“I will carry Phil’s case. I will change his strings!”: What Nita Strauss would do to perform alongside Phil X in Bon Jovi
Nita Strauss is a huge Bon Jovi fan and as such, thinks of Phil X as a bit of a guitar hero.
Admitting that she was an “’80s metal kid” in a chat with Rock Antenne, Strauss says she’d love to perform with Bon Jovi one day – but couldn’t ever see herself taking Phil X’s place.
READ MORE: “I had one gig where I’d go to a hip-hop studio and play guitar riffs that they’d turn into beats and try to sell to rappers”: Nita Strauss on making ends meet before her big break
“I can’t imagine replacing Phil X at anything,” she says [via Ultimate Guitar]. “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.”
Strauss goes on to reference the time the Bon Jovi guitarist and Night Ranger’s Brad Gillis kept trading improvised solos in the Hired Gun documentary long after she herself ran out of ideas.
“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.”
She adds: “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.”
The post “I will carry Phil’s case. I will change his strings!”: What Nita Strauss would do to perform alongside Phil X in Bon Jovi appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
