Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Go in, do a great job, be super professional.
I started playing guitar because of seeing Steve Vai.
I'm pretty easy-going and pretty happy most of the time.
I started playing guitar because of instrumental guitar music.
I was definitely not one of those kids prodigy guitar players.
And I was a kid from L.A. and I just wanted to play thrash metal.
When it's your own name that is the business, the business never stops.
I remember sobbing myself to sleep because I couldn't play an open G chord.
I was not a super social kid and I didn't have the easiest time making friends.
It never really occurred to me to seek out a female influence, a female musician.
There are no apologies for being a female in heavy metal and especially not in 2019.
I think the WWE Universe have really accepted me, because they know I'm one of them.
I'm 30, and I've been touring since I was 15. So it's been a long journey to get here.
I do remember being a kid and hearing Van Halen. My dad was always playing Van Halen in the car.
I saw Jennifer Batten do a cool guitar solo before I ever saw any other girl do a cool guitar solo.
I might come across like kind of a show-off onstage and stuff, but I like collaborating with people.
To put my name on a track as a solo artist was a big deal to me. There was no band to act as a buffer.
It's not odd to be a female in a band anymore. It's not odd to be a girl carrying a guitar case to a gig.
You know, I try not to think too much about women guitarists versus men guitarists; the world does that for me.
During those years with the Iron Maidens, I felt I had to be great and really prove myself at every single show.
Three of my heroes that have gotten clean and sober that I got to ask for advice were Alice Cooper, Nikki Sixx and Zakk Wylde.
I love to play guitar. I've never really been the type of guitar player that goes, 'I'll only play this style of music or that thing.'
And, of course, there were some times when I had writer's block and I had a hard time figuring out how to express what I wanted to express.
I'm a total tomboy at heart. If I don't have to be on stage or doing anything that day, I'm always in band t-shirt and yoga pants and sneakers.
The thing that drove me, and the thing that still drives me today to stay sober is all the blessings that have come into my life since this happened.
The biggest challenge was the whole learning curve of being solo artist. I've been in bands for so long that being a solo artist was completely new thing.
I will champion this forever - that the rock and metal scene is absolutely the most inclusive, amazing, supportive community that I've ever been a part of.
I always was a fan of Alice Cooper's, but I got a new appreciation for his music playing in his band. It's really amazing to see how his music transcends age.
You can be in the band, you can go buy your own guitar strings at Guitar Center, you can go and do everything the boys can do and you're not the oddity anymore.
The first riff that I totally mastered was 'Come As You Are' by Nirvana. I remember sitting there, plunking along, I remember thinking 'How do they even do this?'
A big part of the Alice Cooper sound is the big classic rock licks, the big, classic thematic kind of... It's not about going crazy, it's not about playing super fast.
I think my best advice for young guitar players is that it's not an easy road - definitely not; female guitar player or male guitar player, it's not an easy road at all.
Me personally, I've had really great experiences. I'd be lying if I said it was all roses and perfect, but, by and large, the metal community is so incredibly supportive.
The first wrestling event I ever went to was PCW Ultra in L.A., and it was insane. They had RVD wrestling, Shane Strickland, Penta, and all these incredible indie wrestlers.
You see opportunity... Opportunity is like a window: every once in a while, it opens, if you're ready for that opportunity. So be prepared, work hard, and follow your dreams.
If I can give that back to one little girl, much less thousands, and if they start on this journey because they saw me do this, then I did a good thing with my career and my life.
But at the end of the day, I'm a girl. I'm from Santa Monica. I'm going to look how I want to look and play how I want to play, and if people don't like it, then they don't like it.
So, to see the response to the Kickstarter, and to see people actually really want to see, hear what I'm doing, hear what comes out of my own mind, is really an incredible experience.
I really hope that with my album, because I have a bit more of a mainstream crossover following, I really hope that I can introduce some new listeners to this world of instrumental music.
All my real heroes made instrumental albums. All my own career has been spent playing in bands, but I never forgot that dream of what inspired me to pick up the guitar in the first place.
I've worked my entire life to be this busy. I've worked my entire career to have this many things to do and this many emails to answer. Even when it's overwhelming, it's still a blessing.
So, really, I just try to be the best guitar player I can be - not the best female guitar player, not the best 'X amount of years' guitar player, or whatever - just the best guitar player.
Yeah, of course, there's always gonna be people with their own opinions about a female in rock music and men in rock music, but at the end of the day, it's just about being a good musician.
I love my regular job playing with Alice Cooper, I love doing my solo stuff, I love doing guest spots and guest tours. So I just love to play, and I'll play with anybody that'll have me, just about.
I don't really find it to be a man-dominated industry. I mean, I guess when you look at it, it is, but I don't really look at it as a female or male thing, or female or male guitar players or whatever.
I dreamed of recording a guitar album since I started playing, but I just never felt ready. I never felt like I was the player that I wanted to be. But I had this epiphany: you're never going to feel ready.
When you're your own business, and my business is called Nita Strauss Incorporated, and I am my business, so it's not like I get to stop working at 5 p.m. and go home and do other things. It's a full-time job.
There were always people in the audience that judged me on the way I looked. They just assumed, because I was a girl, that I wasn't going to be any good, and it motivated me to improve and nail it every night.
But when I started playing in bands, everyone would just have a couple beers at rehearsal, at the shows, or whatever, and alcohol is a great equalizer. It's a great way to make friends and interact with people.
The solo album is really my way of branching out and doing my own thing. I'm mostly known for playing other people's music, so this is a way to just do something that is purely from my heart and my creativity. So it's really exciting.