Guitar prodigy Grace Bowers has quit YouTube, complaining of the “old-ass creeps” among her followers on the channel.
The 19-year-old, who counts Brian May, Eric Clapton, Slash, Chris Martin, Nancy Wilson, Devon Allman, Margo Price, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Susan Tedeschi and Dolly Parton among her fans, initially came to prominence on social media, amassing more than 400,000 followers on Instagram and 60,000 on YouTube, but it appears she’s had enough of the latter.
“Bye, YouTube,” she said, in a now-deleted post. “I’m deeply uncomfortable with the amount of old men here. I’m no longer interested in playing blues or whatever the hell keeps attracting y’all. I’m done.
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“Too many old-ass creeps. To the people who were kind, sorry others ruined it, I appreciate you. I’m making music for my own generation now, quit comparing me to dead people of the past.”
Bowers has wiped all the performance videos from her YouTube account, and only the audio tracks from last year’s acclaimed Wine On Venus remain, alongside some single releases.
Earlier this year, in an interview with guitar.com, Bowers expressed her frustration with social media.
“Nothing pisses me off more than someone throwing a label on me,” she said. “I’m 19! The music I play now versus the music I played when I was 16 or 17 is vastly different.
“People get upset about that. I’m like, think about when you were 16… You were probably a different person. That’s what kind of sucks about being on social media all the time; I’ve grown up in front of so many people.
In the same interview, Bowers also distanced herself from the blues, the music that initially brought her to many people’s attention when her cover of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Lenny / Scuttle Buttin went viral.
“I feel like there’s such a movement right now with hardcore and punk,” she said. “Rock bands are coming back. You have Geese and Yungblud… it’s super-inspiring to me. I’m like, ‘What can I add to this?’ What I have is not straight-ahead rock; it’s very modern-sounding.”
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Grace Bowers’ next show is at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival this Thursday. Full dates below.
Grace Bowers tour dates 2026
Apr 30: New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, LA
May 14: Menlo Park The Guild Theatre, CA
May 15: Healdsburg Wine & Food Experience, CA
Jun 27: North Charleston Coliseum, SC *
Jul 10: Rotterdam North Sea Jazz Festival, Netherlands
Jul 18: Ottawa Bluesfest, ON
Aug 15: Fairport Hoochenanny Whiskey Festival, NY
* Supporting Chris Stapleton
Find Grace Bowers tickets.