A Toronto area teen took home more than memories from Thursday’s KISS concert at the Molson Amphitheatre, Justin Benlolo also got a guitar signed by all four members of the iconic rock band.
“I’m never going to play it,” says Benlolo. “I’m going to put it in a glass case and let it sit in my room.”
Benlolo, a 15-year-old Vaughan high school student who performs as Tyler Rhodes, won the guitar thanks to his father Elliot’s successful $10,000 bid at a charity auction Wednesday night.
KISS donated the guitar to “Sylebration”, an event honouring the memory of Benlolo’s uncle Simon “Sy” Benlolo, who died of an accidental prescription drug overdose in Mexico last April. He was 40.
The event raised $54,000 for the Music Therapy Program at the Hospital for Sick Children.
“My uncle got me into KISS when I was seven or eight,” recalls Justin. “The first time I heard KISS, I was in his car and he put on the album Destroyer. When I heard the first song I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got to do this.’ I asked my mom if I can play guitar and I started to sing.
“Ever since then I’ve been the biggest KISS fan ever.”
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