‘Old Town Road’ Miracle: Toddler Who Has Autism and Is Non-Verbal Goes Viral After Singing Song

If you have a young kiddo at home, you probably hear the song “Old Town Road” played a lot. The quirky collaboration between Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus has been climbing the charts since the remix was released in April. One 4-year-old boy in particular has certainly taken a liking to the tune.

Like the rest of us, the youngster can’t help but sing and bop along to the song. But his partialness to the song is worth pointing out for one significant reason—Daniel Brundidge has autism and is mostly non-verbal. So when his mom, Sheletta, caught him singing along to “Old Town Road,” her heart exploded with joy for her son’s breakthrough moment.

“We had an #OldTownRoad miracle at my house,” the mom says on Twitter. “My son Daniel has Autism and doesn’t talk. We caught him humming the Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus tune the other day. Then bless God, my baby started singing the song on his own.”

The video has been shared more than 5,000 times and has hundreds of comments left from people who have been moved to tears by the boy’s performance. Best yet, the mom says they now think music is the way to communicate with Daniel, and his therapists have started using the song during his sessions.

“Every time I lock eyes with my baby, we start singing “Old Town Road” together,” Sheletta says. “[Because] of his Autism, he [hasn’t] strung together four words since he was born. But when we sing “Old Town Road,” he got all [the] Lil Nas X parts down and I’m rocking Billy Ray Cryus.”