Alice Cooper’s Nita Strauss said she’d be willing to be a backup guitarist for Bon Jovi with Rock Antenne at Guitar Summit 2024.
“I can’t imagine replacing Phil X at anything. Phil X is the best. He is awesome… I got to jam with him when we did the ‘Hired Gun’ documentary [2016] together. So, replace? No. Never. But I would love to play with Bon Jovi. I would love to back Phil up anytime. I will carry Phil’s case. I will change his strings, no problem [laughs].”
“If you see the movie, when the ‘Hired Gun’ documentary opens up, there’s this open jam. It’s myself, Phil X, Jason Hook, and Brad Gillis. And Brad was not even supposed to be there; he was there for something else… Rudy Sarzo playing bass, Kenny Aronoff playing drums — just an all-star cast. And I was like, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing here, but thank you!’ [laughs]”
“And so, we start doing a round — you take turns; it’s the same riff over and over again, and you solo, and then once everybody takes a turn, you go again. So, we do the round once, and then we do the round a second time, then a third time. By the fourth time, I’m out. Like, I have nothing. I can’t even think of anything else really good to play, because I’m with the best of the best players in the world… Then Jason Hook [drops out] the next one around.”
“Then, it’s Phil X and Brad Gillis just standing there, back and forth, for, I want to say five or ten minutes, and it’s just the most amazing playing you’ve ever heard. I was just there with my jaw on the floor. Like, no one else gets to see this; we’re just filming this for the thing. Hook and I were just standing there, getting to watch greatness happen, and neither one of them repeated anything. It was just new licks, over and over and over again. And you really see in that moment, why someone like Phil is where he is, because he’s just at the top level all the time.”
