“My gosh, that’s a big guitar”: 10-year-old guitarist nails Are You Gonna Go May Way during America’s Got Talent – on a PRS that’s almost as tall as he is

The latest season of America’s Got Talent is well underway, and serious electric guitar talents are coming out of the woodwork in droves.

Indian rock band Girish and the Chronicles already brought the house down with a heavy take on an Adele classic, and now it’s the turn of 10-year-old Bay Melnick Virgolino, who has lit up the stage with a Lenny Kravitz cover brimming with confidence.

Arriving before the judges – Simon Cowell can’t help but note “My gosh, that’s a big guitar” – the young shredder jokes proceeds to blow them away with a performance belying his age.

The youngster holds his own on the stage before he’d even played a note, bantering with Cowell before taking his gold top PRS electric guitar for a ride. Even though the axe practically dwarves him, his soulful voice and slick fretboard skills have the crowd in full voice. For the gear nerds, his weapon of choice looks to be a PRS SE DGT for its lack of bird inlays.

Of course, he had to rip a guitar solo, and the tasteful pentatonic whirlwind he unfurls rounds out his audition in style. He even gets a standing ovation for his efforts.

“I think Lenny Kravitz would be so proud of you,” beams Mel B. “You got so into, I really felt it.”

Unsurprisingly, Virgolino – who sounds like a shred master right out of the box – got four votes of approval from the judges. We’ll be seeing more of this small-sized superstar in the future.

Last year, another 10-year-old, Maya Neelakantan, put her name up in lights with a series of impressive performances on the show. Since then, she’s been gifted one of Jeff Hanneman’s rare prototype guitars, hung out with Jason Becker, and joined with Alex Skolnick and Testament on stage. Virgolino’s future may be just as exciting.

A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog, Guitar World, and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis, in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He’s also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.