Biography
Los Angeles born guitarist Nita Strauss has become a force to be reckoned with in the music world, dazzling audiences across the US, UK, Europe, South America, Asia, Australia and Africa. Fans may recognize Nita as Demi Lovato’s new axewoman, Alice Cooper’s touring guitarist of the past 8 years, the official guitarist of the Los Angeles Rams NFL team, and her successful career as a solo artist.
Nita’s skill, exuberant stage presence and love for all things about her instrument have earned her a stellar reputation in the music industry and endorsements including Ibanez Guitars, Marshall Amplification, DiMarzio pickups, Monster Energy and more. Her consistent schedule has shown her to play in front of over a million audience members per year consistently for the past several touring years.
Nita has been featured on the covers of worldwide print magazines including Guitar World and Guitar Player, and on dozens of albums, trailers, and soundtracks, including Heroes Of The Storm (Blizzard) and Grammy-nominated Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Konami/ Platinum Games). She was also previously the author of the monthly Guitar World column “Like A Hurricane”. She also is one of the most sought after clinicians in the rock world and has done extensive clinic tours and speaking engagements in 17 countries across multiple continents.
She was the first female to have a signature guitar through Ibanez guitars, the Ibanez JIVA, which has now grown to three signature models available worldwide and become one of the highest selling signature guitars in the industry, along with her signature pickups, the DiMarzio Pandemoniums.
A life long Los Angeles sports fan, Nita first performed at a Los Angeles Rams games in 2018 when the team moved back to LA. In 2020, she became the official in-house guitarist for the team when they moved to SoFi stadium, and played at all the home games for the 2020 and Super Bowl winning 2021 season, and received a Super Bowl ring along with the members of the team and staff.
She was in the same role with the LA KISS, the arena football team owned by Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons of KISS.
Nita has performed at multiple events with WWE, including Wrestlemania, NXT Takeover and WWE Evolution, the first all female Pay Per View in the company’s history. She also played the National Anthem to kick off the NASCAR WISE Power 400 in February of 2022.
Nita’s debut instrumental record Controlled Chaos made a huge impact on the Billboard charts at #1 Top New Artist, #3 Label Independent, #4 Top Hard Music, #8 Top Rock, #8 Top Internet, #20 Top albums, and #7 on the iTunes Rock chart. Her Spotify streams total over 11 million, and YouTube views over 4 million.
Her 2021 single, “Dead Inside” featuring David Draiman of Disturbed, became the first song by a female solo artist to go to #1 at rock radio, and held that top spot for three weeks in a row. The upcoming album’s third single release, “The Wolf You Feed”, featured Alissa White-Gluz of Arch Enemy. The music video gained over 2 million views in less than two weeks and continues to climb.
Outside of music, Nita is also extremely passionate about health and fitness. She uses her wide social media reach to inspire and educate people about maintaining a healthy lifestyle while traveling on tour. She has been featured by publications like Muscle and Fitness and Bodybuilding.com, and is a sponsored athlete with major companies like 1st Phorm, Trifecta Nutrition, and RP Strength. In 2019, she launched a fitness challenge entitled Nita Strauss: Body Shred, with a companion e-book via her website. The challenge is aimed at promoting a healthy lifestyle in both body and mind.
In 2020, Nita launched an online guitar lesson course titled Rock Guitar Fundamentals: From Ground Zero to Guitar Hero. The course is available at www.iwanttoplayguitar.com. She is also very active with her fan community on Patreon at www.patreon.com/hurricanenita.
Nita’s highly anticipated second solo album is due in early 2023.