“Look what's happened here because I'm playing this solo. It's spreading all over the internet. Do you know what that does? It inspires people to want to play guitar”: Corey Feldman hopes his viral solos will inspire others to pick up the instrument

It’s been a funny few weeks for Corey Feldman. After hitting the road with Limp Bizkit for arguably his biggest guitar shows to date, the actor-turned-guitarist was targeted by TikTok trolls after his chaotic electric guitar playing went viral.

His off-the-wall soloing style quickly caught the attention of many internet commenters, who accused Feldman of “fake playing”. Such claims were, of course, completely inaccurate, and to play into the absurdness of it all, Fred Durst even interrupted Feldman onstage mid-solo to inspect his shredding for himself.

In a new interview with Guitar World, the aspiring shredder discusses his life-long experience with social media trolls, and responds to the widespread negativity that his guitar playing received online.

“To be honest, it comes from a hate campaign that started probably about the time I decided to come forward with some of the information about the bad things that happened to me as a kid,” Feldman says, referencing allegations he made regarding widespread abuse of child actors in show business.

“The timing was right when my music started blowing up, and as a result, they felt the best way to hurt me was to make up stories about me, to paint me in a bad light, and make me look unprofessional, illegitimate, and paint a frame around me that I was crazy.”

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Yet despite the fact that his playing that has been called out, picked apart and heavily scrutinized, Feldman hopes some good can come from the whole situation.

“I love the fact that there's all these videos on YouTube that show you how to play whatever song you want,” he says. “That has literally changed the game. Any one of us can pick up a guitar, sit there, and study the tabs.

“But being able to learn note-for-note from somebody who knows how to play it and not pay for a tutor is pretty darn cool.”

And, in spite of the negativity, Feldman still believes there’s an upside to it all.

“On top of that, look what's happened here because I'm playing this solo, and it's spreading all over the internet,” he goes on. “Do you know what that does? It inspires people to want to play guitar.

“Even if they just pick it up to goof around and make noise to see what happens, you know, it's an experiment. But that experimentation leads to art.”