Photo: Liz Shepard/Times Herald
It’s a rite of passage, getting your first guitar. And while a video of a 16 year-old getting gifted his first guitar from his family is probably commonplace, Johnny Crow’s story is a different one entirely, and it’s gone viral. Obviously a metalhead, Chow tells the Times Herald that music hasalways helped him get through emotional times and he bonded with his dad over it. His father, John, died of a heart atatack on April 1, but in January before he died, he’d ordered his son a Dean Razorback guitar from the Port Huron Music Center.
On Wednesday, with his sister Chandler blindfolding him, Johnny was brought to the music store and she captured video of him, in a Toxic Holocaust shirt, being given the guitar that his late father got him. Overcome by joy and grief, he starts crying as he realizes that his father got him his dream guitar from beyond the grave. Since Wednesday, the video has been viewed over 9.4 million times. Yesterday, wearing a Slipknot shirt, he was interviewed by the Times Herald:
“I was definitely overjoyed that my father gave me one last thing to remember him by,” said the Port Huron High sophomore. “I know a lot of kids don’t get that.”
The article says that many of tthe comments shared on his story are other kids telling their tales of loss, which has helped him cope. Chow was with his dad when he had his heart attacked and performed CPR. “It’s good to feel you’re not alone in this,” he said. Here’s hoping that he goes on to be famous to honor his dad. He’s already got one of the best names in metal, and we’re all rooting for him.
