Nita Strauss, who spent eight years playing with Alice Cooper before recently joining Demi Lovato‘s touring band, has told Louder in a new interview that the door is not closed on her possible return to Cooper‘s group.

“It’s an interesting thing that everyone’s picked up saying it’s a ‘departure’ but I don’t feel, necessarily, that I left. I took a step back and I’m stepping back from this upcoming tour, but I don’t think anyone has ever used the word quitting or leaving outside of other people. When I had my last few shows with Alice, we had what Alice called a ‘Hiatus Dinner’ where he said ‘We wish you the best, we love you, you’re welcome back’. There’s no shutting of a door and changing of the guard, it’s just I’m taking a step back a little bit. Depending on what the schedule looks like next year, I may have the chance to come back, I may not. But it definitely doesn’t feel as final to me and to the people in Alice‘s band and the inner circle as it has been portrayed out in the world.”

Regarding how she ended up playing with Lovato, Nita said: “So I actually got a text from Demi‘s musical director when I was on the road with my solo band on the BLACK LABEL SOCIETY tour, and essentially what it said was what we all know now: Demi is a huge rock and metal fan. And Demi wants to go back to her roots and wants to put together an all-female rock band. She’s really one of the biggest stars in the world and she wants to take a step into our genre and this style of music that we love so much. When you get that text, that somebody wants to bring that type of music to the forefront, how do you say no? How do you turn down this opportunity to bring this style of music to so many more people? So I was thrilled to hear about it and I jumped at the opportunity. This was all way back in May. It’s been in the works for a really long time.”

She continued: “I’ve seen a lot of stuff out there saying, ‘She jumped ship really fast’. There was nothing that happened fast, I think people just found out about it all at once. First and foremost, I went to Alice and (his wife) Sheryl for their blessing which they were so happy to give. Then I went to Alice‘s management and started rehearsal with Demi. I did my first TV appearance with Demi, I believe it was three days after the last Alice show, so it was really out of the frying pan and into the fire. But her team has been really fun to work with, the band is incredible, the musical director, Demi herself, it’s just been a really good experience overall.”

Nita played her first full live show with Demi on August 13 at the Grandstand at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, Illinois.