Nita Strauss: Metal Fans Gatekeep While Pop Fans Just Don’t

As an artist, guitarist Nita Strauss has managed to dip her feet into the pop, rock, and metal worlds. Having worked with Alice Cooper for several years before touring with Demi Lovato and working on her solo metal album, Strauss knows a little bit about each fan base.

During a recent interview on the Full Metal Jackie radio show, Strauss said she was struck by how easy it was for Lovato to completely change her style up, saying that would be a difficult thing for a rock or metal artist to do.

“It was an amazing experience working with Demi. Obviously I come from the rock/hard rock/metal world and I am so used to fans being up in arms anytime something changes.

“The cool thing that I found is that Demi changed her entire style. She changed her clothing, her musical style and she reworked all her huge hits. She has a song ‘Cool for the Summer’ that has billions of Spotify plays and she did a full-on rock version with a little Metallica thrown in there for good measure. And the fans loved it. The fans supported her and absolutely screamed their faces off until the end of the show. There was no pushback. There was no, ‘This is not what you’re supposed to sound like. This isn’t what we signed up for. We want the old Demi back…’ type gatekeeping that we see in the style of music that we’re more used to.

“It was beautiful to be a part of this evolution. Demi saso happy on the road. You can really tell this is where she wants to be as an artist and to get to be a part of that along with such a great band — an all female band, so many women on the crew (lighting director, production assistant, wardrobe, Demi’s day-to-day manager) — there are so many women in high positions on that tour as well, which was so unique.

“It being a largely sober tour was huge for me too. I’ve been sober a long time and being in that more healthy atmosphere and environment was really nice. It was a win all around.”

So what do you think? Do you agree with her assessment? You can check out the full interview over at Loudwire.