Jarrett Hoyt's mother Karen says she was surprised by his musical tribute, but she's glad he took the time to tell her how he feels. LaMonica Peters has the story.

LOCKPORT, N.Y. -- More than 125,000 views and counting. Jarrett Hoyt's song dedicated to his mother has gone viral. The 20-year-old Lockport native says he simply wanted to correct his past behavior.

"I just wanted to apologize to her because we all make mistakes with our parents. We all say things that we don't want to say to our parents and I felt bad for all the things that I said to her and the way that I treated her," he said.

Hoyt says he wrote the song at the spur of the moment and thought he'd post it to Facebook for his friends and family to see. Then unexpectedly, people began sharing the video all over the country.

"I've had people telling me that they're calling their mother for the first time in 30 years and it's absolutely life-changing because it gives me a voice," Jarrett said.

Jarrett's mother Karen says she was surprised by his musical tribute, but she's glad he took the time to tell her how he feels.

"I had no idea what he was doing. So I sat down and he started singing and I realized he was doing this for me. Raising kids is hard and knowing that he really appreciates the effort that you put in was just more than -- there's no words to say. He put it all in the song," Karen said.

Hoyt says his future is in music and he's studying audio engineering at Niagara County Community College.