A Stow-Munroe Falls High School student's gift for playing guitar is going viral following a jaw-dropping musical performance that took first place in a school talent show.

After rocking out on his electric guitar for four minutes, 17-year-old AJ Garduño gave the standard "rock on" hand signal, and the crowd went wild.

Garduño won first place at the school district's talent show March 11 — the first time he has ever performed onstage. He posted a video of his performance on YouTube shortly afterward, and had received nearly 90,000 views as of Wednesday evening.

"When I finished shredding, everyone was cheering and started chanting 'Slay J,'" he said. "It was the best night of my life."

Garduño's guitar medley included riffs from some of his heroes; "Big Sur Moon (Live Version)" by Buckethead; "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne; "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC; "Tequila" by The Champs: "Beat It" by Michael Jackson and "Eruption" by Eddie Van Halen.

Garduño is a self-taught musician. He received his first acoustic guitar from a school district bus aide in fourth grade because he showed an affinity for music. Now, he has 10 guitars and has even built two of them. While being interviewed, Garduño showed off his shirt that read "You Can Never Have Too Many Guitars."

Although he did not remember the name of the bus aide, Garduño wanted to thank them.

"They determined my future," he said. "I don't know what I would be doing if he never gave me that guitar. I don't even want to know what I would be doing if I didn't find guitar."

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Garduño's mother, Annie, said autism spectrum disorder contributed to his exceptional musical ability.

Diagnosed at age 3, Garduño had echolalia, a symptom sometimes experienced by those with autism where the person repeats or echoes sounds or words they hear repetitively.

"So when he was just learning guitar, he had perfect pitch almost instantly," she said. "We would play this game with his tuner where I would play a note off-tune and he would correct me just by listening."

"It was a surreal moment to see himself be himself on stage and have people realize how talented he is," she said. "That was the first time even I saw him perform onstage, and I was nervous. But I, and his brothers, just couldn't stop sobbing watching him."

Garduño said everyone's experience with autism is different, but music has been a coping mechanism for him. He said he plays guitar as much as possible, sometimes falling asleep with his instrument in hand.

Stow-Munroe Falls Superintendent Tom Bratten said students like Garduño make him and the rest of the staff proud to be educators.

"AJ has proven to all of us that he has the true heart of a Bulldog [the school mascot] and can do great things when he sets his mind to it," he said. "AJ reminds us to 'dream on' and never stop."

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Garduño said he isn't sure of what his future entails, but he definitely wants to pursue music.

"I started practicing hard music first because I figured the other stuff would be easier," he said. "I guess it worked out. It's like six years since I picked up the guitar and I haven't put it down yet." 

Reporter Molly Walsh can be reached at mwalsh@gannett.com