Guesting on Guitar Autopsy, Nita Strauss (Alice Cooper) discussed the beginnings of her career as a professional musician and how she learned to play guitar. Check out the interview below.

Strauss: "My dad is a bass player by trade but plays a little guitar, so he taught me my first few chords and everything, but I wanted to be Steve Vai. My dad, as a bass player, is a great musician, but he's not a shredder guy. And we had no money growing up though, I could not afford lessons, I couldn't afford even a nice guitar.

I started out with the Squier Strat pack, which comes as the black and white Strat, it comes with a little amp and a handful of picks, and a cable, and things for 100 bucks. And the first thing I did was go get a black pickguard and swap that out before I even learned how to play a note. So I've always been modifying my guitars, since Day 1. And then I really gravitated towards the instructional videos. I did go and buy the Rock Discipline DVD at Guitar Center but the rest of it, it was hard to find anywhere. I was just going and downloading these crappy-resolution videos, and watching Frank Gambale spin around with his background dancers and learning how to play the modes. So that was my education, really, taking lessons watching these videos that were way too advanced for me, and skipping over the basics entirely. 

I actually started touring at 15, I did my first national tour on summer break when I was 15 with my local band, kept doing smaller tours here and there after that. And then I dropped out of high school in junior year to pursue music full-time. I've been doing it ever since. I was really lucky."

Strauss began her Winter Wasteland tour on November 10 in New Orleans, LA. It was initially supposed to wrap up on December 18 in Angola, IN. Due to popular demand, Nita has added 11 new dates in January 2022, culminating with her boarding the boat for the Shiprocked cruise.

Catch Nita Strauss live at the following venues:

January
7 - Baton Rouge, LA - Chelsea’s Live
8 - Memphis, TN - Growlers
10 - Des Moines, IA - Woolys
12 - Iowa City, IA - Wildwood Saloon
13 - St Peters, MO - Diamond Music Club
14 - Westland, MI - Token Lounge
15 - Harrisburg, PA - HMAC
17 - Asheville, NC - The Grey Eagle
18 - Louisville, KY - Diamond Concert Hall
19 - Nashville, TN - The Basement East
21 - Shreveport, LA - Bear’s
22 - Galveston, TX - Shiprocked Cruise