Classic nu-metal continues to infiltrate the televised talent show circuit. Last night's broadcast of America's Got Talent found pre-teen metal guitarist Maya Neelakantan playing an instrumental version of Papa Roach's "Last Resort," and the judges were gobsmacked at her shredfest.
Neelakantan walked out onstage and performed lithe, spacious classical licks for a bit before flipping the script with the insta-iconic, neo-trad chunkiness of Papa Roach's big hit, and jaws dropped from there, as she ended up spitting holy fire from her Les Paul.
After smiling-and-shredding through the cover, Neelakantan spoke with the judges on her formative influences, whom include TOOL's Adam Jones and Exodus' Gary Holt. That tracks as the young Indian guitarist has been uploading TOOL covers to Instagram, and hung out with Holt in the spring — he even gave her a guitar, and was actually at the AGT taping in March.
All four judges gave the guitarist a resounding "Yes" vote. Sofia Vergara quipped to the budding virtuoso "Are you sure you're 10-years-old?," while co-host and judge Howie Mandel added, "You just picked yourself up a viral moment."
Check out the performance up above, and see some words of encouragement from Papa Roach and Gary Holt down below.
