Steel Panther rocked America’s Got Talent when they brought their tongue-in-cheek hair metal to audition for the Season 18 premiere of the TV competition on Tuesday (May 30).
And while the performance video itself leaked early (May 29), we now know how the four-person panel of America’s Got Talent‘s celebrity judges actually responded to the band.
America’s Got Talent viewers also reacted to the Steel Panther audition once the show aired Tuesday. And with such a response to the rockin’ group’s performance of their song “Eyes of a Panther,” we have to ask — is glam metal making a mainstream comeback?
See the judges’ responses in the video directly below.
‘America’s Got Talent’ Judges React to Steel Panther Audition
What Did the ‘AGT’ Judges Say?
The America’s Got Talent Season 18 judges — Simon Cowell, Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum and Sofía Vergara — seemed to love the Steel Panther performance. The Michael Starr-led rock band got a resounding “Yes” from all four judges to advance to the next AGT round. At Cowell’s prompt, the group also got a standing ovation from the studio audience.
At least one was judge already familiar with Steel Panther — Vergara revealed that her husband, the actor Joe Manganiello, had hired the band for one of his birthday parties in the past. Klum relished in Starr’s singing, saying, “I absolutely loved it, your voice was incredible, especially like [imitates his high-pitched squeal].”
Cowell remarked, “I’m a great believer [in] you just do whatever you feel you wanna do. If you want more people to know you, this will happen. You’re so talented. It’s so clear that you’ve been doing this a long time because you don’t get good like this overnight. I could see this in Vegas. Everything about this audition for me was just brilliant.”
Mandel added, “Wow — I feel like I was just at the most amazing, shortest festival I’ve ever attended. I love this kind of music. This music needs to come back to the forefront. And you are here to bring it.”
On social media, Steel Panther subsequently said, “We just want to say thank you to all the @AGT judges for the incredibly kind words. Nothing left to do except win this whole f%ckin’ THING!! See you again SOON!!”
America’s Got Talent airs Tuesdays on NBC at 8PM ET/7PM CT. You can stream it the next day on Peacock. See some viewer reactions from Twitter beneath the clip below.
Earlier this year, Steel Panther released the album On the Prowl. And they’re no strangers to primetime appearances. The band showed up on the pre-game for a 2018 NFL game.
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