See Nita Strauss Play With Demi Lovato on 'Kimmel'

Last week, metal-loving popstar Demi Lovato introduced their new era as a pop-punk artist with a rockin' new song called "Skin of My Teeth." Like many other A-list artists these days who've made a sudden pivot toward energetic, guitar-based music (Machine Gun Kelly, Willlow Smith, Miley Cyrus, etc.), Lovato had to reinvent their live show to suit their new vibes, which meant they needed a bona fide shredder in their ranks. 

And Lovato couldn't have picked a better one than Nita Strauss, the virtuosic soloist and collaborator who had been playing in Alice Cooper's touring band since 2014 up until last week, when she abruptly announced her departure and teased a new project. Now, after rumors swirled that she'd be joining Lovato's band, that hunch was confirmed during the popstar's appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night (July 14th), when Strauss was onstage riffing during the live debut of Lovato's new song "Substance." 

The track is a fizzy pop-punk song in the vein of Avril Lavigne and Blink-182, so it's a little different than the type of muscular metal and hard-rock that Strauss cut her teeth playing. That said, the guitar crunch is pretty hefty and Strauss gets to rip a flaming solo during the final bridge, which she played while whipping her hair around like a total fucking champ. 

Watch the performance down below via Twitter.