Nita Strauss has picked out the five guitar riffs that changed her life, which includes a Randy Rhoads classic and some more obscure heavy metal gems.
The guitarist rose to fame as a hired gun, alongside her stint in the all-female tribute band, the Iron Maidens, and later as the in-house guitarist for Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons' arena football team, Los Angeles Kiss.
Eventually, she became Alice Cooper's right-hand woman in shred and has, in recent years, begun forging a solo career, even if that's come at the expense of her recent touring duties with the shock rock icon.
But before all that, she reveals that Megadeth’s "Trust" as “the very first heavy metal riff that I ever heard”.
Take from the band’s 1997 LP, “Cryptic Writings”, it was one of the final records to feature long-time guitarist Marty Friedman, and she says it stands out for a few key reasons.
“It is such a musically interesting riff to play,” she says. “You have the flat five and the flat six; really dark notes in an otherwise pretty straightforward riff. But when you get into the nitty-gritty of it, it's actually really interesting.”
That dose of metal deception sent her down a rabbit hole, but it was the riff that saw Randy Rhoads become a household name virtually overnight that gave the guitarist her first taste of empowerment on the instrument.
“This was the first riff that I learned as a kid that made me feel like I was good at playing guitar,” she says of “Crazy Train” with a twinkle in her eye. “I would go into my local Guitar Center, or my local Sam Ash and sit down and play that riff and feel like 'Yeah, I'm doing it!'”
Playing it endlessly as a teen has served her in later life, as she says “I actually play it a lot now with the Rams when I perform at LA Rams games, and they want to throw in a heavy metal moment.”
Zakk Wylde, who would later join Ozzy's band, has previously spoken about how the track provided him a rhythmic masterclass as he honed his craft, but for Strauss, it's the dynamism of Randy Rhoads's playing that makes the riff so special.
“This riff is really dynamic; you have the palm muted notes, and if you're Zakk Wylde, the pinch harmonics. There are a lot of interesting note choices, and once again, it's really, really fun to play.”
You cannot talk about the Nita lore of riffs that changed my life without talking about Iron Maiden
Nita Strauss
The deeper she dove into the world of metal guitar, the more she picked out players who could teach her a thing or two. She’s highlighted how discovering the “dramatic chord shifts” and inverted power chords of In Flames' "Bullet Ride" was a big moment for her, while also calling them “my Beatles”.
Strauss’s career has been littered with full-cicrcle moments, and she got her first when playing with the Iron Maidens.
“You cannot talk about the Nita lore of riffs that changed my life without talking about Iron Maiden,” she beams. “I know how a lot of people first heard about me was playing Iron Maiden songs with my girls in the Iron Maidens, and “The Trooper” is one of the most fun to play.”
She adds that performing the “crowd-pleaser” live always delivered a “pinch-me moment,” as she often had to double take that she wasn’t in the actual Iron Maiden, while the extra spice of a pinch harmonic ensures that her playing style comes through her performance of the track.
But, of course, the list wouldn’t be complete without an Alice Cooper song, and the venom-laced ‘80s classic of “Poison” gets the nod here.
“It is the first Alice Cooper song that I learned, and I played it with cover bands long before I actually got to play it with the man himself,” she says. “Playing this song on stage with Alice was my rock star moment. I grew up learning these songs and looking up to Alice Cooper's guitar players, and now here I am, standing onstage with him. So that is always going to be a very, very meaningful one for me.”
But her love for the riff goes beyond pure sentimentality.
“One really cool thing about this riff is how the melody notes interact with the pedal tone,” she explains. “You’re really pedaling here, you have those string skips which are fun to play, and when you think about the chords that are going on underneath that riff it really adds a lot of dimension to the riff.”
In related news, Strauss has recently spoken about her worst-ever live show, when “almost everybody in the club walked out,” although there was a silver lining to the disaster.
She's also opened up on how Steve Vai revolutionized how she perceived the electric guitar and hopes that her success will inspire more women to pick up the guitar.
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