NYC Welcomes Ted Williams And His Golden Voice!

Ted Williams and his golden voice made it to New York City! He told Matt Lauer on the Today show this morning that this is the first time he's been here since 1986, when he took his two sons to see the ball drop in Times Square (he also has seven daughters!). Check out the Today show appearance below, (he also helped kicked off the program this morning). Warning: his smile is contagious.

Williams was born and raised in Bed-Stuy, and hopes to see his 92-year-old mother while he's in town. The 53-year-old did have successes in his life before, but after getting in to drugs he quickly lost everything and became homeless. Just two days ago he was panhandling on the side of the street in Columbus, Ohio when a video showcasing his voice went viral. Now he has a rep fielding calls from the media and sifting through job offers. While in town he'll be doing some voice work for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, and he's still mulling over which big offer he'd like to take. The Cleveland Cavaliers are trying to get him to work for their team—he joked with Lauer that they offered him LeBron's old house.

His ex-wife, Patricia Kirtley, told the Daily News that she called his mother, who still lives in the same East Flatbush apartment where Williams was raised; she said, "She didn't believe it until I called her. She is so overwhelmed. I think she does not want him to mess it up. She said this is an opportunity and a second chance." Lauer also expressed concern about the sudden success being too much, and he asked Williams if things were happening too fast. Williams seems confident that with God in his life now he won't revert to his old ways, however.

Meanwhile, the man behind the video that made all of this happen—Ohio newspaper web producer Doral Chenoweth—was looking at the piece as a slow news day, Bart's People story, and never considered that it might take off once hitting YouTube. Earlier this week his editor asked for a video to post on the paper's website, and Chenoweth gave him the Williams piece, which he filmed back in October—he gave Williams $1 for the shoot.