Johnny Shelton was 25 when he stepped onto the America’s Got Talent stage with his guitar. He grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, and now lives in Tampa, Florida. He picked up the guitar when he was six, and he said music had always given him chills.
He told the judges he would sing an original song he wrote for his son. Then he explained why. His boy was a real character and looked just like his dad. But he got sick with cancer, and he passed away on his fifth birthday 💔.
Johnny admitted the last couple of years had been very hard. A few months before the audition, he played in front of people for the first time in a long while, and it was the closest he had felt to his son since he lost him.
The song is called That’s Love. It is about a love that money cannot buy and that even death cannot take away. While he sang, the theater was completely silent, with everyone hanging on every word.
One judge said nothing could be more moving than hearing that song after his story. Heidi, a mother of four, said she could not imagine his pain and thanked him for sharing it. Howard called him a real artist and said there was nothing phony about it, it was all from the heart. Another judge reminded him that nothing is stronger than a parent’s love for a child. All the judges said yes 🙏.
