Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, and Slash, are just a few among the many other famous guitarists who we consider the “GOAT” (greatest of all time) in their respective eras.
But have you heard of the name Taj Farrant?
This video shows this then 9-year-old (now 11) guitarist from Australia. He was called a “prodigy” at that time, and had only been playing the guitar for about two and a half years.
He is really that good! In fact, he is the youngest artist ever to be fully endorsed by giant companies like Gibson guitars and Elixir strings.
A star was actually born.
His love for playing the guitar began when his dad brought him to an AC/DC concert and the rest was history.
“My dad took me to an AC/DC concert two and a half years ago, and I said I want to do that for the rest of my life,” Taj told The Morning Show.
Taj was born into a family of musicians. On his 7th birthday, his grandmother, Karin, gave him his very first guitar.
Since then, he’s been tirelessly practicing and playing the guitar, having, of course, AC/DC’s guitarist Angus Young as his inspiration.
This video, in particular, is his guitar-playing performance to Chris Stapleton’s “Tennessee Whiskey.”
It’s a song that was originally written by Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove in 1981. The song had several covers from different artists, and one of them was Chris Stapleton.
His performance of the song together with Justin Timberlake at the Country Music Association (CMA) Awards became a hit and gave the song a comeback.
Stapleton’s version of the song has also been certified 6x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Taj’s video went viral!
That’s no surprise at all when you see a young boy playing an electric guitar, especially when he’s playing a song that’s decades older than him.
Donning his own version of a rock/country outfit, our “prodigy” from Australia starts plucking the strings of his electric guitar.
Looking laid back and relaxed, Taj occasionally looks at the recorder in front of him, he looks a bit shy, and that proves that he is still a kid at heart.
He is a kid, but with the talent of a full-grown adult.
If you haven’t noticed, Taj made some facial expressions during some parts of his instrumental piece. Whenever he goes to nail some endnotes of the music, his face shows that he’s truly feeling the song and digging it in the innermost parts of his young body.
It’s like he is what we usually call, “one with the music.”
It simply shows that he is not after fame or the money, he just loves music and playing the guitar. He executes even the complicated parts of his piece flawlessly while having that rockstar vibe.
This kid can definitely slay a complex instrumental guitar piece!
His “Tennessee Whiskey” performance gained over 7.7 million hits online!
That’s together with 179K likes and tens of thousands of commenters who have nothing to say but praises to this young Aussie guitarist.
This online viewer summed up pretty much the entirety of Taj’s performance.
He wrote:
“The faces he makes when he nails a riff…. Priceless. This kid feels the music and gets true pleasure from being in the groove. I’m so proud to know that there are still kids out there that love music so much, that they learn to not only play instruments, but become one with the music. God’s speed, kid.”
And this one couldn’t agree more:
“The expression on this kids face when he plays. He doesn’t read the music, he FEELS it. Thats a proper musician!”
Watch Taj’s unbelievable guitar-playing skills in the video below.
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