This is rad.
A young girl auditioned for the TV show ‘America’s Got Talent’ recently, and impressed the judges by absolutely shredding the guitar to Papa Roach’s tune ‘Last Resort.’
A video shows 10 year old Maya Neelakantan taking the AGT stage, complete in an elegant Indian sari, with an impressive Gibson Signature guitar around her.
She begins by playing a slow, indian style intro and building some anticipation, before ripping into Papa Roach’s iconic riff - and fkn nailing it. The crowd and judges look visibly taken aback that such an epic sound and talent is coming from such a young person.
Of course, Maya scored herself four ‘yesses’ from the judges, taking her through to the next round of America’s Got Talent. Simon Cowell told her she became a "rock goddess" on stage - big props from a infamously hard-to-impress judge.
But this isn’t Maya’s first taste of fame. In fact, she’s been uploading videos of herself playing guitar to YouTube for the last few years, and has naturally built herself quite the following.
Back in 2022, she caught the attention of Tool guitarist Adam Jones, who actually gifted her his signed Gibson Signature 1979 Les Paul Custom guitar - which just so happened to be the exact guitar she took to play at her AGT audition. What a flex.
In her most recent YouTube video, she met Tool’s Danny Carey, and previously has met Exodus’ guitarist Gary Holt, Testament’s Eric Peterson, and more. She’s clearly a huge fan of Tool, Metallica, and Exodus as she mainly performs guitar covers from those bands.
The little rockstar has now turned 11, just last month.
Check out her AGT audition up top, and have a geeze at her YouTube channel.
