“I’m not like Nikki Sixx, but I was a dangerous addict”: Nita Strauss explains why she had to get sober
While rock music isn’t as associated with drug misuse as it was in the ‘70s and ‘80s, some musicians find themselves partaking, and many have to deal with the long-term consequences that follow.
In the case of shredder Nita Strauss – who joined Alice Cooper’s touring band in 2014 at the age of 28 – she decided to go sober a year later after a period of excess.
READ MORE: How Nita Strauss, Nancy Wilson and Lita Ford are helping the next generation of female guitar players
“I wouldn’t say I hit rock bottom – I’m not like Nikki Sixx – but I was a dangerous addict, because whether I was doing drugs or drinking, I was very highly functional,” she reveals in a new interview with Metal Hammer. “I was doing all these things that could have got me in trouble, but I never played a bad show, I was never falling-down sloppy.
“But it was really insidious, because it was bleeding into my personal life. Some of the guys in the band had noticed it, but it took my partner Josh, who is now my husband, saying to me: ‘If you’re gonna be like this, I don’t know how long I’m going to be with you. I can’t watch you destroy your life like this.’
“This was the highest point of my professional career so far, and it just seemed unfair – I couldn’t understand why I was getting picked on, and why I had to be boring and go to sleep early.”
Strauss admits it’s “difficult” maintaining her sobriety, but relies on certain strategies to make things easier.
“My husband still drinks, my friends still drink, Alice has been sober a long time but he doesn’t mind if people drink, so there’s bottles of wine in the dressing room and bourbon on the tour bus.
“The only thing we do differently on my [solo] tour is that we don’t put alcohol on the rider and don’t stock it on the bus. People can have a beer on the bus, but I say, ‘Please don’t keep a bunch of beer on the bus.’
“But it’s hard. It puts your ethics and morals into perspective – I have every opportunity to drink and no one would know, but sobriety, for me, is what you do when no one’s looking.”
Nita Strauss is touring the US and Canada commencing later this month. For tickets and a full list of dates, head to her official website.
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