Scorpions made one 12-year-old guitarist very happy during the group’s performance in Brooklyn, New York, on Saturday, September 12.
As you can see in the video below, young Brandon Niederauer got a chance to play with the German hard rock group on their classic hit “No One Like You” at Barclay’s Center in downtown Brooklyn.
Niederauer says the band’s song “Rock You Like a Hurricane” was the first song and guitar solo he learned, back when he was eight.
“The Scorpions’ music is a big influence on my playing,” he says.
Not surprisingly, given his age, Niederauer learned of the group’s music through video games. Both “No One Like You" and "Rock You Like a Hurricane” have been featured in the Guitar Hero franchise.
The youngster—who not only plays well but also makes some pretty good guitar face—clearly has a future in music: he’s set to appear on Broadway this fall in Andrew Lloyd Weber’s School of Rock, which opens November 9.
Scorpions are currently celebrating their 50th anniversary and promoting their album Return to Forever, which came out last Friday. You can check out their current tour dates here.
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In related news, Scorpions guitarist Rudolf Schenker said last week that he and brother Michael have plans to record an album together once the Scorpions’ tour wraps up.
Christopher Scapelliti is editor-in-chief of Guitar Player magazine, the world’s longest-running guitar magazine, founded in 1967. In his extensive career, he has authored in-depth interviews with such guitarists as Pete Townshend, Slash, Billy Corgan, Jack White, Elvis Costello and Todd Rundgren, and audio professionals including Beatles engineers Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott. He is the co-author of Guitar Aficionado: The Collections: The Most Famous, Rare, and Valuable Guitars in the World, a founding editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine, and a former editor with Guitar World, Guitar for the Practicing Musician and Maximum Guitar. Apart from guitars, he maintains a collection of more than 30 vintage analog synthesizers.
