Not many people can praise God by savagely beating sticks on tanned animal hide, but Layton Elscott isn’t your typical drummer.

Elscott recently competed in the Guitar Center Drum Off and made it to the store finals with four other drummers.

“I was playing up against some pretty talented guys and unfortunately I didn’t make it past that,” Elscott said. “The top two guys had gone up to the regionals, which is just one step down from the nationals. So it was a pretty tough competition.”