[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."