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  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • TED WILLIAMS: You know, on January 4, 2011

  • I was again homeless and penniless and hopeless,

  • in some people's eyes.

  • And when I got the call that they were looking

  • for a homeless guy with a-- a golden voice,

  • I had no idea, really, who they were talking about

  • until someone called me and told me,

  • it's you that you're looking for!

  • Your video went viral!

  • Again, I don't know what to make of that because I wasn't

  • familiar with viral videos.

  • And I didn't post that video.

  • And I knew nothing-- very little,

  • should I say-- of the internet at all.

  • And next thing you know, I'm on "The Today

  • Show" with Matt Lauer and Meredith

  • and all of those great people.

  • And all of a sudden thereafter I'm on one of the leading

  • doctor shows on television.

  • I mean, the cameras, the lights--

  • I've had all of the networks around the world.

  • I went from homeless to Hollywood.

  • [LAUGHS] I went from drinking rotgut

  • to Grey Goose in a matter of minutes.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • Overwhelming would be an understatement.

  • Let's just say I was paralyzed with fear.

  • I was paralyzed with-- with success.

  • I just didn't know what to feel at any given time.

  • My emotions surfaced out of nowhere.

  • All through my homeless days, I never cried.

  • My father died, I never cried.

  • Here, I get to this point.

  • And it seemed like everything that I should have and would

  • have cried for surfaced.

  • And I just became an emotional wreck.

  • I-- I feel like it was, really, too much too fast.

  • I mean, hey, giving me a job would have been one thing.

  • Ted, you know, you've won this.

  • You've-- you've got that.

  • And thank you so much.

  • I would've-- I'd have been satisfied right then and there.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • When people see me, they see an act of God.

  • They also see that God is still alive,

  • and he's still working modern-day miracles.

  • I really do feel that he who was homeless

  • will lead the hopeless home.

  • I don't want people to think of me as I left this earth

  • that I was a crackhead.

  • I want them to-- to see the impact.

  • And I want my grandkids to look on YouTube

  • and see some of the things that their pawpaw

  • was proud of, that did.

  • And-- and I'm not going to sell myself short for anything

  • because God gave me this for a reason.

  • And that reason is to be here, to talk to you,

  • to tell you to keep me in your prayers.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • This is Friends of the Homeless.

  • It's a shelter that was here when I needed it.

  • One of the big things that I know that many of these guys

  • suffer from, as well as me back in the day, was socks.

  • We didn't have many.

  • But today, I'm going to give back some socks.

  • All right, Danny.

  • -I love you, brother. -I love you.

  • You know I do.

  • Thank you, man.

  • TED WILLIAMS: (VOICEOVER) I was right

  • there at the head of the line waiting for my handout.

  • So this is where I have a lot of loyalties now.

  • There's my brother.

  • How you doing?

  • TED WILLIAMS: (VOICEOVER) It's just exciting

  • to meet the people and to embrace them with hugs and all

  • of that stuff because they know that I

  • was just, five years ago, in the same situations that they were.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • Five years ago I held a sign that said, "I

  • have a God-given gift of voice.

  • I'm an ex-radio announcer who's fallen on hard times.

  • Please, any help would be greatly appreciated.

  • Thank you, and God bless."

  • You know, if I was asked to rewrite

  • that sign today it would say, "I have a God-given gift of voice.

  • Acknowledge him in all my ways, and he will direct my path.

  • Thank you, and God bless."

[MUSIC PLAYING]

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