Matt Mauser, Widower of Kobe Bryant Crash Victim, Delivers Tear-Jerking ‘AGT’ Audition

With his three children watching from the side of the stage, Mauser captivated the live audience by pouring his heart into a cover of Phil Collins’ 1984 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now).”

“I wish I could just make you turn around/ Turn around and see me cry/ There’s so much I need to say to you, so many reasons why/ You’re the only one who really knew me at all,” he sang the devastating lyrics before taking a step back from the mic in an emotional moment at the very end. “So take a look at me now/ Oh, there’s just an empty space/ And there’s nothing left here to remind me/ Just the memory of your face.”

Howie Mandel commended Mauser for his ability to “move strangers” and their hearts before he, Simon Cowell, Sofia Vergara and Heidi Klum gave him four yeses.

“When I was out there tonight, I was singing to her,” Mauser of his late wife said at the end of the audition montage clip. “And I wanted to make her proud. I think I did that. I felt her in my heart, which was nice.”

Watch Mauser’s tear-jerking AGT audition performance below.