I'm The World Champion Air Guitar Player

My old roommate’s two-year-old air guitars any time you put on a Ramones record. No one taught her that, she just does it. I think every appreciator of rock music has done some variation of air guitaring, be it singing in the shower with a shampoo bottle microphone or drumming on the steering wheel of your car—I’m just shameless enough to do it in front of others, while dressed up (or down), and under the harsh scrutiny of drunken celebrity judges.

How Hot Lixx Began

My stage name is taken from the M*A*S*H character Hot Lips Houlihan. I just made it less sexy and more rock, much like myself.

The moment I won the U.S. championship in 2006 I vowed to try and take competitive air guitar semi-seriously. There were so many awesome performers I went up against who obviously put time, effort, spirit and fun into their routines that for me to not take the whole thing semi-seriously would have been an offense to them.

The Guitar, The Song, The Outfit

The "guitar" itself is always nameless, but how I wear it changes greatly. Rock? Low-strung. Speed picking thrash? Up high. Rodrigo y Gabriela? Resting on my inner thigh. Nickelback? Punch someone in the neck. Any song that inspires me to rock out with as much awkward sexual abandon as possible is OK by me. As for favorite outfit, there is only one answer to this, and it needs no explanation. The answer is nude.

The 2008 World Air Guitar Championship

I prepare by palling around with all the other air guitarists. All the competitions, especially the higher up you go, are basically nerd-fests with everyone clamoring to be the biggest geek in the lot. It is too fun getting to know your competition.

I had no expectations to win.