Alice Cooper Guitarist Nita Strauss Gets Engaged While On Stage

Don’t you love when love and heavy metal are honoured at once? On Thursday, 6 July, Nita Strauss – who plays guitar with Alice Cooper, P!nk, Demi Lovato and more – celebrated her new album, The Call Of The Void, with a Los Angeles release show.

What was an album release party quickly became an engagement party, with the world-class guitarist’s partner proposing while she was on stage.

Metal Injection reports that Strauss’ longtime partner and drummer Josh Villalta proposed, and she said yes. “FOREVER YES,” Strauss wrote on Instagram following the engagement. “I can’t wait to be your wife.”

Villalta also took to Instagram, writing the following caption alongside some stunning photos: “Last night was so amazing on so many levels. 2 years of intense work that tested me, our relationship, my passion, and sanity all at once…. The Call [Of The] Void is finally out. I think we played our best show ever last night to a slam-packed Whiskey A Go Go. Our band and crew kicked ass last night!!

“I moved to l.a. 18 years ago.. 12 years ago; I was introduced to Nita in the driveway of the Rainbow Bar & Grill by [Artist & Influencer Marketing Manager] Mike Taft ….fast forward .. 8.5 years of us being together and what a better way to top off this night.

“After our set, I asked my best friend to marry me onstage … Our album release party turned into our engagement party. My Mom flew in, and Nita’s parents and sister were there to witness. Thank you all that were there to share this special moment with us.”

The Call Of The Void was released on Friday, 7 July, and features instrumental tracks as well as a massive roster of special guests, including Alissa White-Gluz (Arch Enemy), David Draiman (Disturbed), Chris Motionless (Motionless In White), Lzzy Hale (Halestorm), US rock band Dorothy, In Flames’ Anders Friden, Alice Cooper, Lilith Czar and guitar hero Marty Friedman. Her collaborative track with Draiman, Dead Inside, peaked at #1 on the US Mainstream Rock Billboard Chart. You can check out the album here.

Alice Cooper’s new album, Road, coming this August, was written, composed and recorded alongside his trusted bandmates – guitarists Strauss and Ryan Roxie, bassist Chuck Garric, guitarist Tommy Henriksen, and drummer Glen Sobel.

Earlier this year, Strauss addressed Demi Lovato’s pop-punk and emo-influenced recent album, Holy Fvck, and how pop music listeners didn’t gatekeep Lovato like she feels metal listeners do with heavier artists.

“The cool thing that I found is that Demi changed her entire style. She changed her clothing, her musical style, and she reworked all her huge hits,” Strauss said in an interview on the Full Metal Jackie radio show.

Strauss added, “She has a song Cool For The Summer that has billions of Spotify plays, and she did a full-on rock version with a little Metallica thrown in there for good measure. And the fans loved it. The fans supported her and absolutely screamed their faces off until the end of the show. There was no pushback.

“There was no, ‘This is not what you’re supposed to sound like. This isn’t what we signed up for. We want the old Demi back…’ type gatekeeping that we see in the style of music that we’re more used to.” Check out the full interview here.