In Havelock, North Carolina, 16-year-old Evan Sterling loved his Christmas gift from his parents. It was an electric guitar that they picked up for him for a few hundred dollars. His dad says Evan played it every free moment he could the past 5 months. WITN-TV reports that Evan had become so good that his dad thought they should start saving for a really good guitar. They went to Guitars Etc in Havelock and Evan was allowed to test out some of their better guitars. He was playing some of his favorite riffs from Jimi Hendricks, Led Zeppelin, & Van Halen.
Several other people in the store stopped what they were doing to listen to Evan. Several encouraged him and his dad to buy one of the top end guitars but they said they could only afford to test them for now. This was just so Evan could see what would be possible. They would be saving their money to maybe get a new one this Christmas.
One of the stranger's who’d been listening to him play left the store but returned a few minutes later with a surprise. He handed him a guitar case and simply said this is yours. He then walked out while his dad was saying hang on a second who are you? Inside the case was a Fender Telecaster with all the paperwork in there showing he had bought it a few months ago for a little more than $15-hundred! Evan's dad kept looking around and saying is this some sort of punked show?
The store owner said no. I've seen him do stuff like this before. He loves encouraging and helping young musicians.
Evan says "I'll never forget this day as long as I live! Someday in the future, I want to pay it forward. Maybe buy a super expensive guitar and give it to some kid at a guitar center or in just some way help a teenager who needs a break.”