When Bradley Cooper called his air guitar skills a musical talent, he wasn’t kidding.
On “The Tonight Show” Monday night, he told Jimmy Fallon that he’d mastered the air guitar for a very particular piece of music. He could perform the entire guitar solo from Neil Young’s “Down by the River.”
This is an intricate guitar piece with lots of stops and starts, and it’s long to boot. But Cooper, who said he’d mastered it during his idle time as a kid, proved up to the task of keeping up with every twist and turn of Young’s guitar wizardry.
While most people don’t take air guitar seriously, it was hard to deny the work and effort that went into the “American Sniper” actor’s performance, as he perfectly mimicked every strum, vibrato and key change.
It was easily one of the strangest and yet most impressive things seen on late-night television. We’re not saying Bradley Cooper should give up his day job as an actor, but we wouldn’t mind Fallon making air guitar one of his recurring celebrity bits.
Could anyone top this performance by Cooper?
See Bradley Cooper’s full air guitar performance here.
Bradley Cooper can be seen in “American Sniper,” in theaters now. “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on NBC.