Cheap Trick Guitarist's Grandson Performs Air Guitar Onstage

Posted on Feb 1st 2010 4:00PM by Robin Milling
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Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen learned to play the guitar by the age of 12, and now it seems that one of his grandkids might be following in his footsteps. Now in his 60s, Nielsen is a grandfather six times over and his zany guitar antics have rubbed off on his oldest grandson, who joined the band on stage for an impromptu air guitar solo.

"They all have been to our show and actually one of them, my oldest grandson who was 3 at the time, got onstage with us and was playing air guitar with me for about three minutes in between songs," Nielsen tells Spinner. "He was unprovoked! He had all the poses down and he was waving his arms around. He was not afraid of the audience. It was good and pretty funny. I have it on video too and it wasn't planned because it was somebody else who was backstage with a cell phone and videoed the thing. It was hilarious."

His grandson was more prepared than Nielsen realized, practicing his signature guitar licks for his big debut. "At home he sits and watches Cheap Trick videos and he just plays along to me," he says, laughing. "Now he's 4 and he's into hockey and other things. When he grows up he'll probably ignore me!"

There are no plans that Nielsen is aware of anyway to feature his grandson on Cheap Trick's current tour in support of their new album 'The Latest.'