Nothing can keep this saxophone player from making it to the America's Got Talent stage.
Avery Dixon's emotional performance on the season 17 premiere of America's Got Talent on May 31 brought host Terry Crews to tears and brought the Brooklyn Nine-Nine actor to press the golden buzzer.
Terry shouted on his way from backstage to the judges table, "There's no need to vote!"
"Avery Dixon, you touched the heart of every human being in this building right now," he said. "And I want to tell you, man, you've been bullied all your life, but you tell every bully that you have a big brother named Terry Crews who is here, who's got your back. And all those bullies are gonna have to watch you succeed, my friend."
Avery, 21, shared before his golden-buzzer worthy performance that he got bullied throughout elementary school for his voice and shape of his head.
"My elementary school nickname was 'Hammerhead' because I had these knots on my head, because I'm premature," Avery said during the episode. "I was born at 1 pound, 8 ounces and my vocal cords don't close all the way. So it makes my voice sound really airy."
He added, "One called me frog and she'd get the class in on the joke. It was relentless, and I actually I was so in such a dark place, I actually wanted to commit suicide....That's when I started actually learning how to play."
The musician brought many on the judges panel and the audience to tears with his story.
"Every time I hear a story about a kid being bullied at school, it breaks my heart," judge Simon Cowell said. "It breaks it even more now because I have a son myself and I could not think of anything worse.
He continued, "Any one of those idiots who bullied you now, I hope, is watching this audition. All of us were thinking you'd be good. I didn't know you were gonna be great."
Avery come into the audition with a goal in mind: prove music is his purpose. And as he cried with joy in his mother's arms as golden confetti rained above him, he saw his wish come true.
"My goal with the music with this is to be able to do the thing I love," he said. "And if I can do that, I'll have found my purpose for being on America's Got Talent."
America's Got Talent airs Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. on NBC.
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