A homeless man has reached ears across the world with the universal language of music after a video of him playing a piano in Florida went viral.
Donald Gould regularly plays on public pianos in Sarasota, Florida. But his life changed the day a woman named Aurore Henry filmed and posted a video on Facebook of Gould playing a piano, which has had nearly 5.5 million views.
Another person later posted the video on Youtube, where it has attracted close to 11 million views.
“We sit out on the street with a box in front of us. We never ask or beg for money. We just sit out and play,” Gould told WWSB. “And we just jumped into this. Would have never thought it.”
In the video, 51-year-old Gould has leathery skin, a greying beard and baggy clothes. He spent six years on and off the streets.
“I sleep under the stars every night, unless it’s raining. Then there’s mosquitoes, you know,” Gould said to Henry and her friends in another YouTube video.
Behind the rough exterior was a boy who studied music at high school and then again at college, learning to play the “piccolo to the tuba”.
By 21, he had travelled around the world in a symphonic band. Later, he got married and had a son, and worked in the US Marine Corps where he played the clarinet.
But in 1998, his wife died and Gould developed depression and an addiction and eventually lost custody of his three-year-old son, 15 years ago.
He left the army and worked for a while until getting laid off. “The economy went to hell,” he said.
Since the video, Gould has been reunited with his long lost son, gotten a scholarship to complete his degree at Spring Arbor University and has had $US40,000 raised for him through a GoFundMe initiative that will go towards buying a car and a home.
The YouTube video has also been monetised.
“We do this because we are in close contact with Donald and his supporters and we can easily redirect the money made off of these videos to him for clothes, instruments, food, even a place to live if there's enough,” channel owner Sly Dylan said.
Gould also said he would enter rehab.
From childhood to adulthood, music has flowed from Gould’s fingers, and it has now become his saving grace.
