Noah Guthrie is using social media to get his message, music and tour dates across to his growing fan base. He has more than 10 million views on YouTube and is scheduled to release a CD of original songs.
He shares a legendary last name in the music business and now Noah Guthrie is wading his way from obscurity to fame after a YouTube video went viral on the web several months ago.
He also managed to graduate from Greer High School this past June in the midst of a "whirlwind" of activity on the launching pad of his musical career.
"It's been quite a whirlwind," said Guthrie, whose bluesy, acoustic cover of the dance tune "Sexy and I Know It" went viral on YouTube and now has more than 10 million views, in a July interview.
"I kind of posted "Sexy and I Know It" cover as a joke to myself, and I guess a lot of people thought it was cool. When I talk out loud about it, it all seems pretty surreal and kind of touching."
Following the take off of the "Sexy and I Know It" cover, Guthrie has appeared on NBC's Today Show and played gigs in New York City and Los Angeles. He is working on a CD of original recordings he hopes to release soon and is playing new venues across the Carolinas and Georgia.
But Guthrie is far from an overnight sensation. Guthrie, whose father and stepmother are vocalists, has been singing since he could talk and began playing the guitar at 14. He has been posting his versions of popular songs such as "Where the Streets Have No Name" by U2 and "Someone Like You" by Adele for more than two years.
But the "Sexy and I Know It" cover exploded.
Like so many of his generation, Guthrie is using social media to get his message, music and tour dates across to his growing fan base.
YouTube, he agreed, is the "Ed Sullivan Show" of the early 21st century, helping to launch acts across the world.
"It's such a great tool for musicians," he said. "If you do something, you can literally put it online from your bedroom, in my case, and it lets people into your life. If they like your life, you can kind of take off a little bit."
Guthrie is traveling, playing different venues and considering his next moves beyond YouTube and "Sexy and I Know It," saying there are maybe as many as "six different directions" he could go.
He is just being careful to choose the correct one.
While the YouTube videos have been covers of other artists songs, Guthrie, who considers himself in the singer-songwriter vein of Ray Lamontagne, said he is looking forward to a release of his own original music perhaps as early as September.
"I like doing the music that comes out of me," he said.
This story originally appeared in a special edition of Upstate Game Day magazine.