Mateo Castillo-Bonde, an 11-year-old from Minneapolis, left thousands at the State Fair Grandstand speechless, doing something most pre-teens his age do not. He played a guitar solo with the kind of precision that only comes from years of intensive practice. He did it in front of legendary producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Just like the audience, the musicians also forgot they were watching a kid who was figuring out the basics of guitar only a few years ago.
Who is Mateo Castillo-Bonde?
Mateo Castillo-Bonde is a sixth-grader at Plymouth Middle School. Like most kids his age, Mateo’s room is filled with Legos and posters of his favourite bands. He plays guitar like a professional, even though it’s only been three years since he started taking guitar seriously. “I just like them because they are guitar dudes. I don’t know what I am. I’m a guitar player,” Mateo Castillo-Bonde told Fox 9.Mateo grew up admiring Michael Jackson and Prince. Three years ago, Mateo visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and something clicked. The museum visit wasn’t meant to be transformational, but watching the histories of guitar legends sparked something in him that stuck. He returned home, picked up a guitar and decided to take it seriously. “I just started playing,” he recalled. His parents knew Mateo was serious about it, so they enrolled him in guitar lessons twice a week. “I think right away we noticed that he had an aptitude. His first recital, he played and, I mean, I was just blown away. You know, he sang, he played the guitar and it was just amazing,” Mark Bonde, Mateo’s father, told the outlet.He practised for endless hours. The progression has been steep. The performances started quietly: the national anthem before a Gopher women’s basketball game. Then came slots with the Purple Playground at Paisley Park, paying tribute to Prince’s legacy in Prince’s own studio. Each gig built confidence, muscle memory and passion.“It’s just really fun to play the guitar. I feel like I can get my emotions out,” Mateo said.
The State Fair stage
Jam and Lewis were headlining a homecoming concert, and they wanted to honour Jellybean Johnson, the guitarist who played on Janet Jackson’s ‘Black Cat’ and died last year. That’s when they came to know about the ‘Minneapolis Mateo’. “I was shocked. I didn’t think that they’d pick me for something like that,” Mateo said. They decided to bring the kid, and what happened after was, well, history.He played it right. Fans called it the highlight of the show. “It was crazy. It felt like all my practice led up to that moment. And it felt really, really good afterwards,” Mateo said.The 11-year-old wasn’t even super nervous when he got on the stage. And after hearing such rave reviews, Mateo is thrilled.“It seems like people liked it and, yeah, I don’t really know, but Terry said that he thought that I did really well, and that I should keep playing guitar,” Mateo recalled.Mateo’s mum, Jenny Castillo, was equally moved by what has transpired. “For him to be able to get up and play in front of thousands and thousands of people like that is something that most grown people can’t do. So the fact that he’s 11 and he can do that is, it’s pretty inspiring. He’s an inspiration,” she told the outlet.Mateo has quite a few plans for the future. And surprisingly enough, the pre-teen knows that the road ahead can be both frustrating and rewarding. However, he has no plans to slow down. What’s striking is how Mateo hasn’t let any of this new fame go to his head.“I don’t want to be super duper famous. I just want to be pretty famous. Because I feel life won’t be that great if I’m super duper famous. Because a lot of people say that fame isn’t good,” the kid said. It’s the kind of grounded thinking that usually takes years and some hard knocks to arrive at. But he’s eleven.Mateo already knows what his path forward is. “My hopes for the future are maybe to write really cool guitar riffs and share them with the world. And I hope that I inspire a younger generation to stop watching brain rot and actually do something.”
