Having nailed his internet-breaking audition, the 59-year-old guitar teacher (aka Old Grey Guitarist) returned with yet more Eddie Van Halen-flavored fretboard pyrotechnics to smash the show's qualifier round – despite Simon Cowell's misgivings
One of the biggest guitar stories of the summer concerned the tale of one John Wines – the unassuming guitar teacher whose epic America’s Got Talent audition went viral back in June.
Though he had amassed a significant social media following prior to his talent show audition – 1.3 million followers on TikTok under the handle @oldgreyguitarist, no less – it was the Brian May and Eddie Van Halen-channeling performance that skyrocketed the 59-year-old in front of new global audiences.
Well, Wines has now returned to the America’s Got Talent stage for the Qualifiers round, which saw a whole new instrumental routine and even more fretboard fireworks.
Announcing himself with the same Mick Mars-style dive bomb action via the Floyd Rose of his Charvel Pro-Mod DK24 HH FR M that preceded his audition, Wines launched into his qualifiers effort with an excerpt from The Star-Spangled Banner, before moving into this routine’s main riff: Dick Dale’s Misirlou.
