A year ago, Ted Williams became an overnight sensation. The feel-good story of 2011, Williams was discovered on an Ohio highway when a videographer recorded the former radio personality who had succumbed to alcoholism and become homeless. Within a matter of two weeks, Williams was cleaned up, had secured jobs and was on seemingly every TV show in the country. But the sudden return to success became its own problem and after a few faltering TV appearances, Williams checked into rehab.
Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. With his public profile lowered, Williams began the battle for sobriety, checking in and out of rehab and then finally sticking to it. He’s now been clean for over a year and he’s releasing a new book “A Golden Voice: How Faith, Hard Work, and Humility Brought Me from the Streets to Salvation.”
It’s compelling stuff. Williams documents how he was a homeless drug addict for more than 20 years, after a successful radio career in Columbus, OH. He details the degradation and self-hatred that comes along with such a fall and he doesn’t spare himself. His story is one for anyone in despair, anyone who wants to give up or anyone who thinks that life has passed them by because with one lucky moment, Ted Williams regained his life.
He says that he was so far gone, that when the You Tube video that changed his life surfaced, he didn’t even know what You Tube was. He admits in the book that while it was the avenue that led him to a different life, the video still embarrasses him.
“So, yes, I cringe when I see that YouTube video, because I see a man as low as any man can ever go. But I smile, too, because I see a man who’s trying. I see a man who’s turned it over to his Higher Power, who’s walking (slowly, slowly) in the way of the Lord, who’s facing his demons in the only way he knows how. I was in pain. I was embarrassed. But that pain and embarrassment was the reawakening of things I thought I’d killed off long before: Self-respect. Hope. And love. Especially love.”
Williams is now working and living in a condo with his girlfriend, Kathy, who stuck with him throughout his addiction.
