooper and a Waite song.

“All they did was change the key and change the tempo,” Sutton reveals. “Poison is in the key of D, and the John Waite song is in the key of E.”

For good measure, the riff is also reprised in the intro of Cooper's Bed of Nails, with the impeccably named guitarist Guy Mann-Dude employed to add a little more shred to the record.

Guitar World's full interview with accomplished riffer for hire John McCurry will be published in the near future.

Nita Strauss has celebrated her first wedding anniversary by looking back on the big day – and it was as extravagantly shred-centric as you’d expect from someone who lives and breathes the electric guitar.

Strauss and Josh Villata, who drums in her solo band, tied the knot during a Haute Dracula-themed ceremony in May last year, with a goth glam chic and plenty of heavy metal panache to ensure it was a party for the ages. The all-star band that jammed Metallica, Pantera and Alice Cooper classics was the icing on the cake.

Strauss described the ceremony as “our dark, romantic, heavy metal dream wedding”. They wed in front of a star-studded guest list that included Alice Cooper and Disturbed's David Draiman – who both got in on the jam band action – as well as pop star turned rock queen Demi Lovato, with whom Strauss has previously played with, and WWE’s Mick Foley.

In newly shared clips from Villalta, Strauss can be seen playing an Ibanez guitar alongside the Godfather of shock rock who, as ever, is donned in all black.

“We had the Moon Units play and have part of their set be a live band karaoke where people can sign up and jam together,” Villalta writes on Instagram. “How many weddings can you jam I’m Eighteen, Enter Sandman, and Cowboys From Hell?”

Going off this writer’s previous wedding experiences (not many) Bohemian Rhapsody is often as rocky as it gets, but Strauss’ shenanigans turned it up to 11. She performed I’m Eighteen with Alice Cooper (of course) and Cooper's bass player, Chuck Garric.

Meanwhile, the Cowboys and Sandman jams were Disturbed-laced affairs, with Draiman and bassist John Moyer joining Johnny Young, the other guitarist in Strauss' solo band, for the performance. Notably, the Pantera song has often been on the Strauss’ solo set lists, with her take on the track during 2023’s Summer Storm tour particularly electrifying.

“[We wanted] the wedding to feel like us,” Strauss told People. “We didn’t want a cookie-cutter ceremony or reception that you could see in any bridal magazine – we wanted every aspect of the day and the experience to reflect us as a couple.”

Strauss had to temporarily step down as Alice Cooper's guitar foil last year due to scheduling conflicts, which saw Orianthi in line for a surprise return to the band she left in 2014. However, a hip injury forced her to the sidelines last minute, with former Guns N' Roses man Gilby Clarke taking her place.

The original Alice Cooper group has reunited for the first time in over 50 years for the release of their forthcoming studio album, The Revenge of Alice Cooper, out July 25 via earMUSIC.

Featuring Alice Cooper, Michael Bruce on guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass, and Neal Smith on drums, the new album – their first since 1973's Muscle of Love – sees the shock rock legends reunite with longtime collaborator and producer Bob Ezrin, whom Alice Cooper previously described as “our George Martin.”

It promises to be “a high-voltage journey into vintage horror and classic ’70s shock rock,” recapturing the sound and energy that propelled the original Alice Cooper lineup to stardom.

It also includes a posthumous appearance by Glen Buxton, the band's original lead guitarist who passed away in 1997, on What Happened to You – a previously unreleased recording that features his original guitar part.

“Glen Buxton was so unique. He wasn’t the kind of player that could play a traditional 12-bar blues, but he could jam with someone like Pink Floyd’s original guitarist, Syd Barrett,” Cooper told Guitar World in a 2018 interview.

“Glen was very futuristic, and when he was on, he was as good as anybody. Michael Bruce, on the other hand, was a great rhythm and riff player. He laid the foundation, while Glen went into outer space.”

Additionally, one of the bonus tracks is a raw, alternate take of Return of the Spiders – another version of which appears on 1970's Easy Action – which was missing for 50 years. It was recently unearthed from the original multi-tracks and mixed by Ezrin in preparation for the album.

As for the recently released first single, Black Mamba, featuring Robby Krieger of the Doors, it was, as Cooper describes it to Billboard, “definitely an Alice Cooper, from-the-ground-up song.”

“When we started to play that it’s when I knew the spirit of the Alice Cooper group was back and that what we were making was very much an album that could’ve been in the ’70s when we were last together,” adds Ezrin, who, aside from being the producer, also co-wrote songs, played keyboards and percussion, and sang backing vocals.

“It had the psychedelia, it had the artful drumming and bass playing, the great atmospheric guitars. It has Alice telling a really fabulous story, in character.”

“We didn’t know where it was gonna go,” Cooper adds. “At the end, we looked at each other and went, ‘Oh, that’s pretty good!’”

In other Alice Cooper news, Nita Strauss recently rejoined the Godfather of Shock Rock on his latest run – after former Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke replaced Orianthi due to injury.

Nita Strauss has returned to action as the starring shredder in Alice Cooper’s band, and she’s received a very warm welcome from one member of the shock rocker’s crew in particular: the band’s snake.

The guitarist was forced to step back from the band due to scheduling conflicts with her solo shows which saw Orinathi tapped up for a nostalgic return to a band she spent three years in before Strauss took over. However, a hip injury then forced Orianthi to be replaced at the last minute, with former Guns N’ Roses man Gilby Clarke getting the nod.

Strauss wrapped her solo tour in Houston, TX on March 8 and returned to the Godfather of Shock Rock's band of ghouls on Saturday, March 22 at the Wild Horse Pass Stadium in Chandler, AZ.

It seems Cooper’s boa constrictor missed her the most, with the guitarist revealing “It licked me!” in an Instagram post marking her return to the fold.

The incident, seen in the video Strauss has shared online, happened – aptly enough – during a run-through of the 1991 hit Snakebite. Ever the professional, she remained unphased at the serpent's show of affection, a hearty peck on the nose, as she stuck diligently to her task.

She is then seen mouthing something and pointing to her face as she walks off, wringing out power chords with just her left hand as she processes what had just happened.

Cooper’s touring crew consists of numerous snakes to work around their various feeding times – you wouldn't want to parade a snake in front of thousands of screaming fans when it’s hungry, or digesting a tasty meal.

The singer has owned multiple snakes over the years, including Lady Macbeth, Count Strangula, and Julius Squeezer.

Incredibly, Julius died after being bitten by a rat intended to be his breakfast, while another snake, the 12-foot-long Yvonne escaped down a toilet of a Knoxville, Tennessee hotel.

“I put her in the bathtub overnight as she loved to swim, but in the morning she had gone down the toilet,” Alice remembered [per MOJO]. “She eventually emerged two weeks later in a different bathroom, having survived on sewer rats in the plumbing.”

Aptly, she emerged in the bathroom of country music star Charley Pride, whose first big hit was called Snakes Crawl At Midnight.

In related news, Strauss recently sat down for has named the iconic female shredder who proved a huge inspiration for her pursuit of a music career, and, when highlighting the five riffs that changed her life, has called a Scandinavian metal band her “Beatles”.

Orianthi is recovering well from her injury having played at a recent benefit concert that saw her play Livin’ on a Prayer with two generations of Bon Jovi guitarists, Richie Sambora and his replacement, Phil X.

Alice Cooper will head back out on tour in May ahead of a busy summer schedule for the band which will see them traipse the US and Europe.

Nita Strauss may be one of the most in-demand guitarists on the touring circuit – she's currently on tour alongside Apocalyptica before gearing up for her reunion with Alice Cooper for the spring and summer jaunt – but that doesn't mean she's immune to bad gigs. But what would she say was her worst gig ever?

“I was fortunate to have played the worst gig of my life early on,” she tells Guitar Player. “When I was 12 or 13, I joined my first band, ODA. I have no idea what the initials stood for, but I guess they meant something. I was still in middle school, and everybody else in the band was in high school.

“There was this tiny metal club in San Fernando called the Cobalt Café that held Battle of the Bands nights. We decided that we wanted to enter, but you had to sell 10 tickets for $10 each to get onstage. We didn't have a big circle of friends, so we sold a grand total of four tickets to the drummer’s girlfriend and someone’s brother.”

“After that, we were stuck. Who’s got 60 bucks? Well, my dad came to the rescue. He was a touring musician and he knew the deal, so he came to the soundcheck and bought our last six tickets so we could get on stage and play.”

Strauss recalls how the fledgling band had practiced three songs – two originals and a cover of Metallica's For Whom the Bell Tolls, and were buzzing with excitement. However, it seems like the audience – and the judges – weren't so keen...

“We came out and started rocking, and for some reason, almost everybody in the club walked out – including one of the other bands and the judges! My dad stuck around, and the four other people who bought our tickets were there. But that was about it.”

However, Strauss says that she has zero regrets about that early show – after all, it served as her gateway to the illustrious career she has now. Plus, everyone has to have a bad show at some point, right?

“Looking back on it now, I can say it was the crappiest gig I’ve ever played, but at the time, I was elated,” she reflects. “I was so fully immersed and happy in that moment to be onstage, wearing my boots and playing in front of a few people. The whole band was pumped. We didn’t care that everybody left. We didn’t even care that the judges left.

“I don’t know who won, or if they announced a winner. We were just like, ‘Yeah, we’re doing it! No matter the obstacles, no matter what happens, we're out here kicking ass!’ Of course, we didn't really kick any ass, but in our minds, in that moment, we kicked ass!”

It's a truth universally acknowledged that a torn hamstring is no fun – and Orianthi can attest to that. Having had to pull out of Alice Cooper's tour due to the injury, the guitarist has revealed how a torn hamstring and hip have disrupted her immediate plans and touring schedule – forcing her to approach AC/DC's Back in Black from, let's just say, another angle.

“I'm recovering from a slightly torn hamstring and hip,” she explains on the Guitar Hang podcast. “And I had to cancel some Alice Cooper dates, which I felt terrible – really terrible about. But I felt this terrible pain and I was, like, ‘I don't know, holding the guitar for two hours a night and not being able to move around.’

“And I called Alice, actually, when I was in Saudi Arabia, and I said, ‘I'm in a lot of pain. I'm not too sure what's going on.’ So I gave him a heads up and I said, ‘I don't know. I don't know what's happening.’ When I got back, yeah, they were, like, ‘Oh, you can't really do this.’ I'd never canceled anything before. So it weighed heavy on me. But now I'm feeling better and all of that.”

Despite the obvious consequences such an injury has on a musician with a schedule as packed as Orianthi, she's hopeful she'll be able to stand up for the upcoming shows – something she wasn't able to do at PRS' 40th anniversary concert.

“Playing the 40th anniversary for PRS sitting down on a chair, it was so bad,” she admits. “I was, like, ‘Man, this is so embarrassing.’ And I'm, like, in a tracksuit and playing with Dany [Daniela Villarreal] from The Warning – she's awesome. We played Back In Black.

A quick tip from Orianthi? “You should never play Back In Black sitting down. It was just weird because they didn't show me walking out. So my mother saw it. She goes, ‘Did they wheel you out? You just appeared on a chair.’ That was some weird shit. Anyway. What can you do?”

Aside from her link-up with Dany, Orianthi also treated audiences to a performance of First Time Blues – and surprised The Warning guitarist by gifting her the custom guitar she played that night.

In a last-minute plot twist, Gilby Clarke has been confirmed as touring guitarist in Alice Cooper’s band, and will be replacing Oranthi for a string of dates starting January 31.

The Godfather of Shock will be forgiven for placing Clarke under a shelter-in-place notice until the tour bus is fueled up and ready to go because finding someone to play electric guitar in Cooper’s touring band has been a cursed endeavor in recent months.

Clarke will be replacing the Australian guitar phenom Orianthi, after she was booked to return to Cooper’s touring band to sit in for current touring guitarist, Nita Strauss, who had a scheduling snafu. How has all this come to pass?

Well, the official release says “unforeseen circumstances” have forestalled Orianthi’s return to the Cooper camp, but it looks like she is in no fit shape to tour right now after revealing on Instagram that she has sustained an injury.

“Unfortunately I have a torn hamstring and damage to my hip after last tour,” she wrote. “Not sure exactly when it happened but the pain I feel/felt is bad… getting it fixed up now.”

Orianthi said then she would be able to make PRS Guitars’ 40th Anniversary Show but warned ticket holders she would have to perform seated before resting up. A few days later she posted a picture from the physio’s treatment room.

This is a real bummer for Orianthi, who is all systems go right now, finishing up her forthcoming studio album, Some Kind of Feeling, under the watching eye of Kevin ‘The Caveman’ Shirley, and tracking with her new supergroup alongside Cindy Blackman Santana and Rhonda Smith – with Jimi Hendrix producer Eddie Kramer in the control room.

Orianthi played with Alice Cooper from 2011 to 2014, and she told Guitar World that he is “like family.” When Cooper reached out to her for these dates, there was only going to be one answer.

“Working with him was such a blast, and it's such an honor. Alice is a legend,” she said. “I know the shows are going to be really fun. It's going to be just a whole different dynamic and sort of a change from Nita.”

Speaking about the differences between her style and Strauss’, Orianthi said Hurricane Nita was an “incredible player” but she would play Cooper’s tunes the way she always would.

“I play more classic blues rock, so it’s a different dynamic,” she said. “I’m pretty much going to do it my way. I’m just going to play the songs the way I played them before, and then, obviously, Alice adds the new stuff he wants me to add. Because I’m an artist, I don’t copy anything.”

Orianthi even had to play some Jenga with her schedule to make the tour. Alas, it was for nought, and now Clarke will be in her place, and will play Cooper’s shows from January 31 through to February 16. Touch wood.

You can find full dates and ticket details at Alice Cooper.

With ongoing solo shows, one album underway with producer Eddie Kramer and another with Kevin Shirley, Orianthi has a lot to do. But that didn’t stop her from carving out time for a run of shows with Alice Cooper in early 2025.

“Alice is like family,” she says of covering for Nita Strauss, who’d replaced her in Cooper’s band in 2014. “I thought it would be fun – then I realized, ‘I’ve got 25 songs to learn!’

“I do remember quite a bit of it, though. Working with him was such a blast. I know the shows are going to be really fun. It’s going to be a different dynamic and sort of a change from Nita.”

She’s also having fun with her signature Orange amp, the Oriverb. “When you get guitars that are not made well, and some artists stand behind them, it doesn't feel right,” she says. “They’re just looking for a paycheck.

“I could just have my name on this – but I actually need to like it. I’d feel really awful if I was selling something to people and thinking, ‘I would never use that.’ It has to be top-notch.”

Out of everything she has to look forward to in the coming year, she’s most excited about taking herself back to basics. “When I was a kid, I’d lock myself away for a day with my guitar,” she recalls. “I’m hoping to do that when I get back from the Alice Cooper shows – if I’m not in a bedazzled casket!

“I have to find those moments where I can just sit with different records and play. The important thing is getting back to just me with a guitar, feeling inspired. It’s about finding that peace.”

You’re rejoining Alice Cooper in January and February. How did that happen?

“An email that basically said, ‘Hey, Alice would love for you to join him because Nita is busy.’ I was like, ‘Absolutely!’ Well, actually, at first I said, ‘I’m not sure because I have my own stuff going on right now with my tour.’ But we moved things around and made it work.”

What do you bring to Alice’s music that’s different from Nita?

“I bring something really different to the band. Nita brings rock and metal, which is awesome. She’s an incredible player, but the way she plays is different from me. I play more classic blues rock, so it’s a different dynamic. It’s going to be interesting for the people who are watching and are used to the dynamic with Nita. We chatted about it the other day – we’re good friends.”

So you’ll be playing the songs your way rather than Nita’s?

“I’m just going to play the songs the way I played them before, and then, obviously, add the new stuff the way Alice wants me to. I’m an artist – I don’t copy anything. People expect that from me. Anything you step into, you approach it that way.”

Are you sticking with your basic rig?

“It’s totally new stuff. I’m going to have three new PRS guitars. At the end of the shows I’m actually going to sign them, and Alice will too, then we're going to donate them. We’ll auction them off and send the money to a children’s hospital.

“It’ll be special playing those guitars every night, knowing that money will be raised for a children’s charity.”

Your signature Orange amps have been a hit. What other signature gear do you have on tap?

“I’m very excited about my Epiphone SJ-200 – that’s coming out very soon. I just got the prototype and it just looks so amazing. It’s essentially my red SJ-200 that sold out. The top-selling artist acoustics were Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and my guitar, which is insane!”

Epiphone has had a lot of success with signature guitars by artists like Joe Bonamassa.

“I love Epiphones – I think they do an incredible job. They’re just solid. I can’t wait for mine to be out next year. It’s going to be lower in pricing, so people can afford it. It was really tough when you create a guitar like that, especially with the wood, mother of pearl and gold plating. It’s quite extravagant.”

“I want it so people and kids can buy it. That’s why it was important for me to do a Crush version of my amp, too. Growing up, I couldn’t afford these guitars and amps; I would save up and it took me a while. Ao I don’t take anything for granted.”

Are you very involved in the creation of your signature gear?

“I’m so OCD. We go through a lot of prototypes to make sure it’s absolutely perfect. It has to be something I would play in the studio straight off the production line; it has to be a guitar I would grab and use on stage.”

Do you have plans to update your signature PRS?

“I’m excited about the possibility of a new PRS in the near future, but we just did the Blooming Lotus a year or two ago. I’m giving it a minute. People have been looking at my white PRS and asking when I’m going to do a signature of that one. But white is kind of hard to put into production, so we’ll see.”

On the new music front, you worked on First Time Blues with Joe Bonamassa in 2024. What was that like?

“Joe’s awesome. He’s a good friend and a great guitar player, artist and person. I was scrolling Instagram and was like, ‘I’m gonna reach out.’ I said to him, ‘I’m gonna be in the studio, and I’ve got this song… if you’d be up for it, I’ll send you a rough.’ He said, ‘Totally down.’ He just asked for some Diet Coke and cigars, and he was good to go!”

What’s the trick to sharing space with Joe, given that you’re both such powerful players?

“You just have a conversation musically. It’s like a back-and-forth – but you kind of want to step to the side and let Joe just freaking blow, you know? That’s what everyone wants to hear because he’s an insane player. I don’t want to hear myself while he’s playing! Then you step in and play a solo; and at the end you play together. It’s always off the cuff.”

How do you view where you’re at with your playing?

“I’m very colorful. I just want to better myself and never stop learning. I’m very blessed to have amazing friends who are legends. Carlos Santana is like my father – he’ll text me a playlist and say, ‘Listen to this jazz record. You’ve gotta play along to it.’ And I do, and I think, ‘This is cool! This is outside the box!’

“I’ll try to come up with different melodies – not play the same thing and just go off on tangents. I do that sometimes, and I want to do that more. This year, I’m going to try and find more space for myself. I’m going to try to submerge myself by just playing guitar and figuring out music by myself, just sitting with my guitar.”

Orianthi knows a thing or two about playing with Alice Cooper. She had previously joined The Godfather of Shock Rock's camp between 2011 and 2014, before passing the baton to Nita Strauss.

Now, just over a decade later, she’s returning to the fold to fill in for Strauss on next year’s Too Close For Comfort tour – a decision she sums up simply: “Alice is like family.”

“Working with him was such a blast, and it's such an honor. Alice is a legend,” she tells Guitar World. “I know the shows are going to be really fun. It's going to be just a whole different dynamic and sort of a change from Nita.”

The invitation came via an email that cut straight to the chase. “It basically said, ‘Hey, Alice would love for you to join him because Nita [Strauss] is busy.’

“I was like, ‘Absolutely.’ Well, actually, at first, I said, ‘I'm not sure because I have my own stuff going on right now with my tour.’ But we moved things around and made it work.”

With Orianthi on board, Alice Cooper fans can expect her to bring her blues-inflected playing to the table.

“I bring something really different to the band than Nita does. She brings rock and metal – which is awesome. She's an incredible player, like, the way she plays is different from me. I play more classic blues rock, so it's a different dynamic,” she explains.

“I'm pretty much going to do it my way. I'm just going to play the songs the way I played them before, and then, obviously, Alice adds the new stuff he wants me to add. Because I'm an artist, I don't copy anything.”

In other news, Orianthi recently revealed how her new signature Orange amp drew inspiration from her meeting with Alexander Dumble.

Guitar World's full interview with Orianthi will be published in the next few weeks.

Back in 2022, Ibanez-wielding electric guitar virtuoso Nita Strauss left Alice Cooper's band after eight years with the shock-rock titan.

Though Strauss's future with Cooper was uncertain at the time – it was announced just days after her departure from the Cooper fold that she would be joining pop star Demi Lovato's live band – Strauss would join Cooper onstage for a one-off encore just three months after her departure, and subsequently re-join his band full-time the following year.

Now, it's been announced that Strauss will once again be taking a leave of absence from Cooper's band, and that one of her predecessors in the group, Orianthi, will be taking her place.

Orianthi toured with Cooper from 2011 through 2014, and will re-join the latter for a series of shows from late January through mid-February 2025.

“When Orianthi moved on to pursue her own career in 2014, we were lucky to find Nita,” Cooper said in a statement.

“Over the past decade, Nita, Chuck [Garric, Cooper's bassist], and Tommy [Henriksen, another one of Cooper's guitarists] have also launched their own projects, and we always try to coordinate our schedule so we can keep the band together, but these shows came up after Nita had already committed to another tour.

“So, I reached out to Orianthi, and thankfully she was available to jump back in, so we're all really looking forward to doing these shows with her. I’m so fortunate to always have such great musicians to work with.”

In the years since she left Cooper's band, Orianthi has kept plenty busy, releasing two studio albums – 2020's O and 2022's Rock Candy – and working on plenty of signature gear.

Orianthi's one of the rare guitarists with dual endorsements, having created a signature SJ-200 acoustic guitar with Gibson, while maintaining her longstanding relationship with PRS.

As if that wasn't enough, she's also created not one, but two, signature amps with Orange in the last three months – enough to make anyone feel lazy.

For a full list of tour dates, visit Alice Cooper’s website.

British guitar sensation Sophie Lloyd will make her live solo US debut at LA’s iconic Whisky A Go Go on January 16, 2025.

Earlier this year, Lloyd announced her debut solo UK show, which was initially scheduled to take place at London’s Camden Assembly. That sold out in just five minutes, and due to the sheer demand, the event was later upgraded to a bigger venue: Camden's The Underworld

Now, the guitarist – who rose to prominence on social media by transforming classic tracks into virtuosic shred workouts, before joining Machine Gun Kelly's band – will follow it up with a maiden solo headliner in the States.

To celebrate the latest announcement, she’s shared an incendiary, shred-filled rendition of Alice Cooper’s Poison on her signature Kiesel guitar – an axe players can spec themselves.

Her fingers flit between key guitar moments and searing vocal lines, offering a tasteful shred take on the classic tune, which showcases both her talent and ability to not overplay.

Her debut solo album, Imposter Syndrome, released last year to great acclaim. It featured big-name players like Trivium’s Matt Heafy, who hailed Lloyd as an “immensely talented force,” Chris Robertson, and the first female Kramer signature artist, Lzzy Hale.

“We put so much work and love into the Imposter Syndrome album and we’re so excited to finally bring that to the stage, first in London in October and then to LA in January,” says Lloyd.

“I’m so grateful for the strong American audience I’ve gained online over the years, and I think it’s about time I head over there and rock out with them in person! It was incredible to see the response to our London show and I hope the US will be just as excited to experience what we’ve got in store.

“It’s especially special to be playing at The Whisky, which is such an important part of rock and roll history, where almost all of my guitar heroes have played multiple times,” she continues.

Lloyd first graced the cover of Guitar World in July '23, and during the tell-all chat, she revealed that a cartoon character first inspired her to pick up the guitar.

Away from her work with MGK, Lloyd has forged a formidable reputation online with her musically acrobatic cover versions. That’s seen her take on Enter Sandman with the help of snakes and a tarantula, and deliver a Cliffs of Dover-esque version of The Office theme.

But video shoots can be a grueling endeavor. Lloyd recently recalled how she nearly lost a finger during a shoot with fellow YouTuber Cole Rolland. Thankfully, all digits have remained intact and she's ready to take the next step in her solo career on stages either side of the Atlantic.

Head to TicketWeb for tickets for the show, and to Sophie Lloyd for special VIP packages.

Ryan Roxie, who played guitar for the who's who of classic rock bands including Alice Cooper and Slash's Snakepit, has one piece for guitarists aspiring to become touring musicians: master rhythm guitar.

“The skill to play solid rhythm guitar always takes the back seat to playing lead and I don’t know why,” he reflects in a new interview with Guitarist.

“Without Malcolm there wouldn’t be Angus, or at least not the Angus we all know. Learning rhythm guitar will actually help you become a better lead player as it will lock you in more with the ‘rhythm section’ aka bass and drums.

“Wanna get popular on YouTube? Play mind-blowing solos and post ’em up. Wanna get employed with a touring band? Play mind-blowing rhythm parts as well as solos that ultimately lift the song that becomes popular on all musical platforms, including YouTube!”

In a 2023 Guitar World interview, Roxie talked about the importance of being a versatile player and relinquishing any ego related to only playing solos, especially in the Alice Cooper setup.

“It doesn't matter if it's me, Tommy [Henriksen, Alice Cooper guitarist], Nita [Strauss, guitarist], Kane [Roberts, former guitarist], or whoever; we all have a role to play during each song. There's never really an argument about who's taking a solo; the bottom line is that a lot of the songs have two or three solos, so there's never a shortage.

“Also, we all have such different styles, which is also considered when we choose who will do what. For instance, if it's a song from the '80s era, that's tailored more toward someone like Kane or Nita – Kane especially, since he wrote those songs.

“But if we're talking about the classic stuff from the '70s, that's where I get my pentatonic thrills in. And Tommy is someone who can slip in anywhere and pretty much comfortably cover anything that we need.”

Elsewhere in the new interview, Roxie refers to Brian May as “one of the most important guitarists I know” when it comes to “style, tone, image and, most importantly, songs.”

“One only has to listen to Queens’s 1977 News Of The World to hear just how many different styles of guitar you can record on one record,” he notes. “Classical, punk, blues, Spanish… it’s got it all! Plus the guy still looks like a rockstar when he hits the stage. Absolutely love and respect that guy!”

Damon Johnson was born to rock. He grew up in Georgia and eventually moved to Alabama, idolizing the likes of Eddie Van Halen and even crafting his own Eddie-like Floyd Rose-equipped super Strat – before returning to his Gibson Les Paul roots.

“I guess I’m boring when it comes to gear – I just need a Les Paul,” Johnson says. “But with my band Brother Cane, I’ll step on a wah pedal every once in a while. I guess I’m officially a traditionalist. I’m very happy with that.”

After forming Brother Cane – who toured with Van Halen and Aerosmith and made waves on ‘90s rock radio – Johnson held it down with Alice Cooper, Thin Lizzy and Black Star Riders before taking on the task of replacing Gary Rossington in Lynyrd Skynyrd in 2023.

Some would jump at the chance to make the iconic Freebird solo their own – but Johnson is a purist.

“The fans want to hear those songs,” he says, “and those songs and parts are perfect. You better play the solo for Simple Man or Freebird note for note. If you play those wrong, you’ll hear about it on YouTube the next day.”

Johnson has been in the same spot with Cooper and Lizzy. But he does like to noodle now and again, and that’s where the reformed Brother Cane comes in. 

“I love to improvise; I do it every day in my hotel room or at home. I get plenty of that in with Brother Cane – putting my own style down and expressing myself in my own songs.

“But when it comes to these established classic rock bands, I’m a fan as much as the people in the audience. I want to give them what I’d want to hear if I were sitting in that seat.”

While Skynyrd has ongoing dates with ZZ Top, Johnson is looking to the future, which includes Brother Cane’s first studio record since 1998’s Wishpool. 

“I’m getting the itch to get back into the studio, but the holes in my calendar are pretty scattered,” he reports.

“I’d love to move the Brother Cane thing forward between dates with Skynyrd. The Skynyrd thing has got control over my calendar; but I’ve got space to do other stuff, so I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. I feel very fortunate to have all of this activity going on.”

When did the guitar first enter your life?

“My dad had two Gibson guitars that he bought in 1960. He was a traveling farm equipment salesman, and an older colleague had recommended he get something to do to pass the time in hotel rooms. He had an acoustic and an electric, and my very first memory is of seeing those guitars around the house.”

What got you playing?

“They belonged to my dad, who was kind of my superhero, so the two things were connected. I was always intrigued, then I became obsessed – I’d see him play and jam with friends who came over. And my brother was a fantastic acoustic player.

“I was like, ‘Okay, anybody can do this. I can do this one day!’ When I was in grade school in the ‘70s, I discovered all this amazing rock music, and it all hit at the same time.”

Is it safe to assume that most of your early influences were classic rock?

“Kiss, Doobie Brothers, Bad Company, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Zeppelin, Sabbath and Pink Floyd. But in the late ‘70s, things got interesting – Aerosmith and Van Halen changed everything.”

You were born in Georgia but moved to Birmingham, Alabama, early in your career.

“I went from one garage band to another and even had some real gigs in bars. I sometimes set up in shopping malls just to get a little attention. In my early 20s I ended up playing in a house band four nights a week; I was really growing in confidence and belief in myself.

“One night played at a popular nightclub in downtown Birmingham. About two weeks later, a manager who had heard about the gig called and asked if I wanted to join Split the Dark, an established band. I wouldn't have been more excited if David Bowie had asked me to be his guitar player! That’s why I moved to Birmingham.”

How did Brother Cane come about?

“Joining Split the Dark was a huge deal. Everyone in my life said, ‘You have to do this.’ I played in several bands in Birmingham – but I wasn’t the key member; I didn’t start these bands. I went back to the same manager and he offered his support if I put my own band together, which led to Brother Cane.”

What did your rig look like around that time?

“I had a homemade guitar with a Floyd Rose. It was fun, and I had a Marshall half-stack and a bunch of pedals on the floor. I even started getting into rack-mounted effects – at least, as much as I could afford, because of the influence of players like Steve Lukather.

“But in 1989 I played in a Memphis band and the other guitar player – sort of an underground legend, Eddie Shaver, the son of Billy Joe Shaver – was just gifted. When I heard that guy plug a Stratocaster straight into a Mesa Boogie head with no pedals, nothing, and get the tone he had, it changed my life.

“I took the Floyd Rose home, got my Les Paul out, and I’ve never turned back from that. The influence of Eddie, Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction and the Black Crowes hitting right after that fueled my thinking.”

Is that what shaped Brother Cane’s guitar sound?

“Yes. I felt the parallels between their sound and my other influences. If the Black Crowes could get a record deal, why couldn’t I? We were just down the street in Birmingham. So it was Les Paul's and Marshall's from then on.”

Hair metal and super Strats were the flavor of the day.

“I’m proud that our reputation as an ‘80s hair band was nothing. We weren’t a grunge band; we were just a straight-ahead rock ’n’ roll band that somehow managed to etch out a little real estate on rock radio for the better part of the ‘90s.

“We were like a sub-genre, which is why we couldn’t just go out and tour with anybody. We were grateful to tour with Van Halen, Robert Plant and Aerosmith – but the kids at the time were all going to see Smashing Pumpkins, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam.

“I get it, but we weren’t part of that, and it led to the demise of Brother Cane. We couldn’t find an infrastructure to succeed, be self-contained and make a living doing our own records. It was tough.”

The first two records – Brother Cane and Seeds – held their own, with And Fools Shine On going to number one and being part of the Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers soundtrack. 

“The first record allowed us to make the second, and also the third, Wishpool. We were on rock radio constantly between the summer of ’93 and the summer of ’94; it was just incredible. Looking back, I’m still amazed that it even happened.”

What was touring with Van Halen like?

“It was the greatest experience of our lives. There’s no band I went to see more as a teenager than Van Halen. For me, nothing occupied more real estate than Van Halen. I had a bumper sticker and played every album on vinyl and cassette.

“I did my best to figure out some of Eddie’s insane alchemy. So, yeah, to get a call that we’d gotten even just a couple of opening slots with Van Halen was amazing. And that’s how it started; but Eddie, Sammy Hagar and the other guys took a shine to us and had us come for more dates when they needed an opener.”

Did you get to talk with Eddie much?

“Man, it was life-changing. It was amazing to get behind the curtain and become friends with all four of them. I have priceless memories of conversations and shenanigans with all those guys.

“On that tour in 1994, Eddie was sober, super clear and super focused. He was a proud parent; Wolfgang was maybe three or four then and he’d be running around the dressing room. There’s no way we could have had any idea that the kid would turn out to be what he is!

“Eddie and I would have conversations about family; I had three kids myself then. We connected on other things besides guitar. He was super gracious – he showed me his rig and his guitars and even shipped a brand-new Peavey Wolfgang guitar to my house after the tour. I still have it and I cherish it to this day.”

Did touring with Eddie – and later, Joe Perry and Aerosmith – impact your gear choices?

“My gear odyssey has been a lot of fun. My amp of choice changed after Brother Cane toured with Aerosmith in 1994, following the winter NAMM show. Joe Perry introduced me to Rick St. Pierre, who’d launched this new amp called Wizard. Rick took a real shine to me because he loved my blood-and-guts approach to playing guitar.

“The way I play has more in common with Angus Young and Joe Walsh than with Eddie Van Halen, who’s a technical, flashier player. I love sitting around attempting that stuff, but I tend to be more melodic. Rick recognized that and was familiar with Brother Cane, and that relationship continues today.

“The Wizard stuff was a staple of my rig through Alice Cooper, Thin Lizzy and Black Star Riders. Had it not been for my relationship with Gary Rossington and his family, and how important Gary’s amps are to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s sound, I’d be playing Wizards there too.

“But I’m currently playing Gary’s personal Peavey Penta and Magnatone amps. It’s almost like his spirit is there, and it’s such an honor for me. He ran the Peavey and the Magnatone together at the same time to give the front-of-house guy some flexibility.

“If he was playing a rhythm part he’d lean on the Magnatone, but I’d encourage readers to research Gary’s Peavey Penta – it’s badass. It sounds just like a big, nasty, woolly vintage Marshall.”

What was it like sharing space with Scott Gorham in Thin Lizzy?

“I was incredibly flattered that Scott would even ask. When it happened, Alice Cooper was the first person I called. I talked with him about how much I loved Thin Lizzy, and Alice was super supportive. I showed up the first day beyond prepared, knowing the Gary Moore and Brian Robertson versions. 

“After the first couple of rehearsals Scott said, ‘Buddy, you’re playing your ass off and we love it. But don’t feel like you have to play those songs note for note. I want you to be Damon Johnson… I want you to bring your style.

“My gear has been consistent for decades. It’s not that I’m not open to other stuff, but I’m not going to Guitar Center and checking out stuff because effects have not been an essential part of any band that I’ve ever been in. But I argue that Wizard amps are some of the great amps ever made; it’s like classic Marshall adjacent.

Is that the same mindset you bring to Lynyrd Skynyrd?

“That’s how Thin Lizzy prepared me for Skynyrd. When I got the phone call from Johnny Van Zant and Rickey Medlocke about needing someone to fill in while Gary was home recovering, they said, ‘Damon, we need you to put in the time and learn these songs note for note.’ I said, ‘Guys, I wouldn’t dream of doing it any other way.’”

Gary’s amps aside, is there room for new discoveries in your rig?

“My gear has been consistent for decades. It’s not that I’m not open to other stuff, but I’m not going to Guitar Center and checking out stuff because effects have not been an essential part of any band that I’ve ever been in. But I argue that Wizard amps are some of the great amps ever made; it’s like classic Marshall adjacent.”

You fired Brother Cane back up in 2022. Is anything new on the horizon?

“Skynyrd’s tour with ZZ Top resumes in August,  but we’ve got some one-offs planned. I’ve got some new songs I’m writing with the newest version of Brother Cane.

“Glenn Maxey and I put the band back together, and the rest of the guys are people I’ve played with in my solo band for the last 10 years. So it’s just me and my friends. I’m grateful they want to play the old songs, but we’ll put out a couple of new ones in October of 2024. A new full-length Brother Cane record is definitely in my plans.”

• Follow Johnson on Instagram.

In a new interview, Alice Cooper has recalled the time Eddie Van Halen asked him to set up a guitar lesson with songwriter and session ace Glen Campbell.

Campbell is obviously best known for his mammoth country hits – including Rhinestone Cowboy and his recordings of Jimmy Webb’s Wichita Lineman and By the Time I Get to Phoenix – but he was a formidable guitarist, too.

That talent was further honed across countless sessions as part of LA’s rotating line-up of session regulars known as The Wrecking Crew. Many guitarists paid tribute to Campbell’s playing when he passed away in 2017 – and it seems his abilities did not escape Van Halen’s attention, years earlier.

For his part, Cooper developed a friendship with Campbell through the golf circuit – both of them having spent parts of their lives in Arizona. Now, in a conversation with BBC radio’s The Rock Show With Johnnie Walker, the frontman recalled getting a visit from EVH, ostensibly to play golf with Cooper.

"One time Eddie Van Halen called me up and said, ‘Hey, I wanna come to Arizona and play golf,’” Cooper tells Walker [as transcribed by Blabbermouth]. 

“And I went, ‘OK, great.’ Now, Eddie, after the first game of golf, he said, ‘How’s my game?’ And I went, ‘Eddie, you are a great guitar player.’ [Laughs] And he says, ‘Yeah, but what about my game?’ I go, ‘Eddie, you’re a great songwriter.’

At this point, as Cooper tells it, Van Halen dropped the pretence. 

“He says, ‘Okay, let me tell you the real reason I wanted to come in,’” remembers Cooper. “‘I need for you to get me a guitar lesson with Glen Campbell.’ 

“Glen Campbell was such a great guitarist that other guitar players could hear what he was doing and go, ‘Oh my gosh, this guy's amazing.’ So Glen Campbell was going to give Eddie Van Halen a guitar lesson… 

“He came over to the house. Glen lived pretty close to me, and they sat down, and he said, ‘Eddie, sit down. There's a guitar right over there…’”

We’re not sure what impact the lesson had on Van Halen, but Campbell might have been one of the only guitarists around at that point with the chops to keep EVH guessing. 

For a taster of what it might have involved, check out this clip of Campbell and Phil Baugh’s guitar duel on a 1965 episode of Guitar Boogie.

It lasted for just over seven minutes, but what a glorious 420-plus seconds it was. Judas Priest’s pioneering guitarists Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing were back onstage together for the first time in more than 11 years playing some of their biggest hits to a worldwide audience.

The celebration took place November 5, 2022, in the Microsoft Theater (Los Angeles) at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, where Judas Priest received the Lifetime Achievement Award. Following a brief introduction by Alice Cooper, the band barreled through You’ve Got Another Thing Coming, Living After Midnight and Breaking the Law as celebrities including Dave Grohl and Drew Barrymore raised their fists and sang along.

Downing was joined on stage by the band’s current guitarist, Richie Faulkner, and both seemed to have the same fashion designer and hairdresser. Wearing the band’s patented studded black leather, wielding Flying V guitars and bobbing their flowing blond tresses, their chemistry was as tight as their precision riffing and synchronized stage moves. 

On the other side of the stage were bassist Ian Hill and Tipton, the latter wearing a Judas Priest baseball cap and eyeglasses and playing a black Hamer Phantom. Possibly due to his worsening Parkinson’s condition, Tipton remained fairly stationary and glanced downward – an elder statesman calmly taking in the voluble scene and reaping the rewards of 50-plus years of dedication to his craft. 

Onstage, vocalist Rob Halford stood as one with Downing. Offstage and before the show, the environment wasn’t so friendly. Downing wasn’t allowed to walk the red carpet with his former bandmates, had a separate dressing room and received the cold shoulder from everyone in the band except Faulkner, who replaced Downing when he left the band. Even so, Downing wasn’t about to let ugly politics ruin a good party.

“I was flying high, and It was fantastic,” Downing says, recalling the performance. “I was there for the fans who wanted to see me with Priest again, and it was a great moment. People loved it and lots of them said hello, including Richie, who was really nice and really cool. I wish I could say the same for my former bandmates.”

Downing officially quit Judas Priest in 2011. Due to personal and musical tensions that had grown over the years between him and some of his bandmates, he opted not to play their planned last hurrah, the Epitaph Tour. Downing insists the band agreed to break up after the final date of the lengthy run.

“Everybody went, ‘He jumped ship. He left our beloved Priest,’” Downing says. “That wasn’t the case at all. If I’d have known that the last tour wasn’t going to be the last tour and they’d be carrying on for another 10 years, things would probably have been a lot different.”

When Downing bowed out, Judas Priest recruited Faulkner, who breathed new life into the band, and with whom Judas Priest has continued to tour and record. Faulkner played on 2014’s Redeemer of Souls and 2018’s Firepower and toured for both albums. 

Downing never hoped to replace Faulkner; however, when Tipton announced he was too ill from Parkinson’s to tour, Downing contacted management and expressed interest in rejoining, but too much bad blood had passed under the bridge for the members to accept his offer. Instead, they hired their producer, Andy Sneap, to join them onstage.

“I graciously requested to return when there was an opportunity, but the guys in the band said, ‘No. We don’t want you.’ I said, ‘Are you sure? Before I start another project, are you sure you don’t want me back in the band?’ Rob, Glenn and Ian said, ‘No,’ and that was it.”

Downing says he was especially upset at being rejected since he had supported Halford’s decision to rejoin Judas Priest after a 14-year hiatus. And he sat back and patiently waited for six years while Tipton worked on the project Tipton, Entwistle & Powell, which released Edge of the World in 2006. When it became clear as unblemished crystal that no-one in Judas Priest’s camp wanted Downing back, he took his gear, instantly recognizable tone and familiar songwriting style and soaked it all in a vat of piss and vinegar. 

Then he connected with former Judas Priest vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens, who sang for Judas Priest between 1996 and 2003 (while Halford was working on Fight, Halford and 2wo), and the two formed KK’s Priest, a searing, soaring metal band that takes no great pains to differentiate itself sonically from the music Downing co-wrote in Judas Priest.

“Here’s the thing,” Downing says. “Judas Priest was my baby. I created it. I stuck with it from the very beginning. I hired other people to be a part of the band and then it was my life. It was my career. It was my legacy. It was my legend. And the hardest thing in the world was letting it go.

“And now I’m acknowledging I am no longer a member of Judas Priest, but I am still a large part of Judas Priest, and anyone who knows the band can tell that by listening to what I’m doing now.”

KK’s Priest released their debut album, Sermons of the Sinner, October 1, 2021. In addition to drawing from Judas Priest’s trademark musical style, Downing referenced Priest songs including Sinner in the title cut, The Sentinel in Return of the Sentinel and his own history in Hail for the Priest. 

Since the Covid pandemic prevented KK’s Priest from touring, Downing kept writing riffs, leads and lyrics, and less than six months after wrapping Sermons of the Sinner, he finished writing The Sinner Rides Again.

With a lineup that features Owens, guitarist A.J. Mills, bassist Tony Newton and drummer Sean Elg, the band spent the summer playing a handful of festivals and a couple of shows at K.K.’s club in Wolverhampton, KK’s Steel Mill.

“Wolverhampton is right outside of Birmingham, and we used to play there a lot in the early Priest days,” he says. During the band’s July 6 show at KK’s Steel Mill, the band played nine Judas Priest songs (including their cover of Fleetwood Mac’s The Green Manalishi) and six numbers by KK’s Priest.

“I like to do a good cross-section of songs from the first two albums along with some Priest songs the fans want to hear,” he says. “We have videos for six new songs, and as we keep releasing tracks from the new album, we’ll keep adding them to the set.”

At the moment, Downing is spending some down time at home before heading out for more shows in October. While he still has several sour grapes to flick at some of his former bandmates, he seems less bitter than he was when he released Sermons of the Sinner and more intent to focus on the promising future of KK’s Priest than dwell on any past misfortune.

Judas Priest fans seemed to be split on Sermons of the Sinner. Some heralded it as a thrilling return to form; others thought it was a reflection of an artist trying to recapture his former glory.

“It’s a strange world, isn’t it? The set of circumstances about my departure from the band were so heavily misconstrued that people formed an opinion right away about me. Management put out a press release: ‘K.K. has retired from Judas Priest.’ Everyone thought I was leaving to open a golf course. Priest fans didn’t understand the situation and couldn’t understand what I was upset about. But now we’re working with some new people and we’re on a new label and I’m looking forward to moving on with KK’s Priest.”

At what point did you accept that you couldn’t live in the past and you had to move on with a new band?

“It was very hard to have to give up the baton to new blood. Lots of tears were shed and there were lots of sleepless nights. People thought I was an asshole. But that wasn’t it. I was completely dedicated to metal and the legacy of it, as I am today. The truth is, I gave up touring with Priest because I was worn down and I felt battered. I felt beaten. I felt like I haven’t got a voice. I felt I was being trod upon – even right up to the point of the farewell tour. So I just keep it going in my own way.” 

At this point, there’s no reason metal fans should have to choose between the Rob Halford-fronted Judas Priest and KK’s Priest. You aren’t sports teams. 

“I was the K.K. in Judas Priest and now I’ve got KK’s Priest because I’m the same player. I’ve got the same articulation. I’m using the same amps and speakers, the same approach to what I think a good song should be. I’ve got the same ideas about what makes a good guitar sound and a good lead sound. I’m just doing what I started to do in the early days.”

Do you feel that KK’s Priest resembles early Judas Priest?

“Not really, because back then my musical vocabulary was quite limited. It was acceptable for the day. It’s more like I’m starting over now with this band that isn’t that well known yet. In the late ’60s and ’70s, I primarily played the major and minor pentatonic and the Aeolian scale, which is the natural minor scale, which is my personal favorite, and it’s the same as the relative major scale. 

“Other than that, we would do a few chromatic things, or we’d take things from different styles without knowing what the scales were. Maybe we did do something that was diminished, but at the time we didn’t know it was from the diminished scale. We just liked how it sounded. 

“But when you educate yourself, you start to integrate all these other scales – the harmonic minor, the Ionian and others so that you’ve got a bigger, louder voice. I enjoy integrating all of these styles so there are a lot more tools in that toolbox than I had in 1971, and that helps a lot with songwriting.”

In any way, do you want KK’s Priest to sound different from what you wrote in Judas Priest?

“For the first record, I was happy to have a bit of a retro sound, where some of those songs could have been created in the ’70s, ’80s or ’90s. I think this one is good for the present day with an eye toward the future. But a song like Brothers of the Road is about guys in metal bands meeting up backstage at festivals and gigs. We are all road warriors. 

“Sometimes we’re out there for months on end with a suitcase full of dirty clothes, but we get on with it and we get the job done, and we enjoy it. That could have been on [Judas Priest’s 1981 album] Point of Entry. It’s the same idea as Heading Out to the Highway. But the tones are a little bit more edgy because it adds to the excitement of the songs. It’s a bit more risky, a bit more gung-ho. A bit more, Let’s fucking get out there and rock!”

Sermons of the Sinner made it perfectly clear that you own your sound. Why not modify it even more on The Sinner Rides Again by using different production techniques, songwriting styles or guitar tones, and making fewer direct references to Priest songs so no one can accuse you of being stuck in the past? 

“Well, I’m not doing this to be a version of something from the past – a different version of Judas Priest. That’s not the case at all. All the fans and people that don’t get that have to understand that I was there at the very beginning. I always wanted to be in Judas Priest even before I auditioned for Judas Priest and failed. 

“I knew I had to go back. I kept knocking on the door until I got through it [toward the end of 1969]. And I was able to invite people into that band. I brought Glenn into Priest in 1974. He was much more commercially minded than me, but I knew he was a good player. I wanted somebody that could play leads, write songs and play rhythm as well. And I thought having two guitarists would really impact the band and make it really strong. 

“I couldn’t think of another band like us that had more than one guitar player. There were some, but most of them were in the States. There was Wishbone Ash, but they weren’t a heavy rock band. I wanted Glenn and everyone to be a part of this amazing journey to create music that didn’t exist.”

Like Judas Priest, KK’s Priest features two guitarists. How did you hook up with your new sidekick, A.J. Mills?

“I went to primary school with A.J.’s uncle, and we’ve stayed friends. And then A.J. started to play the guitar as a teenager. I’ve mentored him and his career since then and now he’s 34 and he’s ready for the big stage. In fact, he’s been on it! So that’s cool because we’re from the same town and there’s metal blood in our veins.” 

A.J. is credited on the first KK’s Priest album, but you wrote all the songs.

“I was happy to do it myself. But I was equally happy to collaborate with him on two of the new songs because it’s good for A.J. to take on more of a role in the band. I’ll be 72 this year, and at some point, it would be great if somebody could take over for me, whenever that might be. Hopefully, it’s a long way down the line, but you never know. I lost my sister suddenly a few years ago and that scared me, to be honest. It was quite sudden, and she was just 70.”

Do you ever think about Glenn and how Parkinson’s Disease has impacted what he can do as a guitarist?

“It’s terribly sad to see what’s happened to Glenn. And I’m extremely proud of our relationship and what we did and achieved together. I respect him more than anybody in the band, to be fair, because Glenn was very hardworking, and he had talent. We wrote a lot of great songs together. And on a social level, we did well for a long time.” 

You’ve been critical of him in the past, even accusing him of drinking too much onstage. 

“I don’t want to speak too much about what was said and done. That’s all been beaten into the ground. But there was always a difference between myself and Glenn. He had a different relationship with management than I did, and that became problematic for me. I felt like I had no control over band decisions. 

“But Glenn will always have a place in my heart, as much as we were at loggerheads on lots of things, we made great music together. And maybe even he wasn’t in control after a certain point. Who knows? But there’s always the other side of the coin and the fans need to realize that.” 

Do you and A.J. have different playing styles?

“Not really. When he was younger, he liked nu metal, but over the years he has looked up to me and my sound. He has played with me for a while, so our styles are similar, and they work well together. He uses heavier strings, so his voicings have a little more low end to them. And we tune down one-half step, so when we fired up his rig and he played through Celestion G12 speakers and started chugging really good, he loved it.”

Do you use lighter strings? 

“I use Dean Markley .08 through .38. I’ve always done that because I don’t have really big, strong hands. I don’t think I ever did, but now at my age it’s good to have lighter strings. They’re easy to bend and they just feel right.” 

Do you prefer to play runs with legato or alternate picking?

“I’ll do entire runs through several octaves using all economy picking. I have fun doing that. It’s quite a challenge, but I can do it. I can play just as fast when I alternate pick as I can when I use legato. 

“To be perfectly honest, I would use a lot more legato in my sound if I had pulled it off all my life. It’s just hard to trust it a little bit and to speak as well with it unless you’ve really got that overdriven and compressed sound. 

“When you’re in the house and you’re playing, you get to pull it off. When you’ve got a big double-bass kit and everything else going off onstage at the same time, well, it’s a two-guitar band so it’s never a sure thing. If I’m playing a ballad and everybody holds back then, yeah, it’s a lot easier to use. And I do use it in a couple of songs now.”

You wrote and recorded Sermons of the Sinner on your own during Covid in a mere four months. How much of a break did you take before you started writing again for The Sinner Rides Again?

“When we finished the first record, the Covid thing was still there and the agents were saying, ‘There’s a backlog of bookings and engagements that need to be filled. Don’t count your blessings about getting on the road.’ So I thought to myself, ‘Well, I’ll just do another record.’ I work spontaneously and fast and I switch onto auto pilot. If it comes out good, it’s good. If it doesn’t, I’ll try something else. But it is what it is because I am who I am. 

“When I sit down to write a song like One More Shot at Glory, it’s a wonderful place for my brain to be in, so no wonder I rock and roll fast and furious and get the job done quickly. I’ve got so much content to work with. I can’t speak for Glenn, but maybe that’s why we were so prolific as writers in Judas Priest over the years. If anything, the only thing that really slowed us down was the odd task of having to agree with each other. Now I don’t have to do that. 

“I fly on my own and I haven’t really done that since 1969, 1970 and 1971 when I was doing the writing back when we were just a four-piece band. It’s great to have A.J. involved, but I’m really reveling in the fact that I could sit down and do another album and it would probably only take me three or four weeks to get the content together. That’s what happened with the first two records, and that makes me really feel good.”

It doesn’t sound like the songs on The Sinner Rides Again were quickly slapped together. They’re filled with strong riffs, memorable choruses, blazing solos and twin-guitar harmonies. And there’s no shortage of atmospheric arpeggios, energized rhythm changes and gear-changing rhythm shifts. 

“When I’m on a roll, all I have to do is settle on the content that inspires me and then the rest is easy. I’ve been doing this for so long, I feel like it just comes naturally, like I’m pulling it out of the sky. And now I have the confidence to know that there’s no lack of quality there.”

You were working with former Judas Priest drummer Les Binks before you hired Sean Elg, who also plays in Cage and Nihilist.  

“Obviously, I really wanted Ripper and Les to bring in more of that spirit of Priest. But Les hurt his wrist pretty badly in an accident and couldn’t do it. With the mechanics of having to hit his drums and do that over and over, that’s demanding on your body, and with his injury, it just wasn’t possible, so we got Sean, and that worked out really well.”

One More Shot at Glory is pretty poignant. Do you feel this is your last chance to take your music to the masses and prove you’re still a powerful force in metal?

“That song can be interpreted on several levels. It’s about a hero that’s won a battle, and going to war, and wielding the sword, which is forged with molten steel, which is very metal. And then that bridge is about me and my conquest, and my fight to return and get back in the saddle. 

“This is one more shot at glory for me. I know the things I’ve been denied. I shouldn’t be in a position where I have to create this on my own and build it up all over again. But I’m forced to do it, so I do it. And I will enjoy it and make it work because metal is always about the fight and the victory.” 

• The Sinner Rides Again is out now via Napalm.

In 1973, Lou Reed and Steve Hunter certainly must have seemed like an odd musical match.

Though he was indisputably one of glam- and art-rock's godfathers, Reed minced no words about his disdain for many of the artists who followed in his wake. One of these was Alice Cooper, whom (in reference to the original Alice Cooper band) Reed once cited as “the worst, most disgusting aspect of rock music.”

Dismissive as he was, Reed evidently found something in the band's sound to latch on to, given that he hired Cooper producer Bob Ezrin to man the boards for what would become his ill-fated (though it's now regarded by many to be a masterpiece) 1973 concept album, Berlin.

Ezrin, in turn, pulled together a crack band for the Berlin sessions, a group that included two electric guitar greats with whom he'd worked on a number of Cooper sessions: Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner. Though Berlin was met by hostile reviews and confusion from record buyers expecting more songs in the vein of Reed's surprise 1972 hit, Walk on the Wild Side, Reed retained the Hunter/Wagner guitar tandem for some of his most prominent post-Berlin '73 live shows.  

Though it wouldn't be a long-lived relationship (Reed was quite fond of pulling full artistic 180s from album to album – from the beginning of his career until its end), the Reed/Wagner/Hunter tandem was captured in glorious form on Rock 'n' Roll Animal, a live LP recorded in December 1973.

At the behest of Steve Katz, the one-time Blood Sweat & Tears guitarist who would go on to produce the live LP, Reed ditched his shaky and ragged backing group, the Tots, in favor of another supergroup of session players, led by Hunter and Wagner.

Both armed with Gibson Les Pauls (Hunter played a TV Special), Hunter and Wagner set about reinventing the catalog of the defunct art-rock combo that had made Reed a legend, the Velvet Underground.

In Hunter and Wagner's hands, Reed's twitchy, nihilistic, and street-smart rockers were transformed into soaring, guitar-driven mini-operas – imbued with the same drama and evocative melodies they'd brought – and would continue to bring in the coming years – to Cooper's songs. 

“In my opinion, it was their [Hunter and Wagner's] contribution, even more than Lou, that helped Rock ’n’ Roll Animal become a classic album,” Katz once recalled.

Nowhere is the duo's brilliance more evident than the album's opening salvo – Intro/Sweet Jane. Prefacing a tough version of the Velvet Underground classic – and leading off what would become Reed's first Gold-selling album – Intro is nothing less than one of the most underrated two-guitar solos of the '70s, if not of all time. 

Hunter and Wagner lead Reed onto the stage with the pomp and circumstance of a marching band, weaving their arcing phrases around one another into a glorious, spellbinding tapestry. 

“I still remember writing the intro to Sweet Jane while sitting on a couch in my living room,” Hunter recalled to Guitar World in an August 2023 interview. “It was just this thing that I put together with an old acoustic guitar, and later, I was out on tour with the Chambers Brothers – I'd play that same intro with them. It had no name, but after I got together with Lou, he liked it, and we turned it into the intro for what became Sweet Jane.”

As the intro draws to its conclusion, Reed emerges to an ovation as majestic as the intro he was given. Between the Les Paul heroics and the rapturous response of the audience to Reed and his band, nothing about Intro/Sweet Jane was an accident. 

“Like laugh tracks in sitcoms, you could play with the volume,” Katz wrote. “Loud laughter can make a bad joke sound funny, loud applause can make a mediocre performance sound positively virtuosic, so halfway through Sweet Jane, when the band is still playing the overture, and Lou begins his entry onstage, we beefed up the applause. 

“We turned up the volume so that it sounded as if the Pope just entered Vatican Square. It was beautiful, and that’s the way it stands to this day.” 

You might think a diagnosis like pigmentary glaucoma would be the kiss of death for a guitar player's career. But don't tell Steve Hunter that – he's more creative than ever.

Of course, creating music without sight is no easy task. As such, his process is slow-moving. But Hunter is hard at work – and has nearly completed – his first solo record since 2017's Before the Light Go Out.

"I guess it takes me a while to work on these things," Hunter tells Guitar World. "But I have a good excuse because of my eyes. The issues with my vision tend to slow me down when I'm working on the computer, so the whole process slows to a crawl compared to someone with normal eyesight."

Despite the obstacles, the often blues-leaning rocker has found more than a few ways to turn what would end many players' careers into a point of pride through reinvention.

"I think being legally blind has almost made me better in some ways," Hunter continues. "But having played most of my life with good enough sight to see what I was doing and gradually starting to lose my sight has been difficult. Now I try not to look at the guitar because that helps me acclimate to where I am."

Indeed, in recent years Hunter's public appearances have been few and far between due to the issues with his sight. As any player who has spent any amount of time on the road would probably agree, the idea of trying to rebuild what you've always known on the fly – in front of an audience – can't be easy.

To that end, Hunter says, "I was constantly nervous that I was going to be on the wrong fret and not know until it was too late. That took a lot of the fun out of playing live, so I don't do that much anymore. But in the studio, if I mess up, at least I can re-record it."

He continues, "I've had to do things like try to find landmarks that I put in place with tape on the back of a guitar and things like that. It helps me feel where I am on the guitar if I get lost or disoriented. It’s tough, but it's made me a better player."

But it's not all bad, nor is Hunter stuck in the stone age. Looking at the guitar with a fresh perspective has led him to explore options that might make tone-chasing a bit easier.

In response to the combination of amps he's deploying, Hunter muses, "That's a bizarre question because the technology has gotten to the point now where there are lots of options, which I've been waiting most of my career for."

Digging deeper, Hunter says, "For the longest time I’d roll a Marshall half-stack in and crank it up. I can't really do that in a small apartment, you know? But there are all these new plugins that, for a long time, weren't very good but have come a long way in that they sound more real."

But while that might sound as if Hunter has given his trusty tube amps the boot, it's not the case. 

"I still use an amp," he quips. "I have a Vox AC15, and I have three good mics. That, along with these crazy plugins, has given me options and allowed me to have a lot of fun when trying to dial in different tones."

Hunter continues, "People will say after you do a solo, when you listen back, you're going to hate it. And back in the old days, you were stuck with it because of the limited options."

He continues, "But now, I can take a sound and manipulate it with presets. I know a lot of the old-school guys will be mad at me for that, but I can't roll a Marshall in here. I've got to make the best of what I have at my disposal."

Steve Hunter dialed in with Guitar World to talk gear, session work with Alice Cooper, Aerosmith and Peter Gabriel, and his longtime friendship with Jason Becker.

You started your career with Mitch Ryder. How would you compare your approach now to your early days?

"I don't think it's a whole lot different. When I was young, I was pretty naïve as a player and writer. Back then, I was just learning rhythm guitar, as well as lead and there was just a ton of stuff coming at me. There's always been a continual learning process."

Considering your bluesy nature, I always felt your work with Lou Reed was an interesting juxtaposition.

"Lou's stuff is a bit more bluesy than it's given credit for; I still remember writing the intro to Sweet Jane while sitting on a couch in my living room. It was just this thing that I put together with an old acoustic guitar, and later, I was out on tour with the Chambers Brothers – I'd play that same intro with them. It had no name, but after I got together with Lou, he liked it, and we turned it into the intro for what became Sweet Jane."

How did your approach change after you began working with Alice Cooper?

"When Bob [Ezrin] would call me into a session, he knew what he wanted. I remember sitting in the control room with Bob late at night, and Bob played me this song called Sick Things, and I was like, 'Oh my God… what am I going to play?' So, that was the most challenging part: adding things to these compositions that were all so different. That made me nervous and, honestly, a little worried. So, my approach was trying to sound professional and then, add something cool."

Was Alice's music mostly out of your comfort zone?

"Well, there were times when I'd say to Bob, 'What do you want me to play?' And sometimes he would say, 'Play some Eric Clapton blues,' or 'Something like B.B. King.' Some of it was a little shocking, but my style worked well. And when it came time to do a solo, I tried to stay within the blues as much as possible. But when I say 'blues,' everybody thinks traditional blues; that's not what I'm saying. For me, the blues is more of a feeling than anything else. It's the phrasing and melodies that count most."

How did your infamous guitar face-off with Dick Wagner come to be?

"The way it happened was there talk that we needed something extra in the middle of the show when Alice had a costume change. So, I thought, 'Hey, instead of doing a traditional guitar solo, why don't we give them a real duel?' And the face-off happened where we'd trade licks back and forth, and at times, it became ‘violent’ where we'd take fake swings at each other. I remember one night I put blood capsules in my mouth, and when Dick swung, I bit down, and he thought he hit me [laughs]."

How did you end up in the studio with Aerosmith to record the first solo in Train Kept a Rollin'?

"It happened out of the blue one night. I think there was a sort of political thing going on. All these labels were signing bands with people they thought could play, and they’d get upset that albums were coming out with all these studio musicians on them. They were paying all this extra money for additional people, and second, they signed these bands in good faith that they could play."

It sounds like your participation would have had to be kept a secret.

"They definitely didn't want people to know. But the thing is, when you cut an album, it's set in stone. It's not like a live gig where you can have a bad night and make up for it with a good one. It was important that these albums be as good as possible, and that's basically why I was called into the studio to play on Train Kept a Rollin'. The way it was explained to me was, ‘Joe [Perry] had hit a block,’ and they needed to get the take done and start mixing the next day."

Was Joe aware of it at the time?

"Probably not. But it was no big deal; I had hit blocks like that in the studio hundreds of times. And that's what happened with Joe on Train Kept a Rollin'. So, they saw me sitting in the studio lobby smoking a cigarette, and Jack Douglas poked his head out and said, 'Hey, do you feel like sitting in for a session?' And I said, 'Yeah, sure. What do you need?'"

Did they ask you to play like Joe?

"They told me what they were looking for; I gave the solo a couple of passes, they were happy, and that was it. And then I went back and sat down in the lobby again. Now that I think of it, they did say, 'Look, it's best if we don't mention to anyone that you played on this. Don't tell anyone; no-one can know.' I don't think it was ever mentioned until Joe left the band years later. It was kind of a bummer that no-one could know, but by that point, I was used to the double-edged sword of session work."

Another notable session includes your work on Peter Gabriel's Solsbury Hill. Some reports say you played on the track; others say it was Robert Fripp.

"Oh, it was me. Robert has been honest about that, too. What happened was we were working on Peter's album, and Solsbury Hill was the last song we were to record. But Robert had to leave before we started because he had a session in London, and it was left to me. I wasn't worried, but looking back, it could have been a bit scary because the time signature was a little weird, and I was still kind of a naïve player."

Naïve, perhaps, but your Travis-style picking is bang on.

"That came about because Bob Ezrin was in the studio, and he was the one who suggested I go with the Travis-style stuff. I remember thinking, 'OK, Steve, you're either gonna fall flat on your face or pull this thing off.' So, I put a capo on the second fret and started working out the chords, and to my surprise, the song was so well written that it never felt uncomfortable. It only took me a couple of takes to where I said, 'OK, I'm fine. I'm not gonna have any trouble.'"

How did you first connect with Jason Becker?

"Jason came over for a few guitar lessons because David Lee Roth wanted him to ‘add a little more blues in’. So, he sent Jason to me for some lessons, and when I listened to his Cacophony stuff, I was like, 'Oh my God, what can I possibly show this guy?' I didn't think he would be interested in what I had to say, but he came over anyway, and within five minutes, we hit it off."

What was the common ground between you two?

"I saw that he had a great love for the guitar, respect for other players, and a great respect for music. So, I asked him, 'Who is your favorite guitar player today? Who have you listened to today?' And he said, 'Stevie Ray Vaughan,' which knocked me off guard. And I said, 'OK, alright, that's good. How would you like to hear where Stevie Ray got his stuff?' And I put on an old Albert King album called Years Gone By, and Jason was floored by it."

What was your experience working alongside Jason on David Lee Roth's A Little Ain't Enough?

"I don't know if I taught Jason much, but I left him with a deeper respect for the blues. I ended up giving him that Albert King album I mentioned because he could hear how Stevie Ray Vaughan had absorbed a lot of that stuff. And from that moment on, he and I became best friends. We were really different, but I had such a lovely time working with him up in Vancouver on David Lee Roth's album."

I take it you two are still close.

"Oh, yeah. We bonded while working on that album. We'd work all day, then go out at night, hang out, and walk all over Vancouver. We had a great time, and Jason is still one of my best friends. And that didn't change after his diagnosis with ALS. I have great respect for his ability. Jason Becker is a genius. He was a special player and an incredible person."

Have you settled on a release date and title for your impending solo record?

"The release date is hard to predict because of my slow pace, but I'm hoping we have it out by early fall '23. As for the title, I’m leaning toward The Deacon Speaks. There’s this photo of me sitting and waiting to be picked up outside our apartment that my wife took, which inspired me, too. I thought that would make a great album cover, so we'll probably go with The Deacon Speaks."

Nita Strauss has announced her upcoming solo studio album, The Call of The Void, for which she’s recruited a handful of special six-string guests.

Joining Strauss for her first solo outing since 2018’s Controlled Chaos will be former Megadeth electric guitar star Marty Friedman, as well as hard rock guitar hero Lzzy Hale, and her longtime collaborator Alice Cooper, whose band she recently rejoined after temporarily departing to join Demi Lovato’s new rock outfit.

The Call of The Void will arrive in physical and digital formats, with the former featuring 14 songs. The latter, meanwhile, will up that count to 22, courtesy of eight additional instrumental tracks.

To accompany the news, Strauss has shared the LP’s latest single, The Golden Trail, which features In Flames’ Anders Fridén. It’s a clinic of rhythmic mastery first and foremost, with Strauss flexing her potent picking powers for a stream of bruising riffs that mingle with some face-melting lead licks.

“When I was first learning how to play guitar, In Flames were my Beatles; my first favorite band,” Strauss said of The Golden Trail. “Anders' iconic vocal style is burned into my mind.

“To write a song like this and have him sing on it, as a kid who grew up with In Flames posters on my walls, is an absolute dream come true.”

Of his contributions, Fridén commented, “It was a lot of fun to collaborate with Nita on The Golden Trail. She's an amazing guitar player and I can hear the history of metal flowing through her fingers.”

The Golden Trail joins a slew of previously released singles, with The Call of The Void set to collate Strauss’s standalone efforts from the past two years. The Cooper-featuring Winner Takes All, the solo shred-a-thon Summer Storm and Dead Inside – which features David Draiman – will make the cut, as will The Wolf You Feed.

The Call of The Void arrives after an eventful 2022 for Strauss, who departed Alice Cooper’s band to link-up with pop superstar Demi Lovato, who in turn called upon the Ibanez signature artist to help launch their rock renaissance.

That Lovato tour – which came straight after a Cooper tour – was followed by a return to Cooper’s cohort for Strauss. As a result of all these commitments, it comes as no surprise that this particular album proved to be particularly difficult to piece together.

“Some pieces of music come into the world gracefully and easily. This album is not one of them,” Strauss admitted. “The Call Of The Void was born kicking and screaming, a labor of love for sure, but also of blood, sweat, and plenty of tears. 

“I couldn't be more proud of the end result. Making this album helped me learn and grow so much as a musician and songwriter and I’m excited to finally unleash it on the world. 

"I wanted the follow up to Controlled Chaos to be exciting, new, and fresh, to take listeners to a new place and take myself somewhere new as an artist, too. We have some amazing collaborations on this album with incredible musicians, as well as the instrumental guitar music that first inspired me to play.”

The track list for the physical edition of the LP can be found below.

1. Summer Storm
2. The Wolf You Feed (Feat. Alissa White-Gluz)
3. Digital Bullets (Feat. Chris Motionless)
4. Through the Noise (Feat. Lzzy Hale)
5. Consume The Fire
6. Dead Inside (Feat. David Draiman)
7. Victorious (Feat. Dorothy)
8. Scorched
9. Momentum
10. The Golden Trail (Feat. Anders Fridén)
11. Winner Takes All (Feat. Alice Cooper)
12. Monster (Feat. Lilith Czar)
13. Kintsugi
14. Surfacing (Feat. Marty Friedman)

The eight instrumental tracks that will be found on digital editions of The Call of The Void are as follows.

• The Wolf You Feed (Instrumental)
• Digital Bullets (Instrumental)
• Through the Noise (Instrumental)
• Dead Inside (Instrumental)
• Victorious (Instrumental)
• The Golden Trail (Instrumental)
• Winner Takes All (Instrumental)
• Monster (Instrumental)

• The Call of The Void is available to preorder now via Sumerian Records ahead of its release on July 7.

There's been a ton of noise surrounding Nita Strauss of late, none of which has detered the Ibanez-wielding shredder.

Most of the chaos stemmed from Strauss stepping away from her longtime employ with Alice Cooper to hit the road with pop-turned-rock mega-star Demi Lovato. And while many of the metal faithful were perturbed, Strauss's most loyal fans understood her position as a gun for hire.

"There was no big moment where I threw my guitar in the air, stormed out, and quit," Strauss says. "It was more, 'Hey, I have this opportunity with Demi. She's working a lot this year, and Alice isn't. What do you think if I go and do this?' And Alice said, 'Go do it; I love it. Go off; have fun. We support you completely." Demi was working a lot, and Alice wasn't. I go where the work is."

With Lovato's hectic schedule dying down, Strauss has returned to Alice Cooper with the intent of pulling double duty. Indeed, for Strauss, a career in guitar-driven music isn't about playing it safe; it's exploratory, refreshing, and, most importantly, increasingly interesting.

"I definitely plan on doing Demi and Alice," Strauss reveals. "I've always been a hired gun. You have to be willing to be versatile, take risks, and try different things instead of staying in the same place, even if it's a safe place."

As she prepares for a busy year, Nita Strauss dialed in with Guitar World to discuss her latest single and return to Alice Cooper's band, her continued work with Demi Lovato, and the importance of staying true to her artistic vision.

What can you tell me about your latest single, Winner Takes All?

"As I was putting the record together, I thought it would be cool to have Alice on a song but make it a modern rock track rather than the stuff you're used to hearing from him. Initially, our goal was to take Alice's voice that we know and love but showcase his vibe on this modern shred track. I think we hit it hard and nailed it."

Do you approach working with other singers differently than you do with Alice?

"I've been working with him for many years, so I understand what he likes and doesn't like to sing over. Having probably played on over 50 Alice Cooper songs at this point, I think we've got it dialed in. Besides that, collaborating with so many different singers has been incredible. But I never imagined myself as the type of musician with songs like this; I used to think of myself as a solo guitarist who would only stay in that world. So, to be able to do this has been a fascinating process."

While you might not have imagined yourself going down that road, you have. Has that opened you up or altered your approach at all?

"I think, as an instrumental guitar player, I was a selfish musician. I don't mean that in a bad way, but from a musical perspective, I was only thinking about myself. I wasn't thinking about what rhymes with what or what the song's key was for the singer to along with. And I was not thinking about radio or what works within a three-minute format to fit into a playlist, either.

"I was only writing for the sake of my art. But once I started working with different vocalists, I had to approach things from a more sensible standpoint of what makes sense for the song. I had to think about what might draw in the average listener who likes this type of music and what might open them up to new things."

Do you approach solos differently for instrumental versus vocal tracks?

"I think a guitar solo is a way for the guitarist to tell a little chapter of the story if that makes sense. But obviously, you're not using words; you're using your choices and emotions to contribute to the song's story. Even when I've done guest solos on other people's stuff, when I play live, I always try to get a sense of what the song is about. That dictates how I choose my notes and approach to serve the story, rather than, 'Here's a bunch of cool notes. Let me just play these and be done with it.'"

When you initially left Alice's band in 2022, did you know you'd be back, or were things more open-ended?

"It was very open-ended. There wasn't this big departure, which is how everything was construed by people that weren't there. I had a conversation with Alice and his manager, and what I put out on my social media was, 'I'm stepping away from the fall tour. I'm grateful for the opportunities I've had, and I'm not sure what will happen next.' Honestly, that was the entirety of what was going on."

Were you surprised by the mixed reaction you received?

"I was expecting a mixed reaction, but I definitely wasn't prepared for how strong of a reaction the news received. But the only thing that really got under my skin was how inaccurate a lot of the stuff people were saying was. I saw people saying, 'She walked out of the tour without giving Alice notice,' and none of that was true.

"Everything was in the works for months; everybody knew, Kane Roberts knew about it, and everything was planned for a long time before it was announced. So, reading things online where people said, 'Nita left Alice in the lurch and didn't give them time to find somebody new,' was completely inaccurate."

Was it challenging to adapt to Demi Lovato's style of music?

"I have to say… it wasn't all that different. If I had stepped into Demi Lovato's world in 2016, it would have been a very different show. But Demi's new record [Holy Fvck] is heavy rock. So, once I joined, we went out and did a heavy rock show with her every night. If they had been looking for a more traditional pop touring band, they wouldn't have had the band they did or had me be a part of it. I guess the big takeaway is that as a guitar player, I need to be versatile.

"I will say that one cool takeaway from the Demi tour was that she completely changed her style. If you listen to her old music, it sounds nothing like the music that got her to the level of stardom she has today. To me, that's the most rock 'n' roll thing you can do. And who knows? Maybe some of those girls will see Demi playing an Ibanez X series – a Chuck Schuldiner[-style] guitar – and they'll go out and learn to play, not because of me but because of her."

Speaking of Ibanez, have there been any new developments regarding your signature model?

"Honestly, we're playing catch-up at this point with my signature model. It's been in production for many years, and the newest model didn't come out too long ago. We're always excited to do new things, but I have paused it until we can get the orders that have come in shipped and out the door."

Have you made any exciting gear discoveries of late?

"I'm more of an 'if it's not broke, don't fix it' kind of player. As much as I love checking out and trying new things, I tend to stick with the same stuff I've used. But I will say that I've been getting myself into some new plugins on the recording side. I tried some Neural DSP stuff recently, and it blew me away. But I'm a fan of simplicity. I have never been a huge analog pedalboard type of person. Whatever is consistent, easy, and sounds great is what's good for me."

Are there any young guitarists you've been listening to recently?

"I'm absolutely obsessed with what Angel Vivaldi is doing right now. I did my first solo tour with him, and this new record [Away with Words: Part 2] he's putting out has a few singles that have blown my mind so far. His new stuff is more like fusion, while his original stuff is heavier.

"Aside from him, I have to give a shoutout to my Ibanez sisters, Yvette Young and Lari Basilio, who are absolutely crushing it. They're both putting out incredible music and touring. If Lari or Yvette are coming near you guys, see them. They're mind-blowing players."

In what ways have you grown over the last 12 months?

"I've gone through phases of listening to others about my work, but now I'm taking a step back and only doing what I think I should do. It's easy to get in that cycle… but it can take a lot out of you. Just look at Winner Takes All: there were two comments on Instagram right next to each other, and one was, 'Oh, this song is crap. You should do more songs like The Wolf You Feed. Do better, Nita.'

"And then, the comment right underneath said, 'Wow! I love this. This is exactly what you should be doing. I hated The Wolf You Feed.' So there will always be people with strong opinions, so taking a step back and being happy with where I'm at as a musician and a professional touring guitar player is a good step for me. It's much better than focusing on what other people think about my music. My decision and opinions are what matter most to me now."

• Winner Takes All (feat. Alice Cooper) is streaming now.

Following the news that Nita Strauss was returning to the Alice Cooper camp to provide high spectacle on box-office virtuosity on electric guitar on the forthcoming Too Close For Comfort tour, it is no shock to learn that Hurricane Nita has drafted the King of Shock for a new single, and it’s all kinds of huge.

Titled Winner Takes All, we can reassure you that it is nothing at all like the Abba super-pop track of a similar title, and is a bona-fide funhouse of a track that foregrounds Cooper’s gravel voice and macabre magnetism.

For the most part, Strauss lets Cooper pull focus. The vibe on Winner Takes All is contemporary hard-rock with a soupçon of mid-tempo Euro metal, gang vocals, a big riff that lands right on the grid.

Then, of course, you’ve got the guitar solo, which is Hurricane Nita matching form to content, setting the scene, establishing the melodic stakes – perfect intonation, btw – before unleashing the sort of quicksilver serpentine legato that her Ibanez JIVA signature guitar was designed for. That JIVA neck profile? Well, on the new-for-2022  JIVAX2 it measures just 17mm at the 1st fret, which makes even the legendary Ibanez Wizard neck profile look like it’s carrying some timber. Incredible.

Strauss says it was a no-brainer to get Coop’ in the studio, and that it was “an honor” to get the rock legend on one of her original tracks.

“When we were working on the music for this album, there was no question that I wanted to create a song to collaborate with my longtime boss and friend, the legendary Alice Cooper,” she said in a statement.

“I think the track accomplishes what we set out to do – showcase Alice's voice and signature style on the backdrop of a heavy, modern rock track. After many years of lending my style of playing to Alice’s music on stage, it was truly an honor to work together and hear his voice on one of my songs!”

The track arrives right on time for building anticipation ahead of the Too Close For Comfort tour, which – metaphorically and kinda literally – lets out the python and brings down the guillotine at Mount Pleasant, MI, on April 4.

It’s the first of what is going to be an epic run across the States, with the Alice Cooper/Strauss party hooking up with Def Leppard and the new John 5 Mötley Crüe touring line-up on August 5, and co-headlining the Freaks on Parade tour with Rob Zombie later on in the month. All that is going to shift a lot of beer and T-shirts.

There are no more details about a forthcoming solo album from Strauss, but perhaps we will learn more later this evening (March 22), with Strauss being interviewed by Cooper himself on his Nights With Alice Cooper radio show.

Strauss’s departure from the Alice Cooper touring band was one of the biggest guitar stories of the summer, and she made her next move playing with Demi Lovato, helping the pop superstar usher in a more pop-punk direction. But even at the time, there was always the suspicion she would return and that this was just Strauss broadening the horizons – a move Cooper fully endorsed.

“Nita asked for a leave of absence to work with someone else, something I always encourage my band members to do,” he said. “I like them to challenge themselves and try new things.”

Strauss explained to Guitar World that her gig with Lovato was a great opportunity to widen the appeal of guitar music, and inspire a new cohort of players. Lovato’s fanbase ate it up.

“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.”

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”.

Having worked with everyone from Lady Gaga to George Lynch to Lou Reed, few in the game today have managed to parlay simplicity into groundbreaking success in the way Tommy Henriksen has.

Though he began his career as a bassist, as he's pushed forward, Henriksen has become part of a three-headed guitar monster alongside Ryan Roxie, Nita Strauss, and now, Kane Roberts, in the Alice Cooper band. With a deep love for rock music, Henriksen provides a sturdy bedrock upon which Cooper lays his madness.

"I don't take myself too seriously up there," Henriksen quips. "People forget the magic of keeping things simple. You don't have to go up there and blow everyone away – there's just no need for it. Don't get me wrong, I love big guitars and fun stuff as much as the next guy – it's fun to watch, and it's incredible what some guys can do. But I like to strip things back and keep myself more in line with the things that Chuck Berry, Keith Richards and Malcolm Young did. That's what appeals to me."

Now more than a decade into his shock-rock odyssey, Henriksen has become a mainstay in Cooper's band. Simple as his styling may be, from the beginning, the Long Island native has inserted himself into the songwriting mix, co-writing seven songs on Cooper's 2011 album, Welcome 2 My Nightmare. Since then, he's remained a key cog in Cooper's songwriting machine.

Through the years, Henriksen has also managed to release five solo records. While all of these solo outings have held meaning to the veteran six-stringer, none spoke to him in quite the same way that his latest project, Crossbone Skully, has. Indeed, it seems that Henriksen is pooling from all his tried-and-true influences as he prepares – if only for a moment – to let his SG take a back seat as he steps behind the microphone.

"I can't express how proud I am of Crossbone Skully," Henriksen beams. "I'm expressing myself through the music I love, and that's everything to me. I also like that it's almost a concept record commenting on the state of the world. 

"The world is fucked up, and honestly, morality is pretty much dead, and that's what a lot of these songs are about. You've got all these fucking dirty politicians, and they're all crooks and corrupt, and all they think about is themselves. I just wanted to get out there and try and make some music that combats all the lies but also kicks ass."

Taking a moment away from the madness, Henriksen dials in with Guitar World to recount the beginnings of Crossbone Skully, his origins as a bassist, the trials of being a self-taught guitarist, the beauty of keeping it simple, and his undying love for Gibson SGs.

Tell me about Crossbone Skully.

"It started when [Alice Cooper drummer] Glen Sobel and me would be soundchecking and running through different songs we'd been working on here and there. This was stuff that we came up with in between the Hollywood Vampires and Alice Cooper shows. I've always been a huge AC/DC guy, and so when I started thinking about writing these songs, that's the sound that came to me.

"So, one day, we're at soundcheck, messing around with these songs, and the lighting guy comes over and says to me, 'Yo, dude, are you fucking around, or are you doing this for real?' It's not like I expected anything to come of it, so I said to him, 'Nah, man, I'm fucking around. I used to sing this stuff a long time ago in clubs. It's nothing.' And he was like, 'No, man, you should be doing this. It's fucking good.' 

"I was like, 'Shit... maybe there's something here.' And then, I went home, wrote a couple of songs, and I was like, 'I dig this. You know what? I'm gonna do it.'"

After being a member of an ensemble for so long, are you comfortable stepping out front as a lead vocalist?

"I've been waiting to do this for a long time. I'm ready, man. I'm ready to get up and sing. I love playing guitar, but I want to do more than just play guitar. A lot of people ask me, 'Is it weird stepping out from behind the guitar?' And the truth is that I'm cool with it; I can't wait to get that thing off my neck. Give me the microphone. Let's go.

"I think I'm one of the best karaoke singers out there. I really do. I told you I love AC/DC, so my whole thing is I basically want to be Bon Scott with Crossbone Skully.

"He's the ultimate rock 'n' roll singer for me. Bon has always been one of my heroes since I was a kid. Bon had it all – the charisma, the sex appeal, and the punk-meets-hard-rock vibe. And lyrically, he had a rawness to what he was saying that has always spoken to me. He was so clever and a true hero of mine."

As I understand it, you're playing bass on these tracks. How does your approach change as you transition from guitar to bass?

"People know me as a guitar player, but the truth is that I started as a bass player when I was a kid. So, it's good to get back to bass and get in touch with that side of myself again. When I started with Alice Cooper, I was a bass player and switched to guitar. What happened was, I was working with Alice and Bob Ezrin when Alice was recording Welcome 2 My Nightmare, and we were writing a whole bunch of songs.

"At one point, Alice was like, 'Hey, Tommy, do you play guitar? We could use more guitars here.' And I was like, 'Uh, not really, but if you need me to, I can learn.' So, I pretty much started playing guitar right then and there with Alice Cooper when he asked me to. But I was never gonna take lessons or anything like that – that's not me.

"So, I started watching old Angus Young and Chuck Berry videos, and that's how I figured guitar out. I learned all I needed to know from those videos. True story."

Mutt Lange came out of retirement as an executive producer for this [Crossbone Skully] record, right?

"Yes. Mutt Lange, to me, is the best producer who has ever lived. He's all-time. He's like a phenomenon when it comes to hard rock music. It's one of those things where I can't explain it because, with Mutt, it's not even genius – it's some other level of mastery. He's almost like this godly entity in the studio, man. Whenever he does anything, it goes to another level, and I do feel he elevated the Crossbone Skully songs. 

"I was blessed that he heard a few of the tracks I was working on, and he basically said, 'Okay, there's something here.' And then, he called me up out of the blue, and he's like, 'I'd like to fool around with a few of the tracks,' and it went from there. Working with him has been a dream come true for me."

How has working with Alice Cooper shaped your approach to songwriting?

"Let me say this, working with Alice Cooper and Bob Ezrin has been a privilege. I mean it – they're special, and it's been an education I never would have gotten anywhere else. Those guys have taught me so much about songwriting, analyzing lyrics, and writing interesting guitar and bass patterns. Alice, man, he's so clever, which is something I don't think people realize. Bon was an influence on me early, but Alice shaped me in a lot of ways, later.

"Then there's the whole live aspect of Alice, too. Being on stage with him and watching how he conducts himself – he sets the template for how [to] handle your business as a live performer. What people don't realize about Alice is that he's so damn genuine, and he can't help but be himself on stage, which is where he's in his element, anyway. But as far as songwriting and all that stuff, I've learned so much from those guys. 

"Working with them, I learned how to outline things and get organized. And then there are things, production-wise – like where to place things and how to structure them. Working with a guy like Bob can be tough, but for me, it's like a dream because you learn these things that you'd never learn anywhere else."

As a self-taught guitarist, how would you describe your approach?

"Simplicity, my man. Simplicity. There are a lot of guys who can shred like lightning out there, and that's cool and all, but I think it takes genius to simplify. And the flip side to that is that it takes an idiot to complicate! 

"So, I'm always looking to make everything simple because, the way I see it is, when it comes to simplicity, there's an art to it. Now, that art is evolving, and I'm still trying to figure it out, but I know what I like and what I'm trying to do. For me, it has to be really simple.

"I sound like a broken record, but I'll go back to AC/DC, who everyone looks at like it's the easiest shit in the world to play. But, let me tell you, Malcolm and Angus Young are true guitar heroes, and there is a genius to that stuff. When you start dissecting it and picking it apart, that shit is not easy to play. It's complicated. 

"Even if you can play it, the issue of getting the sound right comes into play. I'll tell you what – simplicity is genius, and it's all in how you execute it. That's the whole thing. So, while other guys are showing off, I'm over here trying to figure out, 'How do I make this stuff simple without making it complicated?'"

Do you keep it simple in terms of guitars and amps, too?

"Yup, I do. I've always used Gibson guitars and Marshall amps. I like to keep it old school and simple there, too. I love that sound. There's nothing better. But for the last couple of tours, we've been using these Kemper profilers, which I have a Marshall loaded into. So, the sound is consistent every night, but it's definitely different than having a traditional stack of amps behind me.

"As far as guitars are concerned, I love my Gibson SGs, and I have the EverTune system installed on them. I have to say, that EverTune is incredible to the point that I never have to tune my guitar. It's pretty amazing. The whole setup works because, when it comes to live, it's about being consistent with the sounds. As much as I love the old Marshalls, we had to change the tubes constantly to keep them consistent."

When I talked to Kane Roberts and Ryan Roxie, they had differing opinions on Kempers. What are your thoughts on the matter?

"I can only speak for myself, but I'll tell you that when you're playing with a Kemper, it's much harder to get comfortable, because you hear every little nuance in each earpiece. It's weird, and it was an adjustment at first, but now I believe it's made me a better player. 

"If you look at a traditional amp, when it's going, it's loud, and a lot of things get buried in the sound, and that gets forgiven. But when you play with a Kemper, you hear every little mistake, and that alone forces you to be a better player. 

"I mean, I guess you could ignore it and not improve, but that would just be lazy [Laughs]. I would love to play with a real amp, that's my preference, but it is what it is, and it does make me a better player."

Why is the Gibson SG your preferred weapon of choice?

"I love a good vintage SG, man. There's just something magical about those guitars. If you know, you know. I guess, with the Gibson SG, I love the way it looks and the way it feels. I've got the silver '61 SG that I've been seen around with a lot, and it fits me like a glove. It's a three-pickup custom job, and the main reason I use this one is to honor Glen Buxton from the original Alice Cooper band. But I have a couple of new ones, too, and I gotta tell you, the new Gibsons are fucking great. 

"They're so great that I leave all my vintage stuff in the studio now and take the new guitars on the road. If these newer ones are this great, why risk my old guitars? So, lately, I've been using a '98 SG, and I've got a 2016 one I just bought. It plays and sounds great, so I'm okay out on the road with the new stuff, even if I do prefer vintage, in general."

Which of your guitars means the most to you?

"It's definitely my Fender Precision bass that I've had since I was 13 years old. I bought that thing for, like, $50, and I've never had the heart to let it go. I'm not sure how, but it's literally the only guitar or bass I've managed to hold onto throughout my career. 

"I'll never let it go at this point; it just means too much to me. Aside from that bass, my '61 Gibson SG would be the other guitar that means the most to me. I keep that thing close to me when I'm at home, which is why it's sitting here with me now." [Laughs]

What's next for you in all lanes?

"Next up for me is the Alice Cooper tour, and then we've got another Hollywood Vampires tour after that. As far as Crossbone Skully, we've got a bunch of new singles coming out, so I'm looking forward to that train running down the line and screaming off the tracks. If the singles do as well as I expect them to, hopefully, we'll tour the Crossbone Skully stuff after the Hollywood Vampires tour is done. But if that does happen, I'll have to put a band together, which I'm really excited about. 

"I'd like to see if I can find a bunch of hungry young players and empower them to get out there with me and play some badass rock music. I'd like to give some kids a shot and set them up for success in their careers. Paying it forward is important, so I'm looking forward to all that and watching Crossbone Skully succeed."

As a long-time member of Alice Cooper's modern-day triple-axe attack, Ryan Roxie provides a steady pentatonic base amongst the bristling chaos.

If we dial back to Roxie's origins, though, fans will be reminded of his tenure with cult act Electric Angels, a retrospectively revered group that sadly got lost in the shuffle. Still, Roxie harbors no regrets or lament due to his flagship band's dissolution; quite the contrary.

“I'm very proud and happy to have been a part of what some refer to as a ‘cult band,’” admits Roxie. “I'm proud, but I would really like to have been part of a hugely successful current commercial success [Laughs]. 

“Jokes aside, I am so proud of what we did with Electric Angels, man. The guitar tracks I played back then are fun, cool, and hooky. We had all the right ingredients to make it, but there were a lot of things that kept it from happening.”

“I felt that Electric Angels made a great album, representing a new movement of glam music,” Roxie continues. “The problem is that it came out in a sea of hairspray, and don't get me wrong, I doused myself in my share of hairspray [Laughs]. 

“I guess it's about being in the right place at the right time and on the right label. I thought we had all those things, but maybe we were one of two songs off. Things moved fast in those days, and if you missed the window, it would be closed on you quickly.”

These days, Roxie is bookended by the blazing exploits of Tommy Henriksen, Nita Strauss, and, most recently, Kane Roberts. To that end, Roxie's aim is simple: to harken back to the classic era of Alice Cooper, tidily bringing the veteran shock rocker's '70s endeavors into the modern era.

“Being in Alice Cooper's band is like being in the trenches,” Roxie says. “You do a bit of everything, be it playing guitar, singing background vocals, or dodging crazy pieces of the set on stage [Laughs]. But the best part is that we all know our roles. There's no selfishness about it. 

“I keep things anchored, Nita or Kane bring the metal fire, and Tommy is the swingman. It works well, and it's why we have such great chemistry no matter what combination of us is up there.”

During a break from the road, Roxie dials in with Guitar World to recount the Alice Cooper band's busy 2022, being a part of a trio of guitarists, his gear preferences, love for vintage guitars, and his thoughts on John 5 joining Mötley Crüe.

With 2022 in your rear-view mirror, what moments stick out most?

“Probably the proudest moment for me was getting back on a full tour schedule. There was a time when we didn't do it for about a year and a half, and we weren't able to go out, so it was nice to go out on a regular tour schedule like we're used to. 

“We started in January and ended on Halloween with the Misfits in Dallas, Texas. I can't think of a better way to end the tour than that. I hope that becomes an annual thing because Alice Cooper is always saying that he owns Halloween, but I think the Misfits give him a run for his money as well [Laughs].”

What challenges did losing Nita Strauss and integrating Kane Roberts into the fold present?

“They both bring such a unique performance aspect. One is the 'Hurricane,' and the other is the 'Monster;' Obviously, I'm gonna miss playing with someone like Nita, with whom I've been side by side for the last eight or nine years, because we know each other's guitar and stage movements so well. 

“So, the big thing for me is, 'Okay, what will it be like with another person on stage, being that we know everybody else's moves within the band?' Of course, Kane had to come in and do his own thing, but he also needed to fit in with what we were doing: whips, chains, flying swords, and guillotines [Laughs].

“Musically, it's about everybody being prepared because we're all professionals. And I have to say, Kane came in prepared and gave it everything he had. Obviously, you can't recreate anybody in the band, especially someone like Nita, but Kane is his own animal, too. 

“But the wonderful thing about playing with Alice Cooper is that he allows each of us to be our own character because he's so secure within his own character, which elevates us all. Everybody gets a moment to shine in the show, and I think Kane shined when his moment came each night.”

Will we see more of Kane Roberts in 2023, or is a return for Nita Strauss in the cards?

“One of the best things about being in the Alice Cooper band as a 'hired gun' is that we don't have to make those hard decisions about who's in the band. All we have to do is make sure that no matter who is in the band, the show is entertaining and that we back up Alice Cooper to the best of our ability while upholding the legacy of that music.

“I defer that to management and, of course, Alice. We'll see what happens, but I don't know if there's anything set in stone yet. Who knows? All I can guarantee is whoever is in that spot will do an incredible job and that we will mesh and rock as a unit. That's what we do and what people have come to expect from us. Hopefully, we deliver on that. I think we do. The fans will let us know if we don't, I guess.

“I can say that I love and am supportive of both. I was in the band with Nita for eight or nine years, so there's history there. And then, when Kane came in, I loved what he brought to the band under some challenging circumstances. 

“When he came in, we all completely supported the return of Kane Roberts, which showcased a different era of Alice that the fans love. We'll see what happens. I know some big shows are lined up with Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe, so we'll see who's out there when the time comes.”

How do you view your role amongst the controlled chaos that is an Alice Cooper show?

“I would say controlled chaos is a good way of putting it, but then again, sometimes it's just utter chaos [Laughs]. I view my role as staying true to the attitude of the original Alice Cooper. 

“I know that a lot of the Alice Cooper audience come from different eras, with people coming in during Dick Wagner's era and other's coming in when Kane was first in the band back in the '80s. 

“But for me, the classic Alice Cooper band is the great guitar riffs of Michael Bruce, Glen Buxton and Dennis Dunaway, played through those songs the original band created. I try to recreate that vibe, not just musically but attitude-wise, every night on stage with Alice.”

How does the division of guitar-related labor break down on stage?

“It doesn't matter if it's me, Tommy, Nita, Kane, or whoever; we all have a role to play during each song. There's never really an argument about who's taking a solo; the bottom line is that a lot of the songs have two or three solos, so there's never a shortage. 

“Also, we all have such different styles, which is also considered when we choose who will do what. For instance, if it's a song from the '80s era, that's tailored more toward someone like Kane or Nita – Kane especially, since he wrote those songs. 

“But if we're talking about the classic stuff from the '70s, that's where I get my pentatonic thrills in. And Tommy is someone who can slip in anywhere and pretty much comfortably cover anything that we need.”

The Alice Cooper band has been using Kempers on tour, right? Do you prefer the Kemper, or would you rather have a Marshall stack behind you?

“Well, I use what I guess you'd say is a hybrid of three different types of systems. What happened was that there was just no room for cabinets up there because of the Alice Cooper stage show and all the props. So because of that, we had to remove the cabinets and try something more digital. 

“We started experimenting with putting Kempers into the set, and a Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 model, which you can have a cabinet with. We can go straight through the PA as well with that because they have the red box outs, but we've been using the Kempers a lot.

“I still love my Marshall JCM800 setup, and there's always a cabinet on stage, just in case the Kemper does go down. If the digital kicks out, we have the good old Marshall tube amp or the Hughes & Kettner to back us up. 

“So, I've been working with all three types as a hybrid over the years, and honestly, I don't have a problem with it. Modeling is great as long as you can get the sounds you need, and the audience feels and hears what I hear in my ears. But you know, I know that although there's a lot of guitarists out there that say they need to feel the air.”

Kane Roberts told me he needed to get used to not feeling the air of the amp pushing behind him. Was that the case for you, too?

“I can understand that, and I think a lot of guitarists need to feel that rush of air behind them. There's something to be said about that bottom end that only a big amp can give you, and yeah, you don't have them with the Kemper. 

“But maybe it's just where I'm positioned on stage because what I hear with my guitar in my in-ears is really nice, full, and has a great bottom end. But I'm also hearing a band mix coming through the side, so I think that maybe I have the luxury of feeling the air from those sounds hitting me as well.”

Are you a pedal and effects junkie?

“Oh, yeah. For sure, I am. Most of the effects I use with Alice are for coloring. I love to add some nice tremolo guitar sounds to a lot of what we do live. One of my favorite effects ever created is what Hughes & Kettner calls the Tube Rotosphere. I loved that and used it for years, but I don't have it anymore. 

“I've moved to a Jim Dunlop tremolo, which I think has a really nice sound. I also use the TC Electronic Shaker Vibrato. I'm always looking for new types of tonal things that will give me what I want, like a good boost or delay, and occasionally, a nice clean type of tremolo for the chorus.

“Then, hopefully, your sound man will give you a volume boost when you're taking a solo, which helps you stand out and add a bit more gain. Speaking of which, that's my other favorite type of pedal; I guess you could call it a boost. Back in the day, when I played with Slash, I used an MXR M133 Micro Amp with just one knob, if you can remember that one. 

“I think Slash used the Boss GE-7 with everything turned up to 10. So, he'd used that for a ton of boost. These days, I like TC Electronic; they make a ton of great effects pedals; one is called the Spark Booster.

“As for inboard gear, the echoes, delays, and some flange are already loaded into the Kemper, which is nice when you're playing in a three-guitar lineup. It keeps those chaos levels at bay. We don't worry about reverb too much because, hopefully, we're playing places big enough to provide their own reverb. 

“But you know what's funny, my favorite effect will always be a tuner because I play a lot of wrong notes throughout the set, but at least they're always in tune. [Laughs].”

Do you prefer vintage guitars or new ones?

“I'm lucky enough to have several classic Gibson guitars that I use throughout the set. I love vintage guitars, but new ones can be cool, too. I try to use what sounds best for the song, with the tone of the amp, and also what looks aesthetically pleasing. 

“So, for instance, if it's classic Alice Cooper, maybe I'll break out a Gibson ES-335. Or if it's something from the more modern era, maybe I'll bring an Explorer. And I actually have an Epiphone Explorer, which shows that you can play Gibsons and Epiphones back-to-back, and they will sound similar. It doesn't matter if it's a Flying V or a Les Paul; Epiphone makes great guitars.”

Which of your guitars means the most to you?

“I always go back to my Gibson Les Paul. I'm lucky enough to own a '72 Gibson Goldtop Deluxe with regular humbuckers installed. I call that guitar my girlfriend. I love that guitar. I also own a '78 Gibson Les Paul Pro Deluxe that has a really lovely, faded cherry burst finish. But lately, my number one has been my Rock N Roll Relics Revenge model guitar. 

“They've made two for me so far; they're my signature model called the Roxie Revenge. Like I said, I've got it in two colors, one is a one-off colored white type thing, and the other is what they call ‘Jet Pink.’ It's a guitar with a cool design that combines a bunch of different models into one but still has its unique look. When people start seeing this on stage more often, it will become a modern classic that people will covet.”

How would you describe the evolution of your guitar style compared to your days with Electric Angels?

“I'm more refined now and experienced, which makes me better. But I'm still playing the same three chords; I can tell you that. A, D, and E never go out of style, apparently [Laughs]. 

“Honestly, I've always been a fan of guitar-driven pop, and that's always been a part of my guitar style. And I know that 'pop' has a very different meaning depending on who hears it, but I grew up on AM radio in an age when AM radio played rock 'n' roll. So, my version of pop was hearing the Commodores next to Cheap Trick next to Aerosmith, and then back to the Bee Gees or the Ohio Players.

“I love big hooks in songs, so no matter if it's in my solo stuff or writing with other people, I've always added those hooky guitar parts alongside some distorted licks. All my favorite guitarists, to be honest with you, are the guys who flew under the radar. 

“So, it's a proud moment for me to be able to deliver the goods as they do. Guys like Steve Stevens are a perfect example of what I strive to do. He can come up with great hooks that make a song memorable, and that's what I've always been attracted to. I think that's something that's always been represented in my playing.”

You mentioned Mötley Crüe earlier; as you prepare to head out with them in 2023, what are your thoughts on John 5 replacing Mick Mars?

“John 5 is one of those guitar players who could probably join literally any band and get it done. I know that John 5 will take the opportunity of being able to play the classic Mötley Crüe songs night after night in a stadium setting and make the most of it. I think he will also pay homage to Mick Mars and approach the songs with the utmost respect to Mick.

“All anyone has to do is look at John's history and see all the different people he's played with and styles he's done, and you'll see he can handle it. I think he will uphold the legacy of the songs but also add his own flavor when it's his time to shine. But I think, for the most part, he's not going to mess with anything; he's going to make Mötley Crüe sound like Mötley Crüe.

“Fans want the band to be the best version possible. So, if Mick can't do it for health reasons, I am sure John 5 will give the fans what we want. I don't think anyone will forget Mick Mars, but I believe that John 5 will provide a great show. 

“Everyone knows how great Mick Mars is and how much he's contributed to the legacy of rock; that's a given. But if Mick can't perform at the level he feels is needed to represent Mötley Crüe, then I'm sure John 5 will give fans the best version of Motley he can. And if he doesn't, I'll let him know! But I won't need to; I am sure that John has got this.”

Type Nita Strauss’s name into a search engine and you’ll find endless links about her longtime gig with Alice Cooper and new post with Demi Lovato. But Strauss is much more than a side person. She’s a songwriter, session musician, clinician and solo artist with a unique array of credits ranging from movie soundtracks to the WWE. 

Strauss joined Cooper’s touring ensemble in 2014. After eight years, it seemed like the ideal setting to showcase her loud and proud technique. Instead, she stunned fans earlier this year by accepting the Lovato gig. While this announcement dominated headlines, no less significant is news of her long-awaited second solo album, scheduled for release in 2023.

The focus is often on your work with other artists and not as much on your solo career. With a new album coming up, how do you redirect the attention, and is it frustrating to have to do so? 

“It doesn’t bother me too much, because playing with other artists has been the majority of my career. It also speaks to one of the main reasons I thought it was necessary to take a step out and make a change in my day job, so to speak.

“I want to be myself. I want to have my own identity and my own brand. I do have my solo music and a new album in the works, and if I’m just known as one person’s guitar player for the rest of my life, that counteracts what I’m trying to do. So I think all I can really do is keep touring my solo band when I’m off the road with other artists, keep releasing new music, and at the end of the day, if I’m in the conversation, I’m happy.

What does “being someone’s guitar player” require?

“Playing with the artists that I do, I’m not technically a band member. Being a hired gun, it’s really 'step in and fill this role,' whether it’s playing Alice Cooper songs or reimagining rockers from Demi Lovato songs. What I bring to each of those different gigs is that sense of professionalism I’ve learned across so many years, and how to step into each role, fill it nicely and tightly, and help bring that artist’s vision to life while still bringing my own personality and energy to the show. 

“I have learned so much from Alice and Demi. One of the things they both do really well is they take the forefront, but they give each band member an introduction and time to shine. They don’t take the entire spotlight for themselves. That’s something I try to do with my solo band as well, to make sure it’s a collaborative effort and everybody knows it.”

What can you tell us about your new album?

“I’m a really emotional musician and person, and I write about what I’m feeling and what’s going on in my life. Making this album, and especially doing a lot of the writing during 2020, when everything was shut down and uncertain, brought out a lot of emotion in my songwriting.

“I’ve grown a lot as an artist and songwriter since Controlled Chaos came out in 2018, and I’m excited to show a higher level of playing and more depth and maturity in these new songs. I’ve improved a lot as a musician, my technique has gotten better in the last four years, and I’ve gotten more comfortable in my own style, so I feel I’ve come into my own as a guitar player.”

How does working on other artists’ material strengthen your chops? 

“First of all, any time you’re playing guitar, you’re improving, no matter what it is. Whether you’re playing power chords or technical metal, if you’re playing guitar, you’re getting incrementally better each day. Playing straightforward rock songs has given me a much better sensibility of song structure, and not playing too much, or adding too much, and all these things guitar players do just because we like to show off and have fun! It has taught me a lot about letting the song breathe. 

“Simplicity is key in a lot of Demi’s songs, especially the older ones, which were originally pretty straightforward pop songs that have been reimagined in this heavy-rock way. The simple, catchy chords are still there, and it’s finding things that work around the melodies, because melody is king in pop and rock songs. It’s about finding that simplicity and embracing it, rather than saying, 'This is only four chords. I have to play a bunch of notes over it.'”

You have signature models with Ibanez. What makes its guitars right for you? 

“Like so many guitar players, every time I got a new guitar, there was always something that wasn’t quite perfect. 'I love it so much, but I have to put different pickups in it' or 'I love it so much, but if only it had an ebony fretboard.' If only it was this, if only it was that. When I had the chance to design the JIVA with Ibanez, I already had all my dream specs in my head because I’d had so many different guitars. I knew I wanted a mahogany body, a quilted maple top and an ebony fretboard. I knew what I wanted the pickups to sound like. 

“I wanted a guitar that screamed 'me', and that’s what we got with the original JIVA 10 with the black-to-blond burst. We expanded to the JIVA JR, which I call the 'beach burst' because it goes from black to blue to blond. Now we have the JIVA 10L and two JIVA X2 models – the original black one and the new JIVA X Ghost, which is the white one I use onstage. It’s my favorite guitar. 

“I only play my signature guitars, not just because I designed them, but because I feel I designed the perfect guitar for my playing style. It’s fast, it’s light, it’s versatile. It can shred, it can go clean, it can go rhythm. So that’s my weapon of choice 100 percent of the time.”

Is instrumental music more challenging in terms of communication, since there are no lyrics, or is it more universal, in that it’s open to interpretation and the listener can simply let the music take them wherever it leads?

“For me, writing music for a vocalist is infinitely more challenging. I come from the world of instrumental music, where you can play what you’re feeling, evoke those emotions through note choices and chord choices, and there’s no limit to it.

“When you get vocals involved, you’re thinking about the singer and their range, how many syllables you can fit in this line without it sounding weird, and does the end of this phrase rhyme with the end of the phrase after it. There are so many rules you have to follow in order to make a catchy radio song, let’s say. So I find it a lot more limiting to write music for a vocalist.

“At the same time, it’s a great challenge, it’s a fun challenge, it’s one I’ve embraced a lot, and while it might not be as subjective as instrumental guitar music, I think it’s definitely its own beast.”

Justin Hawkins has long been channeling his thoughts on anything music-related via his Justin Hawkins Rides Again YouTube channel. In his latest post, Hawkins watches the new video from The Winery Dogs, and reacts to Billy Sheehan’s dazzling bass chops, at one point commenting: “What?! Split harmonics on the bass? First of all, how? And second of all, why?”

After watching the video for Xanadu, Hawkins goes on to provide further musical analysis on Kotzen’s guitar sound. “That sort of guitar playing you only really hear on Strats. It’s not as abrasive as a Les Paul. I’m dying to know which pickup setting he’s using there.”

Elsewhere, he delves deeper into his own rock tutorial. “What I love about the guitar solo is that the rhythm guitar stops,” he says. “It’s just  him with the drums and the bass, which reminds me of Van Halen records where the bass is enough of a harmonic accompaniment for the guitar solo to really hit you in the face.”

Having played literally thousands of gigs with Talas, his band from Buffalo, New York – not to mention his high profile work with David Lee Roth, Mr Big, Niacin and more recently Sons of Apollo – Billy Sheehan’s no-holds-barred bass lines have ensured his status as a rock bass icon. 

This month though, Sheehan’s announced that he'll be hitting the road with The Winery Dogs once again. In addition to the tour, fans will be excited to hear that following a seven-year hiatus from the studio, the trio has released the opening track and lead single from their aptly named third album III. Directed by Vicente Cordero, the video for Xanadu can be found on the band’s YouTube channel.

The new single is typical Winery Dogs – with Sheehan enhancing Kotzen’s big riff energy with his own signature licks and screaming harmonics. Sheehan has always had a very guitaristic approach. The pinch harmonic that you hear at 00:20 is a case in point.

Pinch harmonics (or split harmonics as Justin refers to them in his analysis) have long been popular among guitarists, but they’re much less common in the bass world. “When a guitar player plays a pinch harmonic he slips off the pick and the soft part of his thumb hits the string,” said Billy in a 2014 interview for The Flo Guitar Enthusiasts.

“Since I don’t have a pick, I use my fingernail up against my thumb. I actually got it from Billy Gibbons who I saw opening for Alice Cooper. I just had to figure out a way to get that sound. Since I didn’t have a pick, I found a way to do it with my fingernail.”

For a full list of tour dates, and to preorder III, head over to The Winery Dogs' website. Xanadu is available on digital formats here. 

When the announcement was made that Nita Strauss would be departing Alice Cooper's band, fans and pundits alike had a lot of questions. Sure, Cooper still had Ryan Roxie and Tommy Henriksen, but there's something about a triple-axe attack that sets the hearts of Cooper's fans alight.

It didn't take long before the questions of who would occupy Cooper's guitar vacancy were answered, with old friend and on-and-off cohort Kane Roberts being tabbed. 

Of course, Roberts and Strauss are cut from the same metal-oriented cloth, but the difference between the two is immeasurable beyond the surface. Plus, Roberts had a bold and brazen history as Cooper's sideman, which couldn't be discounted.

“I love what Nita does, but I never intended to go up there and try and be her,” Roberts says. “I've got my own style, but when I signed on for this tour, I had to set aside some of what I do and become a part of what the rest of the band does. I had to find balance in embellishing things in my own way while also knowing when to step back and let Ryan and Tommy do what they do. I think it worked well.”

Once on tour, Roberts fit Cooper's current band like a glove. And while three guitars can sound busy, the three musicians' restraint was tremendous. The result was far from overindulgent, instead playing as a verifiable guitar buffet, with ample yet well-measured helpings of each player's unique strengths.

“I had a friend come to the show, and he said it was like watching Alice Cooper's band, but with this monster roaming the stage,” Roberts jokes. “And that's what Alice wanted. He wanted to bring back that sense of danger and aggression and create a vibe like we had before. 

“With me in the band, Alice wanted to take advantage of that, and it's a big part of what made things as great as they were back when we used to play together.”

With the tour in his rearview mirror, Roberts now has time to reflect on his second go around with shock-rock's long-running ringmaster. 

For years, the Kane Roberts era of Cooper's history has been a fan favorite, and with good reason, the music that the duo created in many ways defines Cooper's sound to this day. And now that the chance to see Roberts alongside Copper again has come and gone, many are wondering if they'll get another crack.

“Going into this, I saw it as five or six weeks,” recounts Roberts. “I didn't look past that, and I wasn't looking at this as something where I was joining the band forever. Of course, Alice and I are best friends, and I am close with everyone involved. 

“Having said that, I'm open to anything, and it's just going to depend on how certain things shake out. I can say this: I love all those guys and Nita. Nita and I have always wanted to play a show together; I hope we can do that someday.”

Finally off the road and recovering from the whirlwind, Kane Roberts is catching up with Guitar World to recount his fall tour with Alice Cooper, sharing the stage with Nita Strauss, and the return of the infamous machine gun guitar.

To bring fans up to speed, how did you end up on stage with Alice Cooper again?

“Well, it was basically that Nita [Strauss] was going to take some time and play with Demi Lovato. And they talked about it, which was amicable; nothing was contentious about it. 

“So, I guess Alice was thinking of who he'd like to get to replace Nita, and somebody said, ‘What about Kane?’ So, Alice called me and said, ‘Hey, you want to do the fall tour?’ And I said, ‘Okay, let's talk about it.’ From there, he explained what happened and that Nita was taking some time, so I said, ‘Okay, I'll do it.’”

What was your process like in terms of preparation?

“I had to relearn a lot of stuff. [There were] 26 songs that I had to learn, and some of them were brand-new ones that I'd never played before. So, we got together, went in, and honestly, we only had two or three rehearsals; I play guitar, so it wasn't all that difficult. 

“But it took some getting used to because there is a lot of choreography that goes on during an Alice Cooper show that you might not think of initially. For example, the first night, I got hit right below my eye with Sheryl [Cooper's wife]'s whip because I was standing in the wrong place. So, it's something where you have to keep your wits about yourself and always be aware of where you are at all times.”

What other challenges did you face once out on tour?

“Aside from the timing and the choreography, the other thing was I had to learn to be comfortable with the in-ear monitors. Because with the in-ears, my guitar sounds much thinner and tinny compared to what I'm used to. 

“So, that took a couple of weeks to settle in with. I was used to having an amp pumping this stuff out behind me where you get that impact, the air that's moving, the little delay between the speakers and your ears, and stuff like that.”

Did you feel beholden to the way that Nita approaches Alice's songs? Or did you harken back to how you would have played them back in the day?

“Well, there were four other musicians there, so in many ways, I acquiesced to what they wanted me to do. I couldn't go in there and rearrange what they're doing, so what made sense was to come in and fit into what they're doing. If I were going to come in and make a bunch of changes or take over, the whole thing would have been heavier. 

“If Alice wanted me to come in and music direct, as I did before, that would have been a big difference because that's where my style lies. But Ryan Roxy and Tommy Henriksen, Chuck Garric, and Glen Sobel, they're great musicians, so I was in good company. 

“It made it much easier for me to come in, not necessarily about my style. Instead, I could think about the guys I was playing with and what the song needed.”

In your first go-around with Alice, you were the primary guitar player. But as you mentioned, you were up there with Ryan and Tommy this time. How did the three of you approach that?

“So, what I did was I would drop out during the verse to give the song some breathing room. And when I did that, there would only be the two guitars playing. And then I'd come back in during the next section or the chorus. It depended on the song, but overall, I wanted to clean up some of the sound because it was very dense in terms of the amount of guitar going on. 

“There are also a lot of guitar solos, and my solos are radically different than the other two guys – as they should be – that's the point. So, it turned into something where I was a part of a music project that I was stepping into instead of dominating.

“I think that a lot of people thought I would come in and dominate the whole thing, but that wasn't the case. I have a ton of respect for Ryan and Tommy's abilities and what they've been doing all these years in Alice's band, and I wanted to honor that. 

“So, the way I saw it was that it's my job to get in there, take what they were doing, add to it, and make it stronger. It was important for me to keep the dynamic that they had developed intact.”

After being away for so long, what stood out the most for you as the tour unfolded?

“The most memorable thing was watching Alice and thinking about how amazing he was. As far as getting comfortable, that took about a week, and suddenly, we were back to where we were.

“As you know, Alice and I are still best friends, but now it has become something where we're always laughing, hanging out, and going to dinner. We had breakfast every morning and did stuff like going to the movies. So, it turned into a wonderful hang-out, which made it a tremendous experience beyond what we did on stage.

“Aside from that, I had massive respect for Alice's ability. He still owns the audience. Like, when the band starts playing the intro to Feed My Frankenstein, which was the first song, Alice would walk out, and he's like a vacuum. 

“He came out and sucked the whole audience into his persona. And that's what I remembered so vividly from back in the day, and on this tour, I got to see up close that Alice is still as powerful as he ever was.”

During your first run with Alice, you brought elements of aggression and danger to his music, which have never left. How do you measure your impact on Alice's sound?

“When I first joined Alice back in the '80s, I sat down with him before doing that Nightmare Returns Tour, and I said, ‘Look, you don't want to sound like Alice survived rehab. You want to come back as a nuclear version of who you were.’ And there was such powerfully violent music out there like Ozzy Osbourne, Van Halen, and all these amazing bands, and we had to compete on that level. 

“So, that's how Alice and I generated that first tour and the heavy records that came after. That power and the response we got from the audience were amazing, and it showed that many people didn't expect it. A lot of people were worried about what Alice would sound like, but as soon as we came out, we hit them hard, and that silenced everyone.

“I remember that even the classics had a heavier feel. We decided with Shep Gordon to pay homage to the early stuff and keep the feel, but we made it heavier. That Detroit rock, classic vibe never left. But the power that Alice displayed during those two tours we did together, I'd say that it's still vital and more current in many ways. So, I think, yeah, I think an influence that stayed there. 

“But, having said that, Alice has some insane creatives working with him. I may have had an impact, but Alice is a genius, and he's more than covered when it comes to having people around him and being in a creative environment.”

One of the tour's memorable moments was when Nita hopped on stage with all of you. How did you navigate going from three guitars to having four?

“Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Nita came on for School's Out, and the structure of that song is very basic. I remember that Nita and I were in the dressing room, and we were laughing, which was so funny. Nita has been a good friend and a supporter of mine for a long time, and I have been for her, too. I love what she does. I love the way she plays. 

“We were laughing, looking at each other, like, ‘This is kind of a bucket list kind of thing, isn't it?’ We've always wanted to do a show together; hopefully, it won't be the last time we play together. 

“But, with the four-guitar thing, Nita and I, we're smart enough not to saturate everything with the metal sounds that we have. So, we stepped back when needed, then stepped up to the front of the stage when it was called for.”

I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up the machine gun guitar. What challenges did you face trying to resurrect it?

“At first, they looked at making a new one, but there wasn't enough time because it was complicated. So, they found the original – there are three out there – but they found the original. It was up at the Hard Rock Cafe in New Orleans for a long time, and then the flood happened, which ruined it.

“So, they chucked it into this warehouse, the neck got cracked, and it was jacked up pretty bad. But we wanted to find a way to have it in the show, so I had my luthier fix it up as best he could. He did a great job, but it's unplayable. 

“If you were at any of the shows, you'd notice that I didn't play it. It was roughed up pretty good after that flood, and there wasn't enough time to get it working. But they could at least assemble it and make it look functional.”

Back in the day, it shot fire. But this time, it looked as if only smoke was spewing out.

“Yep, that's true. We wanted it to shoot fire, but we would have had to hire a pyro guy to come on tour, and then each city, we would have had to have somebody come out and watch the whole thing. So, what they did instead was they used this cryo-smoke stuff. 

“So, for me, when I played the thing in the '80s, it felt like I had this flamethrower gun guitar. But on this tour, I had a fire extinguisher gun, so I guess I was putting out the fires instead of starting them this time. [Laughs]. 

“But overall, it was cool because Alice and I have a tongue-in-cheek attitude toward it. But we both love the energy that the guitar brings, and it's important to my image and my era of the band. I'm glad we were able to make it work in some way.”

The machine gun guitar aside, what guitars and gear are you using these days?

“Well, they have everybody running through a Kemper. It's a great live amp, and it's supposed to have a lot more nuance and different options, and you can download sounds and put them in there.

“It's digitally generated, so what you do is you have a foot pedal in front of you, and it will say ‘clean sound,’ ‘solo,’ ‘flange,’ or whatever sort of effect. And each time you hit a pedal, it's got a different guitar sound, and you can change it as you want or need. 

“I'm much more into amps; that's my thing, but the Kemper is cool and works well enough. But I'm used to having it set up with a bunch of Marshall stacks back there; that's my thing.

“Like I said before, we had the in-ears, and we had the Kemper. I had trouble getting used to that because it was an entirely different sonic environment. As far as guitars are concerned, as soon as the announcement was made, Schecter immediately stepped up to the plate for me.

“And I'm the type of person who has a sense of loyalty to people that treat me right, so I said, ‘You know what, let's give me a bunch of Schecter guitars, and I'll play them exclusively on this tour.’ And so, they threw down and gave me a bunch of them. They customized them for me and set up the neck and the action. 

“Of course, I had to bring it to my guy as well. But the type of pickups in there and everything, Schecter, was very accommodating. I have to say, they are one of the best customer service companies, and they're all true rock 'n' roll people. They're the real deal, and they're a great guitar company.”

In my opinion, Schecter is a brand that doesn't get enough love. Aside from what you've mentioned, what makes them conducive to your sound and style?

“What I look for is the action on the neck and how well I can use the tremolo bar. For me, and the way that I play, that setup needs to be seamless. I can't have any issues with either of those things. 

“But with Schecter, the necks were nice, and once I got my guy to lower the action and get it to the point where I felt it was comfortable with my fingers – my hands are huge – it was perfect. Because my hands are so big, I need to have them set up in a way where the strings are a certain distance from each other and everything.

“What's also great is that Schechter's default neck alignment is spot on for me. So that was a big deal. And they have things like a Sustainiac pickup that they can give you as an option, which doubles the sustain, and you can hold the note forever. 

“There used to be a thing called a Sustainer, and it's like that, but a lot more functional because it's just right at your fingers. So, those guitars, combined with the Kemper and the in-ears, is what I used, and it took some getting used to, but it all worked out in the end.”

At the onset of this tour, you were looking at this with an open mind but had no definitive future plans with Alice. Has that changed?

“Well, I'm open to a lot. I would think that Nita may intend to come back. But she also has some real career decisions because she's got a viable solo career, and she's still out there killing it with Demi Lovato, too. 

“So, I'm sure there are a lot of plates that must be spinning, and we'll see what happens. But yes, I'm open to any discussions. It comes down to me, Alice, Shep, Bob Ezrin, and all the people in the band; we're all friends and love each other. So, it's just gonna depend on how things shake out from here on out, but my initial notion was that I would sign on for five or six weeks, and that might be it.”

With the tour in the books, what are your overarching thoughts on what must be a full-circle moment for you?

“I didn't expect it. But the thing is, I stepped into a Lamborghini-type situation because of how good this band is. The people in the band are so nice to the crew, and everyone involved is very talented and detail-oriented. We all got along as friends, and that was incredible, too. 

“Even the bus was awesome, and our bus driver, Deuce, was a badass and just a cool guy. I honestly can't say that there was one aspect of it that I didn't like, and I had a great time doing it.

“In terms of the full circle thing, it's funny; I just stepped in and started doing it, but it didn't seem unusual or even that different from before. Of course, the band members, the sound, and everything were radically different, but the feeling of being on stage with Alice, playing those songs, didn't feel weird to me. 

“And the fact that Alice was at the head of it and spearheading everything made it feel like I was back with the family. Alice and Sheryl Cooper, and all those people, once we got out there playing music and hanging out again, I really did feel like I was home. 

“So, I got the opportunity to play great music with them, which was all positive. As far as it resonating as destiny, I didn't get that as much as it was us re-establishing our friendships through the beauty of music.”

Earlier this year, Nita Strauss left Alice Cooper’s live lineup to link up with Demi Lovato, who was putting together an all-female rock band that would help her transition from pop superstar to rock warrior.

At the time, Strauss stressed that her departure from the Cooper cohort was not permanent, and that the door had been left open by the legendary rock vocalist should the Ibanez signature artist decide to return in the future.

Well, it turns out the open door wasn’t waiting for very long, after Strauss hauled it off its hinges and rejoined Alice Cooper and co for a show-stopping rendition of School’s Out on Tuesday (October 4) at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, Colorado.

After being brought onstage for the set’s encore, Strauss – who was wielding a Jackson Jeff Loomis signature guitar owned by Cooper’s other guitarist, Tommy Henriksen – joined her former bandmates to take a trip down memory lane.

Opting for the Loomis model as she doesn’t “have any guitars in Alice world right now”, the Hurricane also shared the stage with her direct replacement, Kane Roberts – Hurri-Kane, she cleverly calls – who was redrafted to the Cooper lineup following Strauss’s exit.

Unsurprisingly, the lack of her Ibanez JIVA10 did nothing to dampen Strauss’s six-string acrobatics, as the guitar star seamlessly slipped her Cooper cap back on for a flawless rendition of a track she’s no doubt performed hundreds of times.

Taking to social media after the gig, Strauss confirmed she had spent much of the evening in a spectator capacity, before joining the on-stage antics for School’s Out.

“Such a treat getting to not only see the amazing Alice Cooper show from the audience for the first time, but hop up and join the boys for the encore last night,” she wrote. “They all absolutely crushed it and I was beaming the whole time singing along to every song.

“Thank you all for the warm welcome, it made my day,” Strauss continued. “Also thank you [Tommy Henriksen] for letting me use your Jeff Loomis signature Kelly since I don’t have any guitars in Alice world right now. If I’m not playing mine, Jeff’s is a great substitute.”

After news of Strauss’s exit from Cooper’s band first broke, the guitarist was quick to tell Guitar World that surrounding commentary had blown up the exit “into a much bigger decision than it was”.

“There was a lot of speculation from people who didn’t have all the information about what was going on,” Strauss explained. “When I got the call, I went straight to Alice in person and talked to him in his hotel room. I said, ‘Look, I have this opportunity, it doesn’t conflict with this tour but I will have to miss the fall tour. Are you cool if I go and do it?’”

She continued, “He gave me a big hug and said, ‘Absolutely, go do it, we’ll see what happens from there, we are excited for you and proud of you.’”

Since joining Lovato’s live band, Strauss has performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, embarked on tour with the vocalist and developed a new-found reliance on the second and fourth pickup positions.

“I haven’t used position two this much in my entire life [laughs],” Strauss told Guitar World. “There are times when our MD might say, ‘Can you clean that tone up a little bit?’ and I’ll just click it over and it’s perfect. Position two to the rescue!”

Strauss will next be in action tomorrow (October 6) at the Fox Trot Theatre, Detroit. Visit Demi Lovato’s website for a full list of tour dates.

“It’s nice to be home for a couple of days. I haven’t been here since January,” grins Nita Strauss when she connects with Guitar World via video link. It's been a whirlwind year for Strauss, who has well and truly been living up to her Hurricane nickname – touring American and European arenas with Alice Cooper, and then heading out with her solo band whenever a gap in her schedule presented itself. 

But the big news came in July, when she dropped the bombshell that she would be not be performing on the shock rock veteran’s fall tour, and even going as far as canceling all of her own solo dates. “I’ll be on stage again much sooner than you think,” she teased, adding, “but that’s news for another day”.

Rumors soon circulated that Strauss would be joining Demi Lovato’s all-new live line-up, which was put together for a world tour to support the pop star's newest album, Holy Fvck. In turn, the record itself would supposedly take more cues from rock and guitar-based influences – a far cry from the Disney star’s past releases.

This was confirmed when Lovato and her band performed new single Substance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, with Strauss sharing an advert for Lovato’s upcoming tour dates soon after. So, how exactly did this all end up happening?

“I got the call back in May,” reveals Nita, whose studio room backdrop is packed with Ibanez headstocks. “I was on tour with my solo band opening up for Black Label Society. It was a tough tour to be on. There were a lot of cancellations. That didn’t have any bearing on my decision, but I guess it made me think what else might be out there. 

“It was the very last day of that tour when I got a call saying Demi Lovato wanted to go in a rock direction and she was putting together an all-female band. They wanted to know if I’d be interested, and I thought, ‘Yeah, of course!’ What guitar player wouldn’t be excited for that kind of opportunity? Bringing this type of music that we love so much to a more mainstream audience…” 

Having been in the Alice Cooper band since 2014 – a dead-cert dream gig for any rock guitar player – it wasn't a decision to be taken lightly. But when we inquire as to whether she lost any sleep over it, Strauss points out that the clickbait headlines and overzealous rumor mill may have been somewhat misleading, at least to a certain degree.

“You know, I think it’s been blown up into a much bigger decision than it was,” she admits. “There was a lot of speculation from people who didn’t have all the information about what was going on. When I got the call, I went straight to Alice in person and talked to him in his hotel room. I said, ‘Look, I have this opportunity, it doesn’t conflict with this tour but I will have to miss the fall tour. Are you cool if I go and do it?’”

With Coop’s reputation as one of the nicest rock 'n' roll stars on the planet, it’s hardly surprising to learn Strauss was given the support a player of her stature so clearly deserves. In fact, doors were even left open for a potential reunion later down the line, if the stars so aligned.

“He gave me a big hug and said, ‘Absolutely, go do it, we’ll see what happens from there, we are excited for you and proud of you.’ I think his exact words were, ‘Go and shine your light there, bring what you’ve learned to the world.’ So from my point of view, it was never like, ‘Peace, I’m out!’ I asked if I could take a step back to try this thing and Alice told me to go have fun. 

“Then it became this big fiasco. Maybe in hindsight I could have made a statement making things more clear, but I didn’t really think I owed it to anybody. I wanted to try this new gig out and see where it goes from there.”

Aside from the obvious hits, what were your favorite Alice Cooper tracks to play live?

“I love the Kane Roberts tracks, like The World Needs Guts, Teenage Frankenstein or Roses On White Lace, so it was very surreal to hear that he was coming in to do the fall tour. I talk to Kane all the time, or at least a few times a month. He’ll ask me about what part I played or what tone I got. It’s so cool to think I learned these songs watching him and now he’s listening to what I did to learn the new arrangements.”

You also played on Roberts’ last solo album, which a lot of people might not know. That makes it even more full-circle, don’t you think?

“I did, yes. I played on this really cool song called King of the World. There’s so much synchronicity. We’re on the best of terms, there’s so much mutual respect and admiration. We’ve always gotten on so well. As a fan, I’m so excited to see him step into that role and play these classic Alice songs again.”

Were you following Demi Lovato’s music before this point or did you need to deep-dive as part of your homework?

“I definitely did my homework, for sure. I knew about her as a super-talented singer and had read all the same headlines everyone else had read about everything she’s gone through and achieved in life. It was interesting going back and listening to her older music, coming out of this Camp Rock and Disney world. 

“You can hear a rock fan being put into a pop genre. Even as a teenager, she was writing lyrics like, ‘Who said I can’t wear my Converse with my dress?’ It was her saying, ‘Let me be me and let me rock!’ Now she’s just turned 30, she has a lot more say in her career choices and style of music. It’s exciting to be a part of bringing that vision to life.”

It looks like the reaction to your career news has gone down well – most people sound pleased to see you taking your talent to new areas and different stages.

“You and I are looking at different social media feeds! It is what it is. In a way, I feel very cared about – people are so protective of me and my career that they want to weigh in on my decisions [laughs]. If people didn’t care, they wouldn’t say anything. I’m choosing to look at the bright side of things. I’m very excited about the opportunity. I haven’t been to Brazil to play a gig since 2017. I can’t wait to crush these shows. 

“And it’s not just about me, it’s an amazing all-female band: Brittany Bowman on the drums, Leanne Bowes on the bass, Dani McGinley on the keys. If we can reach this next generation of passionate and intense fans, and inspire them to play music, isn’t that a wonderful thing? They might pick up a guitar or bass, try out drums or see Dani on keys and think, ‘I could do that!’ Some of these younger fans might not have been reached through a traditional rock show.”

A lot of virtuoso guitarists have paired up with pop stars in the past, from Jennifer Batten and Greg Howe working with Michael Jackson, to Nuno Bettencourt playing with Rihanna.

“I’ve gotten to play with Jennifer. She’s amazing and it was very humbling. Yeah, there’s a long tradition of rock players in pop acts. There’s Justin Derrico with Pink, Nuno Bettencourt with Rihanna. Greg Howe did NSync as well as Michael Jackson.

“Then there’s Monte Pittman playing with Madonna while simultaneously playing with Prong, which no one seems to care about in terms of juggling both. And you know why they don’t care? Because they shouldn’t!”

Especially when he’s teaching Madonna how to play things like A New Level by Pantera, which she surprised fans with on her Sticky & Sweet tour.

“I know, that’s so crazy. It’s amazing that Monte gets to be the incredible musician he is across different genres and platforms. I’m excited to join that rank: the lucky people who get to stretch their wings and do something a little different. Demi has been taking lessons with me since we started rehearsals. She’s playing an Ibanez on stage and really going for it. 

“She’s a total metalhead. I’ve been quoted saying that a lot and it’s true. We did the first gig only a few weeks ago in Springfield, Illinois. I walked past a dressing room and could hear somebody listening to Megadeth, and it was Demi. There she was, getting ready for the show.

“She’s not trying to fool anyone with air guitar or any kind of act; she’s finally being her genuine self. It’s a big move for Demi, you know? She had a very safe pop career that she didn’t need to mess with but she chose to step out and play the music she loves.”

What kind of advice and exercises have you have been giving her?

“Mainly it’s just been getting her ready for tour. We’re not going through modes or any theory yet. I want her to feel as comfortable as she can playing these songs on stage because she’s coming from a different world. 

“It’s been more about practicing standing up, keeping the fretting hand in the right position. She was doing this thing a lot of younger players do, with her thumb over the neck, and strumming more over the neck than over the pickup. It was just little things like that: the building blocks of riffing.”

It makes sense for her to leave the blistering harmonic minor shred to you... that’s what you’re known for, after all.

“She’s not doing that on this tour, but maybe next time. She’s a very good learner, which surprised me because I’ve taught in the past and I’ve never had a student who didn’t need to be told the same thing twice. 

“Eventually, one thing will leave their mind and you’ll need to remind them, ‘Don’t forget, keep your thumb at the back!’ With Demi, I’ve only told her things once and she gets it. She’ll retain that information and instruction like a sponge, which is really cool.”

What are the main differences for you as a player? It feels like the Alice Cooper set is more classic rock and ultimately blues-based, while your new gig might fit in closer to the punk world.

“It’s really interesting playing through so many years of Demi’s catalog. The early stuff is more Paramore-sounding pop-punk. The middle years were her bread and butter years – Heart Attack, Sorry Not Sorry or Cool For The Summer. They weren’t simple songs, but they were more straightforward in terms of guitar chords. 

“This new record is so riff-y and heavy, there’s so much interesting stuff going on guitar-wise. Tying it all together with Demi’s Musical Director, Stacy Jones, has been so much fun – taking that middle era of music into something that makes sense with the current stuff. 

“We couldn’t just do Sorry Not Sorry as recorded on the album because it wouldn’t have fit in with this rock show. Everything has been 'rockified'. Solos, double kick drums and more have been added, with Demi singing her ass off.”

Clearly, it’s time to crank the gain.

“We’re definitely cranking things up. The first time I went to Demi’s house, she had an amp with no distortion channel. I ended up leaving my practice amp there for her to use, one of those little battery-operated Nux ones. Marshall just sent her a Code 50, so now she’s got that to crank. It’s like rule number one for a guitar player: get a Marshall and turn it up loud!”

And how is your rig looking – is there anything new or different to the Alice Cooper shows?

“It’s actually the exact same rig. I took my same Kemper and kept the same sounds. There are definitely more tones in this set. With Alice, it was mainly one block of five sounds: clean, rhythm, rhythm with a little distortion, a lead and then a lead with a wah.

“With Demi, there are so many different tones, like a brighter JCM800-ish sound with the gain turned really low that I need a lot. It’s not something I would have dialed in outside of this gig, but it works so well for spanky or washy cleaner tones. There are also a lot of long delays and big reverbs, so we’ve had so much fun experimenting with the tones. 

“There’s an octaver on some of the new album solos, which I haven’t used much before, so I’ve been enjoying that. It’s more interesting guitar-wise than a lot of people might think. The Kemper is doing everything with the Mission Control on the floor and my [signature Ibanez] JIVA models are my workhorse.”

We’re guessing pickup positions two and four have been coming in handier than ever, right?

“I haven’t used position two this much in my entire life [laughs]. There are times when our MD might say, ‘Can you clean that tone up a little bit?’ and I’ll just click it over and it’s perfect. Position two to the rescue! Being the only guitar player is also very new for me. I’ve been playing in two- or three-guitar bands my whole life. 

“It’s interesting being the one that has to cover everything instead of organizing which octaves to play with other people. I might think, ‘If only one of these parts get played, which one is it going to be?’ It’s tightened my rhythm playing up so much because it’s just me. There’s nothing else there to mask any imperfections.”

You just released a new song called Summer Storm. With its brutal beatdowns, Phrygian Dominant shred and blazing pentatonic runs, it seems to have everything people would want from a Nita Strauss song.

“I feel like on both of my albums there’s one track that seems to encompass everything that I’m about as a player. For the first album it was Our Most Desperate Hour and for this one it’s Summer Storm. And I agree, it really covers all the bases of my playing. Everything that makes me sound like me. It’s catchy, shreddy, emotional and a little chaotic.

“It tells a story. After the success of Dead Inside with David Draiman, I think everyone else – from my label to a lot of my fans – expected another vocal song next. But I love surprising people and wanted to stay true to who I am as a player, which is why it was time for another instrumental.”

Speaking of which, there’s a great arc to the solo you played on Dead Inside – that opening line pedals off the perfect fifth and ‘cries’ by bending the second up to a minor third, building and building from there…

“Yeah, I probably learned that kind of stuff from Marty Friedman. When I write solos, I’ll improvise several times and then start refining it, taking this beginning and linking to this other middle part. I’ll eventually get to a whole thing and record it properly. And what ended up on the final recording was my first pass after having pieced those parts together. I looked at the producer and we both felt it sounded cool. It came out very organically.”

In terms of technique, what are you working on right now? Is there a current drill or exercise?

“To be honest, all my practice time has been in tour prep recently. I’m always rehearing for the next tour while still on the previous one. I started my year on my solo tour, while getting ready for the Alice tour. I went to that and was rehearsing for the next solo tour. Then I finished that and got back on an Alice tour, learning songs for the Demi tour. And now that’s just started.

“My practice time has been just trying to keep my head out of the water. There’s always so much to learn on guitar. I just barely have time to do it.”

Is there a style you’re hoping to spend more time on when you do get the opportunity, like Al Di Meola-ish flamenco or gypsy jazz à la Django Reinhardt?

“Oh, totally. Flamenco is always something I want to get better at. I was first exposed to it through Steve Stevens’ Flamenco A Go-Go album, which is a total masterpiece. That’s my dinner party album – if I’m having people over, we will definitely end up listening to it. I enjoy it so much and would love to learn more of that kind of stuff, as well as jazz. 

“I’d love to improve my metal playing, too. There’s still so much to learn. I’m a more left hand-dominant player, using a lot of legato and fast trills. I’d love to catch my right hand up and get more into economy picking. I do a little, but I could do more. It’s a never-ending quest, this instrument that we love so much. It’s a lifelong affair.”

• Head over to Demi Lovato's website to find out when Nita Strauss will next be performing live.

Nita Strauss has refused to rule out a return to Alice Cooper’s band in the future, asserting she hasn’t necessarily “left” the band despite taking up a new role as Demi Lovato’s touring electric guitar player.

Last month, Strauss canceled her solo festival appearances for this summer and announced she would not be joining Cooper’s band for their upcoming fall tour. After some speculation, it was later confirmed Strauss would be joining pop star Lovato when the pair performed together on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

However, speaking to Louder about her career shift, Strauss has said her absence on Cooper’s fall tour does not equate to her official departure, with the Ibanez signature artist leaving the door open for a potential return to the lineup.

When asked about her departure from the band, Strauss challenged the choice of words, saying that only those outside the band have used the terms “quitting” or “leaving”.

“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 observed. “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.”

Instead, when Strauss played her last shows with Cooper, the latter hosted a “Hiatus Dinner” and made it clear to the guitarist that she was welcome back any time. To this end, Strauss has hinted that a return could happen as early as next year, depending on her touring commitments.

“There’s no shutting of a door and changing of the guard, it’s just I’m taking a step back a little bit,” she continued. “Depending on what the schedule looks like next year, I may have the chance to come back, I may not. 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.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Strauss reflected on her new job with Lovato, and revealed she was singled out by the pop star’s musical director with the proposition that Lovato was planning to assemble an all-female rock band.

Strauss continued, “I actually got a text from Demi’s musical director… and essentially what it said was what we all know now: Demi is a huge rock and metal fan. And Demi wants to go back to her roots and wants to put together an all-female rock band. 

“She’s really one of the biggest stars in the world and she wants to take a step into our genre and this style of music that we love so much. When you get that text, that somebody wants to bring that type of music to the forefront, how do you say no? 

“How do you turn down this opportunity to bring this style of music to so many more people? So I was thrilled to hear about it and I jumped at the opportunity.”

Strauss has already been able to introduce her shredding skills to multiple audiences with Lovato, and even ventured as far as to say that her solos generated a level of adoration from fans that she’s “never heard before”.

“It is wild, I put up a video of the first show that we did when I was doing a guitar solo, sort of back to back power stance with Demi, and the screaming and cheering from fans is something I’ve never heard before,” she recalled. I’ve never heard a reaction like that at a rock or metal show. People are like, ‘Yeah, guitar, cool.’ 

“But to hear this audience, possibly a lot of them being exposed to that guitar solo, or seeing it in the context of [the live environment], for the first time, it’s just so exciting and cool.”

Glam rock, prog rock, country rock, power pop, proto punk, funk, and heavy metal all thrived in 1972, a sign that record – and eight-track? – buyers were open to a wide range of electric guitar-driven styles.

While several established bands cemented their status as “rock elite” with what would go on to become all-time classic albums, there were also quite a few debuts, surprises, and LPs that only seemed to get attention many years later.

There is compelling case to be made that ‘72 was one of the most significant years for guitar music. Rock guitar’s horizons were being broadened by trailblazing artist and the omnivorous tastes of the record-buying public. 

Fender, ever aware of the prevailing trends in pop-culture, recognized that change was in the air, and that players wanted different. They hooked up with former Gibson pickup guru Seth Lover for Wide Range humbucker and duly augmented the Fender Telecaster’s design. 

But now, without further ado, let’s take a virtual time machine back a half century ago, to when Richard Nixon defeated George McGovern to be re-elected U.S. President, Pong became the first successful arcade video game, and West Germany defeated the Soviet Union in the UEFA European Championship, and inspect the albums that provided an awesome soundtrack to ‘72. 

Disclaimer: only studio albums released in ’72 qualify. So, no compilations, soundtracks, unplugged and/or concert albums were permitted in this rundown…

30. The Velvert Turner Group – The Velvert Turner Group

After the tragic passing of Jimi Hendrix in 1970, several guitarists attempted to fill the psychedelic-funk-blues-rock void – most obviously, Robin Trower and Frank Marino. But one seemingly forgotten gentleman had his “Jimi-isms” down pat, Velvert Turner, on this obscure self-titled debut by his Velvert Turner Group. 

Unlike the other aforementioned players however, Velvert had a legitimate link to the late/great guitarist – he took lessons from him.

29. Fanny – Fanny Hill

Fanny truly rocked hard, and was one of the few all-female groups of the era. And on their third album, they offered several spirited covers (Ain’t That Peculiar, Hey Bulldog) and kickass originals (Blind Alley, Rock Bottom Blues) – which feature the group’s singer/guitarist, June Millington, front and center. 

28. The Osmonds – Crazy Horses

What the heck is one of the era’s most family-friendly pop bands doing on this list? In one of the most dramatic stylistic shifts in pop history, the Osmonds suddenly transformed into a true hard rockin’ band for this release – particularly on the stomping title track, Hold Her Tight, and Life Is Hard Without Goodbyes (the latter sounding surprisingly similar to the future Rainbow composition, Love’s No Friend).

27. Big Star – #1 Record

Power pop was in full bloom in ’72, and one of the genre’s best was Big Star – featuring the vocal/guitar/songwriting duo of Alex Chilton and Chris Bell. 

It still remains perplexing all these years later how such seemingly made-for-the-radio tunes as In the Street and When My Baby’s Beside Me weren’t hits, nor the exceptional ballads Thirteen and Watch the Sunrise. 

26. Lou Reed – Transformer

That David Robert Jones was one busy fellow in ’72. Who? David Bowie! Huh? Let us explain – Bowie was a major appreciator of proto-punks the Velvet Underground, and when he was looking to start producing other artists, the first artist he and his then-guitarist, Mick Ronson manned the mixing desk for was ex-VU singer/guitarist Lou Reed. 

The production duo even performed on this classic, which served as a commercial breakthrough for Reed – thanks to the inclusion of such subsequent classic tunes as Walk on the Wild Side, Vicious, and the lovely ballad Perfect Day. 

25. Scorpions – Lonesome Crow

Curious to hear what a 16-year old Michael Schenker sounded like on the six-string? All you have to do is check out the Scorpions’ debut – which as evidenced by such tracks as I’m Goin’ Mad, In Search of the Peace of Mind, and the title track, are decidedly more 'hippie dippie' than the anthemic arena rock they would take to the top of the charts a decade later. 

24. Captain Beyond – Captain Beyond

Original Deep Purple singer Rod Evans’ post-Purple group was expectedly hard rocking (Dancing Madly Backwards, Mesmerization Eclipse), but also morphed into psychedelia at points (Myopic Void, As the Moon Speaks). And he found just the right men for the job via a pair of former Iron Butterflies – guitarist Larry “Rhino” Reinhardt and bassist Lee Dorman.

23. West Bruce & Laing – Why Dontcha 

With Mountain seemingly split up in ‘72, guitarist Leslie West and drummer Corky Laing promptly hooked up with ex-Cream bassist Jack Bruce, and showed great promise with this highly anticipated debut – particularly on the standout tracks, Why Dontcha, The Doctor, and Love Is Worth the Blues. However, the trio would be kaput two years later, with Mountain being briefly resuscitated. 

22. Wishbone Ash - Argus

It’s easy to assume that Iron Maiden got the idea for their trademark twin guitar harmony lines from Thin Lizzy, who perfected the approach within hard rock before Maiden came merrily galloping along. But it turns out that Steve Harris was a major fan of the third offering from this British prog band, which featured six-string duo Andy Powell and Ted Turner. 

And while their guitar harmonies are not as oft-used or intricate as Maiden’s would be, you can hear a preview of what was to come – particularly at the 3:00 mark of The King Will Come. 

21. Budgie – Squawk

The sophomore effort by these Cardiff rockers showed that Black Sabbath wasn’t the only group in ’72 laying down some serious proto-doom/stoner metal. 

Singer/bassist Burke Shelley and guitarist Tony Bourge team up for some industrial-sized riffing on Whiskey River, Hot as a Docker’s Armpit, and Stranded, and like Sab, would insert acoustic ditties from time to time (Rolling Home Again, Make Me Happy) before the next brutal metallic assault. 

20. Trapeze – You are the Music…We’re Just the Band

Although best known for his work with Deep Purple’s Mark III and IV line-ups, singer/bassist Glenn Hughes got his start with Trapeze. 

Also including future Whitesnake guitarist Mel Galley and future Judas Priest drummer Dave Holland, the trio began as a near metal band – specifically 1970’s Medusa – before getting a funk-rock makeover in time for this album, on the standouts Keepin’ Time and the title track, and momentarily turning down the amps for the gorgeous ballad, Coast to Coast. 

19. Blue Öyster Cult – Blue Öyster Cult

Fuzzed-out, distorted, and cranked-to-10 amps are usually associated with heavy metal. However, on Blue Öyster Cult’s self-titled debut, this was not always the case. Still, the New York group – featuring guitarists Buck Dharma and Eric Bloom – managed to create a seriously spooky vibe on Workshop of the Telescopes, Then Came the Last Days of May, and especially the awesomely-titled She’s as Beautiful as a Foot.  

18. Genesis – Foxtrot

As evidenced by several selections on this list, ’72 saw several prog bands choose to utilize entire sides of an album to get their point across, or in the case of Foxtrot, nearly an entire side (as a brief instrumental, Horizons, prefaces the 23 minute-plus Supper’s Ready). And Steve Hackett had no problem navigating his six-string through all of the unexpected compositional twists and turns. 

17. Roxy Music – Roxy Music

Were they art rock? Glam rock? Prog rock? Who knows for sure – and that is precisely what made the self-titled debut by Roxy Music so swell. Interestingly, one of their best-ever tunes, Virginia Plain (which featured a tasty lead break from guitarist Phil Manzanera), was included on the US version of the album, but was nowhere to be found on the UK edition. 

16. Todd Rundgren – Something/Anything?

Although often pointed to as a power pop tour de force, Todd Rundgren’s third solo effort (a sprawling double album), actually touched upon various styles – hard rock, R&B, psychedelia, piano ballads, etcetera. And while the radio hits Hello It’s Me and I Saw the Light remain the best known of the bunch, Rundgren gets to show off his underrated guitar soloing skills on Black Maria and Couldn’t I Just Tell You. 

Also of note, Rundgren proved to be an incredibly multi-talented musician – not only singing, producing the album, and penning 24 of the its 25 tracks, but also playing every bloody instrument on the first three sides! 

15. Neil Young – Harvest

Primarily thought of as Neil Young’s best – and most folky – solo effort (due to the inclusion of Heart of Gold and The Needle and the Damage Done), this US/UK chart-topper does include some rocking moments (Alabama, Words), and also a few tunes that contributed to the emergence of the “country rock” genre (Out on the Weekend, Old Man, Are You Ready for the Country?). 

14. The Allman Brothers Band – Eat a Peach 

When Duane Allman tragically died in a motorcycle accident on October 29, 1971, the Allman Brothers were in the midst of recording a studio album – which would go on to become the basis of this half studio/half-live double LP. 

That said, it’s no cobbled-together affair, as evidenced by the fact that two classic tunes, Melissa and Blue Sky (the latter penned by the group’s other guitarist, Dickey Betts) reside here, as well as a seemingly never-ending concert recording, Mountain Jam.

13. ZZ Top – Rio Grande Mud

You could always count on ZZ Top to deliver some lean blues-boogie throughout the decade. And their sophomore effort continued to help get the train a-rollin’, as singer/guitarist Billy Gibbons shines on such gems as Francine, Just Got Paid, and Chevrolet, as well as the forgotten riff rocker, Down Brownie. 

12. Jeff Beck Group – Jeff Beck Group 

The most celebrated eras of guitar great Jeff Beck’s career seem to be the psychedelic mid ‘60s with the Yardbirds, the hard rocking late ‘60s with the Jeff Beck Group (featuring a line-up that included Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood), and his jazz-fusion detour in the mid-late ‘70s as a solo artist. 

However, he had resuscitated the Jeff Beck Group for a spell during the early ‘70s (sans Rod and Ronnie), including this self-titled effort – aka The Orange Album – which spotlighted such guitar workouts as Going Down, Ice Cream Cakes, and Definitely Maybe. 

• 4 guitar tricks you can learn from Jeff Beck

11. Funkadelic – America Eats Its Young

Funkadelic once offered up a song entitled Who Says a Funk Band Can’t Play Rock?! And this is certainly a fitting assessment of most of their ‘70s albums – especially this double disc set. 

The George Clinton-led group utilized several guitarists here, including Eddie Hazel (I Call My Baby Pussycat), Garry Shider (Biological Speculation), Harold Beane (Loose Booty), and Catfish Collins (Philmore).

10. Curtis Mayfield – Super Fly

Undoubtedly one of the best motion picture soundtracks of all-time was this masterpiece by the former leader of the Impressions, which lyrically, reflected the onscreen story of tough guy/drug dealer, Youngblood Priest. 

Funky rhythm guitar (courtesy of Mayfield, Phil Upchurch, and Craig McMullen) and Mayfield’s incredibly soulful vocals are featured throughout – but especially on Pusherman, Freddie’s Dead, and the title track. 

9. T. Rex – The Slider 

Following in the same glam rock direction as its predecessor (1971’s Electric Warrior), Marc Bolan and company returned with another stellar album. And it’s loaded with guitar-driven treats, such as the classics Metal Guru and Telegram Sam, plus the lesser-known title track, Baby Strange, and Ballrooms of Mars. 

8. Jethro Tull – Thick as a Brick

As previously pointed out in the entry for Foxtrot, ’72 saw several prog bands offer up extended compositions – including Tull’s fifth studio effort, which featured two songs across two sides (both going by the name of the album’s title, but differentiated by a Part I and Part II). 

Part I is by far the best of the pair – starting with the strum of Ian Anderson’s acoustic guitar, introducing the full band (with a bang) at the 3:03 mark, then presenting one of the most bouncy and jolly pieces of music a rock band has ever offered up at 12:32, while guitarist Martin Barre’s soloing capabilities are showcased at various points throughout. 

7. Yes – Close to the Edge

Like Genesis and Jethro Tull, Yes opted to treat listeners to an extended tune that traversed many peaks and valleys. And on their fifth studio effort overall, that tune would be the near 19-minute title track. 

But it turns out that the two ditties that comprise the second side were just as good…and possibly, somehow even better than side one – the ballad And You and I and the funk-prog rocker Siberian Khatru – the latter of which features some superb interplay between guitarist Steve Howe and bassist Chris Squire. 

• How Chris Squire got his iconic bass tone

6. Steely Dan – Can’t Buy a Thrill

The band long led by Donald Fagan and Walter Becker has been described as many things – jazz rock, soft rock, and even pop. But the best tune on Steely Dan’s debut is a straight-up rocker, Reelin’ in the Years – which features a simply blazing guitar solo by session man Elliott Randall. 

That said, the guitar work by then-members Jeff “Skunk” Baxter and Denny Dias on Do It Again and Midnite Cruiser ain’t too shabby, either. 

5. Alice Cooper – School’s Out

It was on Alice Cooper's third album with producer Bob Ezrin worked that the group entered a truly cinematic realm – particularly on such tunes as Gutter Cat vs. the Jets/Street Fight, Alma Mater, and Grand Finale. 

Oh yes, it also contains one of the greatest guitar riffs of all-time (courtesy of the late/great Glen Buxton, along with Michael Bruce), within the anthemic title track. 

4. Black Sabbath – Vol. 4

Although it never received the same hefty amount of accolades as say, their debut or Paranoid did, Black Sabbath’s fourth offering overall is crammed with prime Tony Iommi detuned riffage. 

While a tune about the effects of the devil’s dandruff, Snowblind, is probably the best known rocker, it’s all killer/no filler here, particularly Wheels of Confusion, Tomorrow’s Dream, and Supernaut.

3. Rolling Stones – Exile on Main St.

Some musicians simply cannot function while on drugs. Others issue one of the best rock albums of all-time – case in point, the Stones with this classic double-LP (which come to mention it, that was another craze of ’72 – the double-LP!). 

Mick Taylor was still in the midst of serving as Keith Richards’ six-string lieutenant, and they sound gloriously ragged n’ rocking on Tumbling Dice, Happy, and Ventilator Blues – and a special shout-out goes to the greatest Stones song title ever, Turd on the Run). 

2. David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

Although there had been glam rock albums issued before the arrival of David Bowie’s fifth studio album – T. Rex's Electric Warrior, Alice Cooper's Love It to Death and Killer – Ziggy was the one that truly sent the genre over the top. 

And while it was primarily the Bowie’s androgynous look and spaceman lyrics that made Ziggy stand out from the pack, there’s no denying what guitarist Mick Ronson brought to the album – particularly his out-of-this-world lead on Moonage Daydream and riffing on Ziggy Stardust.

1. Deep Purple – Machine Head

Is it much of a surprise that the album that gave us arguably the greatest rock guitar riff of all-time is numero uno?

Of course, we’re talking about Smoke on the Water. But Ritchie Blackmore’s Fender Stratocaster is in fine form throughout Machine Head. And with the likes of Highway Star, Pictures of Home and Space Truckin’, song for song, it remains Deep Purple’s greatest studio effort of all time.

Alice Cooper has announced that his former guitarist Kane Roberts will be returning to his band lineup this year to complete his 2022 fall tour dates.

The news comes after Cooper’s former electric guitar star Nita Strauss confirmed her departure from the band earlier this week – a move that also saw her cancel all her upcoming solo festival appearances for 2022.

In a statement posted to social media, Cooper commented, “I'm looking forward to welcoming back Kane Roberts for our shows in September and October. We've been friends all this time, and he's always been one of my favorite guitarists. He's bringing more muscle to the Detroit Muscle Tour. 

“We've always had a swinging door policy where players can come and go, so it's very exciting to get back on stage with Kane,” he continued. “The fans are in for a real treat at these shows. It's gonna be a blast. Kane Roberts, Ryan Roxie, and Tommy Henriksen on guitars? Hell yeah!”

Cooper and Roberts’ relationship goes back to the 1980s, when Roberts played guitar on Cooper’s Constrictor album in 1986, which was followed by Raise Your Fist and Yell a year later. He also landed a guest spot on 1989’s Trash, playing guitar on a track called Bed of Nails, which he co-wrote.

A stalwart of Cooper’s setup, Roberts joined the rock icon for many live shows, and became synonymous with his gnarly machine gun guitar – something that may be making an appearance for these upcoming tour dates.

Roberts has also had a prolific solo career, penning four albums that span four decades. His self-titled debut arrived in 1986 – featuring Cooper’s lyrics on Full Pull – and was followed four years later by Saints and Sinners.

It would be another 21 years before Roberts recorded his next solo effort, Unsung Radio, in 2012, with his most recent record arriving in the form of 2019’s The New Normal.

In 2019, Roberts spoke of his initial departure from the cooper lineup, telling Brave Words, “Alice and I are still best friends, when I got the record deal with Geffen, I had to put all my time into it.

“It was a very natural progression to move away from each other,” he added. “I took away so much from working with Alice, like becoming a professional musician and learning about the creative process.”

Alice Cooper’s fall tour – which is promoting his 2021 album, Detroit Stories – is set to commence on September 9 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and will conclude on October 8 at Las Vegas’ Dollar Loan Center. 

Between these dates, Cooper and co will visit Alton’s Blue Ridge Rock Festival, Memphis’ Orpheum Theater and Binghamton's Visions Arena.

For a full list of tour dates, head over to Alice Cooper’s website.

Roberts' predecessor, Nita Strauss, announced she would be leaving the lineup ahead of the tour. Writing on social media, Strauss said, “After this absolutely incredible run in Europe, 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.

“I will also regretfully have to cancel the festival dates my solo band had planned for the rest of the year.”

Male musicians having items of women’s underwear thrown at them on stage remains a common occurrence – Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine, Avenged Sevenfold’s Synyster Gates and even Slipknot’s Corey Taylor, to name a limited handful, have all experienced it.

But female musicians having men’s boxer shorts thrown at them is a slightly rarer occurrence. But that’s exactly what happened to shredder Nita Strauss during an Alice Cooper show last year.

“The year was 2021,” she says in a new Instagram post. “The city will remain nameless. Touring had just started back up post lockdown, and the band and fans were in a good mood. 

“In the front row, around my side of the stage was a group of a few younger guys. They were having a ball. Singing the words, headbanging along, shaking their fists in the air, and raising the horns at all the appropriate times.”

She continues: “One of the guys, in particular, was trying to get my attention throughout the show, blowing kisses and making that heart-hands symbol every time I glanced in that direction.‘A bit much,’ I mused, but I was happy to see people at a show having fun and didn't think much of it. Teenage Frankenstein rolls around, the second to last song. I glance down. The guy is gone. Smart! Probably beating the traffic out of here.”

She adds that when the band played the final song on the set, School’s Out, the man had returned.

“His friends are cracking up,” she recalls. “I was wrapped up in the show and didn't notice something wadded up in one of his hands. Suddenly, a gray, sweaty UFO hurtled onto the stage and landed on the center riser, between me and Alice. We all immediately BURST into uncontrollable laughter.

“The guy's boxer briefs were brazenly laid out on the riser, showing ALL the after-effects of being worn all day at a hot, outdoor August show. Mercifully, Chuck [Garric, bass] or maybe Ryan [Roxie, guitar] hooked the waistband of the boxers onto their headstock.”

Strauss remembers that the bandmate who scooped up the boxers hurled them back in the direction of the man who had originally thrown them, but as “headstock tossing is notoriously inaccurate”, overshot the throw.

“As a result, an innocent bystander a few rows back who had his hands in the air and mouth wide open, suddenly got a face full of [the guy’s] sweaty underwear. The ‘aargh’ was audible over the concert noise and I think that was one of the many times I actually fell down from laughing so hard.”

“The moral of the story is this: Don't throw your boxers at a girl unless you're prepared for them to go places you didn't expect. (Or, ya know… maybe just don't throw your boxers at a girl in general).”

• Learn the fiery playing style of Nita Strauss

‘Hurricane’ Nita Strauss stakes a convincing claim as one of the premier guitarists in the heavy rock world. She was the first female guitarist to receive the honour of a signature guitar from Ibanez, and has been one of the guitarists in Alice Cooper’s band since 2014, when she replaced Orianthi during a tour. 

Additionally, Nita has done numerous guitar clinic and workshop tours around the world (including performing at Future Publishing’s own UK Guitar Show in 2019), and previously played in tribute group The Iron Maidens. She has also acted as house guitarist for the LA Kiss football team (owned by Paul Stanley and Gene Simmonds of the band Kiss).

Strauss quit school early to concentrate on music, and used a Kickstarter campaign to fund her first album, Controlled Chaos, on which she played all the guitars and bass guitar. The album was a considerable success, hitting many of the US charts including topping Billboard’s Top New Artist list.

Nita’s playing is fiery and aggressive, and she makes use of a typical high-gain rock sound. Her rhythm work is tight and precise, and her solos incorporate fast alternate picking, sweep picking and legato phrasing.

The track this month is challenging, and features many of the above techniques. It will require precision in both the picking and fretting hands. In the track the rhythm guitars are double-tracked and panned left and right, which allows space for the lead guitar to sit in the centre of the stereo field.

Although we are in the key of D Minor (D-E-F-G-A-Bb-C), the A Major chord in the arrangement nods towards A Phrygian Dominant mode (A-Bb-C#-D-E-F-G), which is the fifth mode of the D Harmonic Minor (D-E-F-G-A-Bb-C#). It’s this that gives us the A Major arpeggio in the solo, even though on this occasion it’s actually an A Major 7 arpeggio, which includes a G# note.

The piece should provide some challenges in terms of both rhythm and lead playing. Why not learn the parts as written, then have a go at coming up with some ideas of your own, over the backing track.

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 8, Bass 5, Middle 6, Treble 7, Reverb 3

We are looking for tight rhythm and lead sounds with plenty of preamp gain. Use your guitar’s bridge pickup and ensure there’s not too much bass as this will help to stop the rhythm tracks, in particular, from sounding muddy. 

As far as guitar amp tones are concerned, it’s high-gain Marshall or Mesa Boogie type rock we’re aiming for. Add a splash of reverb.

Example 1. Rhythm

The picking in the rhythm part will be a challenge. Use either all downstrokes for the main riff in bars 3-10, alternate pick the notes, or use a blend of the two styles as was done on the recording, which was two downstrokes on the D note at the start of each phase, followed by alternate picking for the rest of each phrase.

Example 2. Solo

This solo will pose challenges in bars 11-18, so it will be worth experimenting with your fretting-hand fingering for the arpeggios. As a general rule, it’s a good idea to use your fourth finger to play the highest note in each phrase. It’s best to use alternate picking for bar 26. The last line of music is the second harmony guitar.

Latter-day guitar legends Lzzy Hale and Tosin Abasi have assumed a new camera-facing role as judges on a brand new music reality TV show, No Cover. 

A Hit Parader production, hosted by SXM Octane’s Caity Babs and Kellen Quinn of Sleeping With Sirens, No Cover means just that: unsigned bands perform original compositions for the chance of a six-figure record contract with Sumerian and all the support needed for record industry stardom.

Joining Hale and Abasi on the judges’ panel are Gavin Rossdale, Bishop Briggs, and Alice Cooper – who knows a thing or two about putting on a show. 

That the judges preside from booths sponsored by Mesa/Boogie – with the likes of Ernie Ball and Guitar Center among the show's commercial partners – suggests there will be no shortage of electric guitar action, and provides a more rocking alternative to the American Idol format. 

No Cover premiered on YouTube on April 20, and the first two episodes are now available to view online. 

Contestants are judged on songwriting, performance, presentation and the “IT” factor. On No Cover, originality is a virtue – no beheading oneself in a guillotine. There’s one judge that’ll definitely mark you down on that.

Shot on various locations across West Hollywood, California, with the legendary nightspot The Troubadour ground zero for the contestants’ stagecraft bona fides, No Cover also stars a number of guest mentors to help the challengers hone their act. 

Among No Cover’s so-called Mercy Council are Carmen Vandenberg and Alice Cooper’s shredder of choice, Nita Strauss.

For more information on the show and cast, head over to No Cover. Subscribe to the show over on the Sumerian Records YouTube page.  

Last Saturday (December 4), Alice Cooper hosted his 19th annual Christmas Pudding charity benefit concert, and among its star-studded lineup of guests were former Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley, Aussie singer-songwriter Orianthi, Sugar Ray vocalist Mark McGrath and Collective Soul frontman Ed Roland, to name a few.

The event – which took place at the Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona – was Christmas Pudding's first edition since 2019, since it was cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Fretboard fireworks were in plentiful supply during the event. As reported by the Arizona Republic, Ace Frehley took to the event's dizzying rotating stage to perform Kiss classics Shock Me, Parasite and Cold Gin, while Orianthi “shredded her way through a headbanging set of heroic guitar leads” from her tracks including Contagious and Sinners Hymn.

Cooper performed with his backing band, though his touring guitarist, shred extraordinaire Nita Strauss, was not present. The rocker tore through a set of classics including Under My Wheels, No More Mr. Nice Guy, as well as fresher cuts like Fallen in Love, from Cooper's 2017 album, Paranormal. 

His set, of course, climaxed with a rendition of School's Out, before concluding with a cover of Chuck Berry's Run Rudolph Run. 

The annual Christmas Pudding benefit concert was launched in 2001 as a way for Alice Cooper and his wife Sheryl to raise money to open a center where teens aged between 12 and 20 could be taught music, art and dance. 11 years later, in 2012, the couple achieved their goal when they opened the Rock Teen Center in Phoenix, Arizona.

Proceeds from this year's 19th annual Christmas Pudding benefit concert will go directly towards funding programs at the Rock Teen Center.

The fundraiser also included performances from the Alice Cooper's Solid Rock Dancers, and the winners of this year's Proof is in the Pudding Musical Talent Competition, Cooper's own version of American Idol.

Alice Cooper, with the help of Ace Frehley and his band, is currently embarking on an intense two-month tour of the US, and recently treated attendees to a guest performance from the former Kiss guitarist for an energetic encore of School's Out.

And, to make the show-stopping grande finale even more special, the pair pulled out all the stops to squeeze in a sonic cameo from Pink Floyd’s hit, Another Brick In The Wall.

Frehley, who is currently supporting Cooper throughout the majority of the 26-show stint round the country, appeared on stage at the iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre, West Palm Beach, earlier that evening (October 10) to perform his opening set.

While, as you’d expect, Frehley performed a string of Kiss songs – such as Rocket Ride and Deuce – he also included a number of covers in his set, including Russ Ballard’s New York Groove and Led Zeppelin’s Good Times Bad Times.

To fans’ delight, he was brought back on stage at the end of Cooper’s own set for the double-barrel performance, which saw Frehley helm electric guitar duties alongside Nita Strauss and the rest of Cooper’s band.

Making his way back on stage while Strauss and her fellow Cooper axe-slingers Ryan Roxie and Tommy Henriksen reel off School’s Out's opening riff, Frehley stands front and centre next to bassist Chuck Garric with his triple humbucker-equipped Gibson Les Paul to join the party.

The end of the first chorus brings about Frehley’s first lead effort, loaded with blitzing pentatonic passages and pinpoint bends, with a high-octane, secondary solo cropping up later on while all the guitarists stand side by side.

Turns out, School’s Out was just the tip of the iceberg. Prior to an extended introductory speech from Cooper – filled with some sublime solo snippets – the crew also managed to sneak in Another Brick In The Wall’s vocal hook.

To make things even better, there was a smorgasbord of six-strings on show for the song. Frehley was the second Les Paul-toting player of the evening, with Roxie opting for a late–’90s Joe Perry Black Burst Gibson signature guitar.

Henriksen, on the other hand, can be seen donning a Gibson SG, while Strauss takes up position behind what looks like her Ibanez JIVA10 model.

Alice Cooper's next tour date is set to take place tonight (October 13) in Montgomery, Alabama.

For a full list of tour dates, head over to Alice Cooper's official website.

Last week, Nita Strauss took to the stage with Alice Cooper for a gig at the Leader Bank Pavilion in Boston Massachusetts, and played the show’s encore using one very special electric guitar – Jason Becker’s original prototype Peavey ‘Numbers’ model.

The axe – which was used by Becker to record River of Longing and Ending of the Beginning, and played by Eddie Van Halen during a visit to Becker’s house in 1996 – was put through its paces for a rendition of Cooper’s mammoth hit School’s Out, and played host to Strauss’s searing solo.

Now the dust has settled and we’ve all had the opportunity to watch and marvel at the 'Numbers' guitar in Strauss’s virtuosic hands, we can’t help but wonder one thing: just how did the iconic axe end up in Nita’s possession?

Well, thanks to a video from YouTuber The Neurotic Guitarist, that question has now been definitively answered.

As it turns out, Benny Goodman, the name behind The Neurotic Guitarist, revealed the channel had in fact purchased the ‘Numbers’ Peavey prototype at auction and, in a bid to honor Becker’s wish for his guitars to be played by others, lent Strauss the six-string for her Alice Cooper show.

The move coincided with a newly formed hashtag – #ALSAWARENESS4JASON – which Goodman hopes will raise awareness around Becker’s story, and put the spotlight on ALS – the condition Becker has been living with for the past 30 years.

“I promised Jason. I didn’t want this to go to some guitar vault where no one saw it again. Jason wants this guitar to be played. We want to share the love,” Goodman said.

“What I wanted to do was really get this guitar in people’s hands,” he continued. “First and foremost we can raise awareness about ALS, about the story of Jason. The more we talk about Jason and the more we talk about ALS awareness, the more we can do as a community to come together to help people like Jason.

“To raise money, to raise awareness, and to do it through rock ‘n’ roll and through love.”

“So, when I found out Alice Cooper was coming to town, I knew Nita Strauss is one of the biggest Jason Becker fans, and why wouldn’t she be? He’s one of the greatest, and Nita? She’s setting the bar.

“The Alice Cooper band is amazing and if you go and see Alice Cooper it's like a right of passage culturally, musically speaking. What would be cooler than having 'The Hurricane' Nita Strauss playing Jason Becker’s prototype 'Numbers' guitar?

“We’re going to send this video to Jason Becker and I promise you, raising money is one thing – but quality of life and making people happy is a completely other thing. I know that, if I was Jason, I can tell you that he appreciates our love and prayers, and watching 'The Hurricane' Nita Strauss play School's Out on his guitar.

“That’s what we want to do with The Neurotic Guitarist. We want to put this guitar in amazing players’ hands, but also to help raise awareness for ALS and to make our hero Jason just a little happier.”

In a social media post published after the concert, Strauss wrote, “I am so grateful to have had this opportunity. "Jason told Josh [presumably Josh Villalta, Strauss's boyfriend] and I years ago that he wanted his guitars to continue being played.

"At the time I was struck by how unselfish that thought was – there was no sense of bitterness, just that same joy and love of guitar that we all associate with Jason and his playing.”

Responding to Strauss playing his six-string – and to Goodman's new awareness campaign – a tweet posted to Becker's account on his behalf read, " I saw the Nita Strauss video that Benny Goodman made. Man, I am so touched. I love Nita Strauss so much! Ben, you are so sweet."

"We're incredibly touched to see one of Jason’s dreams coming true – seeing his guitars continuing to be played by phenomenal guitarists," a follow-up tweet continued. "We love you, Nita Strauss & Alice Cooper. Thank you!"

By the sounds of it, we're going to be seeing Becker’s 'Numbers' guitar crop up in the hands of different guitar heroes in the coming months, so keep your eyes peeled to The Neurotic Guitarist for a glimpse of who gets it next.

We like to think that, no matter your favorite style of guitar playing, most players can appreciate those who play in genres that are wholly outside of their own comfort zones.

Fans of emotive, single-string players can respect the technical prowess of million-miles-an-hour fretboard navigators, while those partial to speed can also appreciate the comparatively stripped-back nature of their peers’ playing.

This, however, is not always the case, as noted by Nita Strauss, who recently spoke out against the “shred stigma” that exists within the guitar community.

In a recent interview with Ultimate Guitar, the Alice Cooper guitarist and solo artist leapt to the defense of those labelled solely as shredders, and said that one style should not be held inferior to any other.

“You know, I think this shred stigma has been around for so long and I don’t understand it,” Strauss said. “Yngwie Malmsteen’s three notes are no more or less valid than BB King’s three notes.

“They’re just three notes played differently, at different speeds, on different guitars, in different styles. It’s always baffling to me when people say, ‘That person is just a shredder.’ It’s just a stylistic preference. I never mind it. I take it as a compliment.”

On her own approach to playing, Strauss continued, “I work really hard on playing fast and if someone is saying I play fast, that’s okay because it’s something I work really hard at. It doesn’t bother me.

“I think if you have that label on you, you have to go the extra mile to show that not only do you play a lot of notes, you play them with a lot of emotion.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Strauss recalled the time she played guitar for Jason Becker, which she called “the most terrifying experience of my entire life”.

“It was extremely humbling and a huge honor to not only get to meet one of my heroes but to get to play a song for them that has meant so much to me.

“To get to have that experience that [manager] Josh [Villalta] created for me, and to be able to play for Jason and put a smile on his face after so much happiness he has given me and so many other guitar players, that was a really cool feeling,” she added.

Nita Strauss is one of many members of the guitar elite who recently took part in a two-month marathon fundraiser for Jason Becker, which raised money for the guitar legend, who has been living with ALS for the past 30 years.

Alice Cooper has offered a retort to Gene Simmons' recent comments on the death of rock music.

In a new interview with NME, the School's Out rocker says “Gene Simmons – I would like him to do my taxes because he’s a businessman and that’s valid, but I guarantee you right now that in London somewhere, in garages, they’re learning Aerosmith and Guns N' Roses.

“There’s a bunch of 18-year-[old] kids in there with guitars and drums and they’re learning hard rock. It’s the same with the United States: there’s all these young bands that want to resurge that whole area of hard rock.”

Simmons has expressed his views on the death of rock music on several occasions. Last year, the Kiss bassist told Gulf News: “Rock is dead. And that's because new bands haven't taken the time to create glamour, excitement and epic stuff.” 

More recently, in an interview with the Q104.3 radio station, Simmons blamed young fans for making the genre financially unfeasible by using streaming services.

Elsewhere in the interview, Cooper opined that while rock music isn't at the heart of the mainstream, it's “where it should be right now”.

“We’re not at the Grammys… Rock ’n’ roll is outside looking in right now, and that gives us that outlaw attitude,” he says.

“The one kind of music that started and never ended was hard rock. It went to punk, it went to disco, it went to hip-hop, it went to grunge, but the one thing that went through the middle of it was hard rock.”

Alice Cooper held his 18th annual Christmas Pudding fundraising concert in Phoenix on December 14, and among the many treats of the evening – Rob Halford performing a handful of Priest classics, Nuno Bettencourt shredding through Get the Funk Out – was one particular standout: the surviving members of the Alice Cooper group taking the stage with electric guitar help from Joe Bonamassa and Johnny Depp for a five-song mini-set.

The Alice Cooper band members – guitarist Michael Bruce, drummer Neal Smith and bassist Dennis Dunaway (lead guitarist Glen Buxton died in 1997) – joined their former singer for run-throughs of No More Mr. Nice Guy, Be My Lover, Under My Wheels, I’m Eighteen and School’s Out.

JoBo in particular looked to be having a great time onstage (and with that setlist, how could you not?), adding tasty – and impressively restrained – leads to Under My Wheels and I’m Eighteen. And if you’re more interested in seeing the man you named the world's best blues guitarist tear it up a bit, just scroll to the end of School’s Out for some Les Paul pyrotechnics.

Proceeds from the event directly benefit the free music, dance, arts, and vocational programs for teens 12-20 at Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock Teen Centers.

Hi, everyone—welcome to my new Guitar World column! Over the course of these lessons, I will demonstrate many of the techniques and concepts I use in my guitar playing. For the last four years, I have been touring with rock legend Alice Cooper, and one of the songs that we play at every show is “I’m Eighteen.” One of the coolest things about playing this song every night is that Alice gives me a lot of freedom to play whatever I like for the solo section. Many of the classic Alice songs have these iconic solos that I will follow to the letter, but for this one, I’m free to experiment, do my own thing and devise something that I think will add to the song.

FIGURE 1 illustrates a rhythm guitar part along the lines of what I play my solo over. Starting with an open Em chord, you walk up the low E string to set up the arpeggiated C chord, followed by D5. After playing this two-bar phrase eight times, sustain the Em chord and drop the pitches of all of the strings with the whammy bar.

This simple, repeating two-bar progression is perfect for playing a solo that sticks with either the E minor pentatonic scale (E G A B D), the E blues scale (E G A Bb B D) or E natural minor (E F# G A B C D), also known as the E Aeolian mode. FIGURE 2 presents the guitar solo in its entirety. In bars 1-6, the lines are based on E minor pentatonic, played mostly in 12th position, with a momentary shift down to 10th position at the end of bar 2.

This solo is intended to be melodic and memorable and is phrased primarily in 16th notes, with clearly defined hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides, as well as a few bent vibratos (bars 1 and 3). When performing each bent vibrato, be sure to zero-in on the target pitch of the bend first, then apply the vibrato by partially releasing and re-bending the string in a quick, even rhythm. On beat three of bar 4, the bend from the high G note up to A is raised an additional whole step with the whammy bar.

Bars 5 and 6 are built from a repeating 16th-note triplet shape that descends through E minor pentatonic, one scale degree at a time. The solo wraps up in bars 7 and 8 with a series of descending G-string trills down through the E natural minor scale. When I get to the fourth fret, I repeat quick pull-offs and hammer-ons between the seventh, fifth and fourth frets before ending of the solo on the low E string.

Lately, I’ve been adding more hammer-ons and pull-offs in bars 3 and 4, as shown in FIGURE 3. My attitude is “more is more!” and I think this is a good example of that.

Nita Strauss tours regularly with Alice Cooper and has her own all-female band, We Start Wars. Visit nitastrauss.com for more info.

Hollywood Vampires, the supergroup featuring Alice Cooper, Joe Perry and Johnny Depp, are in the midst of a short run of West Coast tour dates in advance of their forthcoming sophomore album, Rise. 

The band’s stop at Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre on May 11 saw them joined by two special guests—Marilyn Manson, who came on for a cover of Cooper’s “I’m Eighteen,” and Perry’s Aerosmith band mate Steven Tyler, who sang Tiny Bradshaw’s “Train Kept A-Rollin,” a staple of Aerosmith’s live shows for more than four decades.

You can check out “Train Kept A-Rollin’ ” above and “I’m Eighteen” below.

The band, which also features Alice Cooper guitarist Tommy Henriksen, will release Rise on June 21 via earMUSIC. For the full tour itinerary, head here.

Hollywood Vampires, featuring Joe Perry, Alice Cooper and Johnny Depp, will release their second album, Rise, on June 21 via earMUSIC. In advance of the record, they’ve shared the first single, "Who's Laughing Now." You can check it out below.

In addition to the band’s original material, Rise also features cover of David Bowie's "Heroes"—performed by Depp—the Jim Carroll Band’s "People Who Died" and Johnny Thunders' "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory," sung by Perry.

Said Cooper, "Rise is not only a totally different animal than the first Vampires album, it is unique to anything I've ever been a part of. I approached it very differently than I usually do when working on an album. Each of us—Joe, Johnny, Tommy (Henriksen) and myself have written songs on this album. What is different though is that I didn't try to change any songs to be more 'Alice-like.' Because each of us has different influences, the sound of this album is very cool. I think that with this album, we are establishing what the Vampires' sound really is, whereas with the first album, we were more tipping our hats to our fallen rock 'n' roll brothers."

Added Perry: " Rise came from pure creative energy, which is just like playing live with the Vampires. The record showcases everyone doing what they do best without anyone looking over our shoulders. There was no pressure or deadlines, allowing us to write and record an album that is one of the freest and most honest sounding records I've been part of. I can't wait to perform some of these tunes live for our fans."

Hollywood Vampires will also embark on a short U.S. tour in early May in support of Rise. 

The full itinerary can be found here.

Rise track listing:

01. I Want My Now 

02. Good People Are Hard to Find 

03. Who's Laughing Now 

04. How the Glass Fell 

05. The Boogieman Surprise 

06. Welcome to Bushwackers (feat. Jeff Beck + John Waters) 

07. The Wrong Bandage 

08. You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory 

09. Git From Round Me 

10. Heroes 

11. A Pitiful Beauty 

12. New Threat 

13. Mr. Spider 

14. We Gotta Rise 

15. People Who Died 

16. Congratulations