Dad surprises crowd with national anthem performance after sound system fails at basketball game

An Ohio dad has become a viral music star thanks to a video that captured him singing the national anthem at his son's high school basketball game.

Trent Brown, of Waverly, Ohio, was in the stands with his wife, Vickie, earlier this month preparing to watch one of his six children, Zeke, play in the first home basketball game of his senior season when he noticed the game's announcer was having difficulty playing "The Star-Spangled Banner" on the sound system.

Just as it seemed the announcer was going to skip the anthem and start the game, Brown, 42, started belting out the song on his own.

"My wife kind of nudged me," Brown said of the moment he started to sing. "And I thought we’re not going to let [the national anthem] get past us."

Brown, an aircraft mechanic, has sung and played instruments since he was a child, but his real passion is songwriting, so his booming voice was a surprise to many.

"I sing just well enough to write music, that’s about it," Brown said with a laugh. "Most anybody who knows me are either annoyed by my singing or knows that I sing. There were a few in the crowd though who knew me but didn’t know that about me, so they were taken back."

Brown said he has also never sung the national anthem in front of a crowd before.

"Halfway through it was kind of a surreal moment," he said. "I was listening to the sound of my own voice and the silence and just me echoing through the halls. I remember thinking, ‘Oh crap. You’re really doing this.’ There was no going back then."

Johnny Futhey, whose twin sons play on the same team as Brown's son, was in the stands at the basketball game and quickly started filming Brown as soon as he began to sing.

"He had barely started and it was so cool that I just thought I had to record it," he said. "I knew Trent was a singer-songwriter, especially when he was younger, and I’ve seen little things here and there on Facebook of him singing with his kids, but I really wasn’t prepared for how well he did."

"He had the gym in tears. It was amazing," Futhey added.

Futhey posted the video of Brown singing on his Facebook page thinking that his friends and family would enjoy seeing Brown's talent.

The video very quickly went viral, much to his own surprise.

"It’s unexpected, that’s for sure," said Brown. "I remember as a kid dreaming about a career but I had a family very early and never chased that kind of stuff and now at 42, it’s a little bit weird."