THIS PROLIFIC POSTER HAS AMASSED 500,000 FANS ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND CAUGHT THE ATTENTION OF SOME OF HER IDOLS. AND ALL IT TOOK WAS ONE KINGS OF LEON CONCERT
By Joe Bosso
FOUR YEARS AGO, Lexi Rose was a 16-year-old rock and metal fan who never considered playing the guitar. Then her aunt took her to a Kings of Leon concert, and everything changed. “I was just knocked out by the band’s power,” Rose says. “I said to myself, ‘That’s it — I have to play guitar.’ I was so excited that the next day I went out and got an Ibanez Gio. From that moment on, I was obsessed and played all the time.”
Eschewing formal lessons, Rose schooled herself on YouTube guitar performance videos and tutorials, and before long she could play along proficiently to one of her favorite Metallica songs, “Nothing Else Matters.” “I was on cloud nine,” she says. “That’s when I knew I could handle anything that I put my mind to.” Digging deeper into guitar, she became enthralled by players such as Slash, Gary Moore and Marty Friedman (“he’s a huge influence on me”), and each time she learned one of their songs, she posted a video of her progress online.
Today, Rose posts several clips a week in which she expertly nails solos by guitarists such as Dimebag Darrell, Ritchie Blackmore, Neal Schon and others (she even performs a rollicking version of Neil Giraldo’s memorable lead in Rick Springfield’s “Jesse’s Girl”), and she’s amassed a following of 500,000 fans across her social media platforms. To her a
