North Carolina boy finds his voice through iconic ’80s songs

CHARLOTTE, N.C. ( QUEEN CITY NEWS ) – Some people just never stop. At 11, that’s Addison Antonoff’s mentality.

As he plays basketball at home we imagined him telling himself, “Don’t stop dribbling… don’t stop shooting.”

“Don’t stop proving people wrong,” he often thinks.

“I love showing people what they don’t know that I can do,” Addison tells Queen City News.

Don’t stop readin’ this article, or watchin’ our video story, or you’ll miss the hook.

“I want to sing ‘Don’t Stop Believin,’” he told his dad Brad Antonoff, before breaking into song up in his playroom.

“I’m just a small-town girl, living in a lonely world,“ Addison sings.

Sound familiar? Well, Journey’s kind of his jam.

“She took a midnight train going anywhere,” the boy wonder continued

“That’s like his theme song, is ‘Don’t Stop Believin’, because that’s who he is,” Brad explained.

“Don’t stop believin’” his son belted out.

The lyrics fit him to a tee.

Well, except the part about “the smell of wine and cheap perfume,” but I digress.

“Addison has such a profound love of music; it makes him come to life,” his mom Pam Badgley says.

“It gives me a lot of confidence and belief in myself,” said Addison.

His parents tell us he was born with a list of health challenges, including a cleft palate and hearing loss.

“He had ten surgeries and procedures prior to even turning five. We still have a long road ahead,” says Pam.

Addison recently had ear surgery in hopes of regaining some of his hearing loss.

“I’m still concerned about that. Every day, I think about… I think about his future,” Brad said, getting emotional. “Where he’s going to be. It worries me.”

80s rock anthems weren’t meant for an audience of two. At local hotspots, Addison gets the crowd rockin’ with hits from Journey, Guns N’ Roses, and more.

“I’m a kid and I’m not supposed to know ’80s music,” Addison realizes.

“When he steps on a stage to perform, he becomes a rock star,” his mother marveled. “They love him. Standing ovations, always.”

It started when his music teacher Amanda asked him to sing with her band called Smoking Gun.

Recently, he played a little air guitar on stage with Lake Norman retro rockers Blue Monday.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” he was asked.

“I want to be a rock star!” Addison declared.

He told us he wants to start his own band someday and call it, The Rock Kid.

Addison’s stage presence is a breakthrough considering he hardly says a word to other kids when he’s at school.

“But Addison will get on stage in front of thousands of people he doesn’t know, and he’ll sing. The stage gives him an opportunity to finally have his voice,” Pam says.

They’re certainly proud of that sweet child of theirs, watching him sing the Guns N’ Roses classic “Sweet Child O’ Mine.”

“She’s got a smile that it seems to me that reminds me of childhood memories,” the young gun crooned for us in the comfort of home.

Addison has two goals when he grows up. First, to be the number one NBA draft pick. Number two, to become a rock star one day. So it seems apparent, this could be quite a journey.

You know that pun is intended.

“Don’t Stop Believin’” is more than a song, it’s his state of mind.

“Don’t let anything stop you. ‘Don’t stop believing,’ certainly. Take that song to heart,” said Pam.

“It brings tears to my eyes,” Brad says. “Without a doubt, my eyes fill up because of everything he’s been through.”

And when you’ve overcome what Addison has, you better believe he won’t stop, full stop.

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