Richmond Police officer Mervin Mayo shies away from competition. But, after the NBC show America’s Got Talent contacted him a couple of times, he decided to listen to his wife, Mechelle, and not his nerves.
“My wife said it was a great opportunity to reach people. We actually went out [to California] and enjoyed ourselves,” says Mayo, who works as a School Resource Officer in Richmond and is a minister of music at Truth Ministries.
Mayo and Mechelle, director of school counseling for Richmond Public Schools, have been married for fourteen years. “My wife is my best friend,” he says of Mechelle.
Between them they have three kids, all eighteen and older. All are musical. Mayo’s son sings back up, his older daughter plays piano and his younger daughter sings and plays drums and piano.
Mayo and his wife flew out to Los Angeles for their AGT adventure at the end of March and his audition was filmed on March 31.
“It’s an entire thing,” he says of the audition process. “You are assigned a specific three to four days to shoot. You have to wear the same clothes each day. Then they record you.”
This isn’t Mayo’s first time on stage. Growing up in Creighton Court, he belonged to a rap group called Devastating Kids that he and his cousin formed when he was nine. The group rapped on some “big stages,” Mayo says, adding there is a lot of talent in Creighton Court. “We rapped on a show with rapper LL Cool J when he was starting out.”
Even though, he says, his rap career didn’t pan out, his singing did, thanks to his group’s manager who told him singing was his real talent, not rapping.
Self-taught on the piano, drums, and organ, Mayo gravitates toward Gospel music. He likes to spend his life giving praise.
“I feel that it soothes me,” he says. “There is healing in Gospel music. It’s my genre because of everything I have gone through in my life. I can give to others through my music ministry.”
Richmond’s Mervin Mayo Advances on America’s Got Talent
On the days that Mayo spent waiting around for his turn at AGT, he felt calm. But as time went on, the reality of the situation hit him.
“I thought to myself ‘you have to go out on stage and sing,’ and on top of that, my song changed at the last minute,” he says, adding that when he walked outside for a minute, the pollen bothered him and he was worried it would affect his voice. “I was a nervous mess. I was worried about singing the words to the song. I couldn’t have the words on my keyboard.”
When he was called on stage, his wife was in the wings cheering him on. The moment all four judges gave him a yes, advancing him to the next round, was surreal, he says. “The only one I worried about was Simon Cowell. When he said America’s going to like you and I got positive feedback from him, I thought, ‘this is really happening.’”
Once Mayo returned to Richmond from taping the show, he couldn’t say anything to anyone about his experience.
“I didn’t know when they were going to air it. Prior to the show, I didn’t tell anyone I was going. I didn’t know if I would make the cut or not,” he says.
Now that he’s back in town and the show has aired, he finds he’s being treated like a local celebrity. When he goes into stores, “people recognize me and ask me if they can get an autograph,” says Mayo, who prior to the show signed with the record label Tyscot Records.
Mayo would really like to make it to the finals on AGT — of course, the $1 million prize would be nice to receive. “Now, I am just sitting around waiting on a phone call,” he says of hearing what the next step in the show will be.
As far as the future, Mayo is planning on retiring from the police force in October 2025.
“Then I will concentrate on my music and my ministry,” he says.
