John Mayer made 11-year-old Austin Christy‘s dream come true Sunday night by inviting the boy onstage to play guitar with him during his Philadelphia concert at Wachovia Center.
The New Jersey sixth-grader was in the audience holding a sign that read “Can I play ‘Belief’ with you?” when Mayer spotted him in the crowd and called him onstage.
“I was really excited. I was thinking that it wasn’t real,” Austin said afterward.
Austin, a huge John Mayer fan, had been secretly practicing the song to play for his mother when he was ready. “His music is different than all the other artists,” the boy said of Mayer. “A lot of them are R&B and hip-hop. He’s like a combination of pop and blues.”
Austin’s mother, who was sitting with him in the front row at the concert, got to hear him play the song for the first time with Mayer, along with a crowd of roughly 25,000 people.
Christy also got to keep Mayer’s red Squier guitar that he used onstage, which the singer signed “To Austin, You rock. Keep playing. See you at your show.”
Mayer has been notably absent from Twitter recently following a storm of controversy surrounding seemingly racist comments he made during an interview with Playboy magazine.
After the show, Mayer posted a new message on his Twitter page, saying “8 out of 8 band members agree, Philly is always an awesome show. XO J.”
The next day, Austin tweeted his own message to Mayer: “@johncmayer thanks !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Watch John Mayer and 11-year-old Austin Christy performance video below:
photo: Carston Windhorst/WENN.com