Top 70 Quotes & Sayings by Nita Strauss
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Nita Strauss.
Last updated on September 17, 2024.
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.
The guitar player that I'm doing my solo tour with, Angel Vivaldi, he's been releasing incredible guitar albums and people just don't really know about them because instrumental guitar isn't really at the forefront of music these days.
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.
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.
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.
Go in, do a great job, be super professional.
During those years with the Iron Maidens, I felt I had to be great and really prove myself at every single show.
Nothing is more important to me than love.
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?'
I do remember being a kid and hearing Van Halen. My dad was always playing Van Halen in the car.
I record everything myself, I engineer everything myself.
I saw Jennifer Batten do a cool guitar solo before I ever saw any other girl do a cool guitar solo.
It never really occurred to me to seek out a female influence, a female musician.
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.
I was definitely not one of those kids prodigy guitar players.
There are no apologies for being a female in heavy metal and especially not in 2019.
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 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 think in a new relationship it's really important to at least respect each other's interests, even if you don't get super into everything.
I started playing guitar because of seeing Steve Vai.
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.
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.
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.
I'm pretty easy-going and pretty happy most of the time.
It's 2019. People aren't going to shows to watch a band play the song exactly like the record.
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.
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.
The great thing about the Alice Cooper camp is that its a true family and there's definitely a reason why he's had such a long and successful career spanning over 50 years. You don't get that far by not keeping good people around you.
All of these really strong females making names for themselves in what were traditionally male-dominated spaces. And I'm not usually one to get too hung up on the male-vs.-female side of things, but it is interesting to see the dynamic shifting and it's happening across the board. It's cool to be a part of that.
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.
Every band wants to play in every city. We all do.
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.
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 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.
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.
I didn't start watching wrestling until 2015.
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.
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.
And for it to make the statement the way that it did, for 'Controlled Chaos' to debut in the Top 10 of the iTunes rock chart... We debuted behind Queen and Chris Cornell, so it's not like we were just hidden away in the back of the instrumental metal category.
And I would say that the main thing that I faced as a female in this industry was being underestimated. But being underestimated isn't always a bad thing. It's nice to get out there and blow people's minds when they think you're not gonna be any good.
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.
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.
And I was a kid from L.A. and I just wanted to play thrash metal.
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.
My boyfriend and I haven't taken a vacation in years. Usually, when we travel, I have to play. It's not really a vacation even if we do fun stuff to do because I'm always running around sound-checking and taking care of business stuff. And he is my manager, so he is taking care of more business stuff than I am.
I'm 30, and I've been touring since I was 15. So it's been a long journey to get here.
I started playing guitar because of instrumental guitar music.
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.'
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 might come across like kind of a show-off onstage and stuff, but I like collaborating with people.
So, as I step out and take these first steps on this journey to do my own thing, I didn't want to have to get anybody's approval on anything. I didn't want to have to ask a record label 'Is this okay for the album cover? What time do you think I should go on tour this year?'
I think as long as you're going out and treating everything with respect - you're not going in there acting like a helpless girl - as long as you don't go in there demanding special treatment, I think you won't receive any special treatment.
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.
I think the WWE Universe have really accepted me, because they know I'm one of them.
Yes, of course, I've been dreaming about it since I was a kid. Even now, I'm 31 years-old now and I've never been on a cover of a magazine. It makes you feel in such a way to do it with my signature guitar and to have it be Guitar Player magazine, it was really just an amazing experience.
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.
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.
You know, I try not to think too much about women guitarists versus men guitarists; the world does that for me.
It's hard to get a start as an instrumental guitar player. It's a much quicker route to be in a band, so I was always in a band and writing songs with singers, but I always had the dream in the back of my mind to make an instrumental record.
I remember sobbing myself to sleep because I couldn't play an open G chord.
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