Guitarist rocks the Grand Canyon with epic rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner

Andrew Suggs performs at the Grand Canyon (Image credit: asuggs16)

Guitarist and baseball fan Andrew Suggs is celebrating after his video showing him playing The Star-Spangled Banner at the Grand Canyon went viral.

Suggs released the video to mark Independence Day in the US last week, and it showed him playing the anthem to the vast canyon in Arizona while wearing an Atlanta Braves uniform.

Suggs said: “I took my Gibson Les Paul Goldtop and Vox AC30 to the Grand Canyon to pay homage to our nation by performing the national anthem. I plugged straight into the amp and turned it all the way up! 

“I’m from Atlanta so I had to rep my city and my Braves while at the Canyon! I’m pretty sure this is American history, being the first person to record the national anthem on electric guitar at the Grand Canyon!”

He added: "It took a lot to pull this off – especially in one take! There was no crew involved so I was juggling three cameras plus audio tracking and running electricity off of a vehicle!"

Suggs later posted a picture on Instagram telling his followers that the Braves were so impressed with his performance, they’ve invited him to play the anthem ahead of first pitch at SunTrust Park at some point this season.

As he wore catcher Brian McCann’s no.16 jersey, maybe Andrew will get the chance to meet his hero later this year at the ballpark.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers and magazines as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. After initially joining our news desk in the summer of 2014, he moved to the e-commerce team full-time in 2020. He maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott grew up listening to rock and prog, cutting his teeth on bands such as Marillion and Magnum before his focus shifted to alternative and post-punk in the late 80s. His favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Drab Majesty, but he also still has a deep love of Rush.