Rock ‘n’ Roll is a tough business and, according to axe-wielding legends AC/DC, it’s a long way to the top.
No fan knows that better than Kamel Kheridden, who was pulled up on stage during one of Steel Panther’s notorious parody glam metal gigs at the House of Blues on LA’s Sunset Strip.
Things start pretty badly for Kamel, after the band ripped him a new one, before they got good as he amazed the unforgiving audience with his virtuoso guitar skills.
You can watch the whole rock n roll rollercoaster below:
By the looks of this footage, Steel Panther can bite, just as well as they bark their explicit lyrics to adoring audiences – we’re not talking Bruce Springsteen inviting kids who skipped school up on stage to play a few chords with The Boss here, people.
True to form, the band – known for such songs as The Burden of Being Wonderful, Supersonic Sex Machine and Gloryhole – showed no mercy when Kamel made his way to centre stage to meet his heroes.
Steel Panther’s zebra-skin wearing lead guitarist, Russ Parish – better known as Satchel – gave the young fan a hard time when he got up on stage, saying, ‘You’re gonna come up on this stage dressed like the Grinch who saved Christmas and fucking ask to play my guitar?!’
Satchel turned to the crowd, and show-boating like the best of them, exclaimed:
Hold on, hold on, before you put this thing on, dude, this is a $250 guitar; you do not fucking break it, alright? He says he knows all of Eyes of a Panther off our Feel the Steel record… Bullshit.
At which point, Lexxi Foxx strums the opening chords, the crowd raises their metal horns to the air and young Kamel starts to shred.
His sweet picking is met with utter shock as ??’s jaw drops to the floor. Happy to have been proven wrong, Satchel screams, ‘This is awesome!’
The moral of the story, here?
In the immortal words of Steel Panther: Don’t be afraid of heavy metal; don’t be afraid to rock.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.