Last night (July 8), participants in the opening stop of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith ROCKS the Hard Rock contest — sponsored by Spin and the Hard Rock Café — looked more like those professional pretenders (translation: actors) working at nearby Universal Studios, rather than the real life rockers who perform regularly at the adjacent Gibson Amphitheatre, which like the Hard Rock Café is also located along Universal City’s busy, tourist-y CityWalk. To further drive the point home that these gamers are, alas, mere video game mortals, players were flanked by a display case featuring Paul McCartney’s Hofner bass to their right, and one of Ron Wood’s well-worn Fender guitars to the left.
Nevertheless, after roughly two hours of string-less guitar heroics, Inglewood, CA’s Mario Golden emerged victorious out of an original field of 16. Although Golden doesn’t even know how to play a real guitar, he still went home with an armload of swag and a chance for win a trip to Boston to meet Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, and — if the rock gods are smiling down on him — take home that classic rocker’s custom Guitar Hero: Aerosmith/Hard Rock Café/Red Wing Motorcycle. Golden won’t likely see any of his musical hardware autographed and displayed on Hard Rock Café walls any time soon., but — to paraphrase a David Bowie lyric– he was a hero, just for one day.
We Asked: Who is your favorite guitar hero in real life?
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More photos from this event >>
We Asked: “Who is your favorite guitar hero in real life?.”
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More photos from this event >>
Lat night’s winner Mario G. / Photo by Auxy Espinoza
Photo by Auxy Espinoza
Photo by Auxy Espinoza
Photo by Auxy Espinoza
Photo by Auxy Espinoza
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Read the fans’ answers >>