9-year-old guitar prodigy Maituo stunned viewers worldwide with his incredible emotional cover of Bon Jovi’s ballad “Bed of Roses.” The youngster undeniably has a complete command over his instrument, but what really bowled fans over was the soul and feeling that he brought to the romantic ballad. Lots of kids can play, but to make people feel something – that’s special. Fans said the 1.2 million view viral performance was real goosebumps territory thanks to the young guitarist’s ability to touch people’s hearts.
Maituo kicked off the song by playing a tasteful cut of Richie Sambora’s opening guitar solo. The Chinese guitar talent continued to develop the melody of the song in a classy way before building up to that iconic Jon Bon Jovi vocal melody. Maituo makes Jon’s main hook really soar, and you feel every note of it. The Music Man has to say this kid’s soul is just coming out through his guitar!
Maituo uploaded his take on “Bed of Roses” to his YouTube channel MaituoGuitar, where it became his second-most popular video. Fans watching at home praised Maituo’s interpretation of the song and added comments such as “So much expressiveness! Yes, he also has very good technique, but that is not what impresses me most in a musician but rather his musicality. Every note he played is full of meaning. Wonderful control of dynamics” and “Hearing his playing made me cry, I got emotional listening.”
Another of Maituo’s popular performances is his take on Steve Vai’s “For the Love of God,” delivered when he was 8. To see such a young boy playing the great guitar wizard Steve Vai’s parts is just mind-blowing. This song is much more technically demanding, and Maituo delivers a fretboard tour de force with the shredding solo at the end. It’s wild to watch what his little fingers can do. Maituo didn’t leave the emotion behind, though, as he makes the signature bends in the main melody absolutely drip with feeling.
Maituo, also known by his Chinese name Lu Junxi, is a guitarist from Guiyang, Guizhou, China. He was born on March 8, 2015, and as of January 2026, he is 10 years old. The Music Man readers might be interested to hear that Maituo began learning classical guitar at age five in 2020, and the following year he began to learn electric guitar. This means that the young talent achieved his prodigious skills in just two years, as the earliest uploads on his channel show that he was already very accomplished in 2022 at age seven.