Demi Lovato guitarist Nita Strauss said there are no hard feelings between her and former employer Alice Cooper, and she hasn't ruled out a return to the shock-rocker's band.

"It's an interesting thing that everyone's picked up saying it's a 'departure' but I don't feel, necessarily, that I left," Strauss told Louder. "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.'"

Strauss, who joined Cooper's touring band in 2014, announced last month that she would not be joining him on his upcoming fall tour and that she was canceling her solo festival dates for the rest of the year. She revealed a few days later that she was joining Lovato's touring band. Cooper, meanwhile, announced the return of the muscular, machine-gun-guitar-toting Kane Roberts, who played on Cooper's 1986 album Constrictor and 1987's Raise Your Fist and Yell.

Despite the personnel change, Strauss said she's not making a definitive exit from Cooper's band and could see herself reuniting with him next year if the timing is right. "There's no shutting of a door and changing of the guard, it's just I'm taking a step back a little bit," she explained. "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."

The guitarist praised Cooper's "consummate professionalism" and had nothing but nice things to say about her time in his band. "He's the best. Alice and his wife Sheryl and his manager Shep, we're a family," she enthused. "We've spent more of the last eight years together than we did with our flesh and blood families. So we just absolutely love, adore and respect each other. It's a great place to be and if it is my last time there, anybody who steps into that role is super lucky."

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