Simon Cowell hopes his 9-year-old son, Eric, never auditions for “America’s Got Talent” despite being a good musician.
“He’s a good drummer,” Cowell told People Wednesday.
“He really is. I mean, he’s in time. He’s in rhythm. I keep saying to him, ‘If you’re good, never come on the show.'”
The “AGT” judge, 63, jokingly added, “Thank God it wasn’t violin, it was drums.”
Despite his amazing talent, Cowell would much rather have his son in the audience, explaining that he has been coming to watch the performances since he was “really young.”
“He’s a great barometer,” Cowell noted. “I look over to look at him, ‘Is he having a good time?’ And he was having a really good time when he’s up on his seat, excited. [It] is the best thing, because with kids, it’s all unfiltered.”
Nonetheless, if they were forced to take things to the stage, Cowell would let his son take the lead while he stood on the sidelines.
“I actually don’t have any performing talent whatsoever, so it would have to be him. I would just stand in the wings,” the proud dad — who is a successful record executive, the founder and sole owner of the British entertainment company Syco and creator of the “X Factor” and “Got Talent” franchises — explained.
Cowell has also judged “Pop Idol,” “The X Factor UK” (where bands like One Direction and Little Mix were formed), “Britain’s Got Talent,” “American Idol” and “The X Factor US.”
This apparently isn’t the first time that Cowell has had to talk to his son about the talent competition as he previously revealed Eric is very serious about auditioning for “Britain’s Got Talent.”
“I think he wants to be in a rock band. He loves Green Day,” the London native told “Entertainment Tonight” last month before joking, “That’s going to be total torture.”
“I mean, of all the things I’ve ever done, this will probably be the hardest, because he does play drums. [He’s] going to drum and sing! I went, ‘Oh God, no.'”
“But he’s really serious about it,” he continued. “I don’t know what it is. Maybe because all these kids are auditioning and now he wants to be up there with his friends … I think, hopefully, he’ll be sitting there in ten or less years time.”
Cowell welcomed his only son with Lauren Silverman, 46, on Valentine’s Day of 2014, a year after the couple were romantically linked. In January 2022, Simon popped the question.
“America’s Got Talent” airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.
