Milford sophomore rocks out at Ford Field

While most people watch the Lions game at home from their couch, Sophomore Griffin Loveday had other plans: he got the opportunity to perform in front of more than 60,000 people on stage.  Loveday played “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses on the guitar at the Ford Field stadium during halftime.

Loveday has been playing the guitar since he was nine years old. There were two influences that started his passion: his dad and his fourth grade music class.

“I mean, my dad played the guitar my whole life basically, so that kind of got me into it” he said, “and you know, like fourth grade music class, using the recorder, I kind of decided that I liked music so I found something a little better than that.” Even though he’s only been playing for six years, at 15 years old, he earned the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that many musicians dream about.

Loveday first learned how to play the guitar in Downtown Milford, over by the waterfall. He attends the Michigan Rock School and absolutely loves it. Learning to play the guitar is a hard task, but it becomes a little easier with good, inspirational teachers.

Loveday does not look up to any famous musician as most guitar players do. Instead, he had a different response. “There is an instructor at the school that I go to,” Loveday said, “his name is Tony and he’s really good.”

Not only did the school teach him what he knows, but it also helped him to get this opportunity. Loveday plays in a band through the school and one of his band members had a connection. “The singer in my band, his mom is the entertainment director for the Lions” he said, “so she had me audition for it and that’s how I got it.” After he got the gig, he had a couple rehearsals at the stadium before the big day. He traveled to Detroit on the morning of Sunday Nov. 6th, preparing to play in front of his biggest crowd yet. “I wasn’t too nervous,” Loveday said, “I’ve done a lot of performances before so it was kind of just the same as all the rest except it was in front of 65,000 people instead of 100.” Fortunately, from the video of him playing, you wouldn’t even be able to tell that he’s never played in front of a crowd that large.

Even his brother, Senior Aidan Loveday was amazed by his performance. “I didn’t get to go but it was still so cool to see him on TV,” Aidan said.

In that moment, Loveday was a rockstar, feeling many emotions at once while standing on that stage in front of so many people.

“It’s pretty surreal,” he said. “In the moment, it’s kind of hard to enjoy just because you know, you’re nervous and there’s a lot of stuff going on and a ton of people, but it’s probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. It was pretty crazy.”

If you ever get the chance to check out the video of him playing on YouTube, it is well worth the watch.