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Hoosier becomes worldwide sensation playing the hammered dulcimer

Posted at 9:17 PM, Oct 13, 2016
and last updated 2016-10-14 10:05:18-04

GOSHEN, Ind. -- A musician from Indiana has become a worldwide sensation after a video of him playing the Tears for Fears song 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World' on the hammered dulcimer went viral.

If you haven’t seen it yet – you might be the only one. It’s been viewed roughly 85 million times already.

Ted Yoder has played the hammered dulcimer for over a decade. He’s been in competitions, live shows and even on a few albums – but nothing that’s drawn an audience quite like the that live video that was posted for his Facebook fans a few weeks ago.

Watch the video below.

Tears for Fears members Curt Smith and Jamie Wollam even stopped by to play the song with Yoder. 

Yoder said he caught wind of the unique instrument when he saw it played at a concert, but it took him 10 years to find it. 

He eventually found it after he and his wife got married in 1997 in Arkansas. He heard about a small music shop in the mountains, and that's where it all started.

Yoder won a national championship in 2010 for his work with the instrument, which was 10 days after he got fired from his day job as a sales rep.

Of the viral video, Yoder said when he went to bed after posting it, the song only had 16 shares, and it blew up in the following days.

"From what I've gathered from people, it's a feel good story, it's a feel good song," Yoder said.

"I think it was just the right timing of everything."