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12-year-old drummer feels the beat of celebrity

Social media lands an East Tennessee middle school student on a television show in the United Kingdom.

A musician here in East Tennessee will soon share his talents with a television audience across the Atlantic Ocean.

Caden Allitt started banging on boxes as a toddler but now the 12-year-old prefers drums.

"They're loud. You get to flail your arms and stuff. And I am a very jittery person so moving makes me happy so I don't have to sit still all the time," he said.

Caden is a seventh grader at Karns Middle School and a student at the School of Rock in West Knoxville. It's a performance-based music school that puts Caden front and center on stage in real music venues making music for real audiences.

"When I get up on the drum set I'm not really thinking much, I just know what I have to do, and I just flow with my instinct is for the fills and stuff. And whatever I think will sound good, I'll do," he said.

He sounds good enough to make it to television in England.

Scrambled is a weekend morning sketch show for kids that airs in the United Kingdom. A producer discovered Caden on social media and asked him to submit a clip.

"I posted me playing 'Everlong' by Foo Fighters on my Instagram. They saw it and they're just like, 'Hey, that's pretty cool. How about you come on to the show? Or just take a video clip so you don't have to fly all the way over there and we'll put you on the show,'" he said.

The travel to the UK would not have been that big of a deal.

"My dad is British and so are my grandparents so I have a dual citizenship. So I can go there but I am pretty sure we have to renew the passport," Caden said.

He won't be there for the show but later this month his clip will compete against videos of two other young performers.

Caden can't dwell on the competition because he is immersed in music: practicing and performing and perfecting.

He said he admires the drummer for the band Green Day.

"Tre Cool like really inspired me to play fast and loud because he just plays fast and loud but at the same time he also can really play slow," he said.

Caden Allitt enjoys drumming, but it's no big deal if he's not the next Keith Moon or John Bonham.

"For my dream job I want to be an orthodontist," he said.

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