???On a day like any other, award-winning columnist Steve Lopez was feeling battered and beaten by the newspaper industry. He hit the streets of downtown Los Angeles, searching for inspiration, searching for hope; anything with the potential to become topic of his next column for the Los Angeles Times.
???Hearing the sweet melody of music dancing through the city air, Lopez turned his head and, to his astonishment, saw a homeless man playing a two-string violin in Pershing Square in the company of a great, bronzed statue of Beethoven.
???In that moment, Lopez could never have envisioned that somehow, this man, Nathaniel Ayers, would become not only the subject of many columns and a non-fiction book, but also his new-found muse and, most surprisingly, his friend.
???"Nathaniel took me into a world I didn't know and moved and inspired me as a journalist," Lopez said. "I thought, 'What a beautiful thing.' "
???A year ago, Lopez published his book, The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemption Power of Music, as a compilation of his columns.
???The writer found that Ayers is a man who was rarely understood for most of his life. At a young age, he was a blossoming music student at the prestigious Juilliard with the potential to become the next Mozart. But suddenly, Ayers suffered a breakdown from his then-unknown Schizophrenia.
???He dropped out of Julliard, finding solace in the streets of Los Angeles. With his orange shopping cart and worn violin, he played his music to the rats, prostitutes and drug dealers two blocks away from City Hall. On his shopping cart, Ayers had written the words, "Little Walt Disney Concert Hall - Beethoven."
???Lopez admits that what attracted him to Ayers was the realization that the tortured musician was near the real Walt Disney Concert Hall, honestly believing, imagining and thinking in his own world that he was performing on its stage.
"One of the things that I found so captivating about Mr. Ayers was that most people would look at him and see a bum. Most people would look right past him and not make any judgment about him," Lopez said.
???Lopez describes his relationship with Ayers as always being one of friend and friend, rather than subject and reporter. He wanted to help Ayers get off the streets and into a place to live. In doing this, Lopez found a level of humility and grace of his own that he never knew existed.
???"When I got to know the man, I became captivated by this passion and the idea that despite his unlucky break, to have his career go off a cliff when it was just ready to take off, he was as happy as anybody I had known," Lopez said. "...It was all about finding his purpose in life and having found his passion."
???In his book, Lopez discusses his loss of motivation and passion, his constant questioning and his success and failings in his work as a journalist. He saw that in the darkest of times and in some of the worst conditions of squalor and crime in L.A., Ayers lived, survived and breathed to play music. Lopez was inspired and, in turn, was able to find the passion in what he once loved again.
???"The greatest gift that I got from Nathaniel, and there were many...was that I had my own [passion] and I never would be happy doing anything else," Lopez said. "He is as successful and happy as any of us can be. I think at first you have to envy that, and wish there was something I was as passionate about."
???Lopez's success can be attributed to his exceptional talent for disregarding objectivity in his writing, along with support from his readers and Ayers. Due to this support, popularity and great response from his book, Lopez was approached to turn his stories into a feature-length movie, spreading the tale of friendships, human connections and the redemptive power of music while drawing awareness to the current problems plaguing Los Angeles.
???Joe Wright (Atonement) has taken on the role as director of the film, working alongside producer Gary Foster (Ghost Rider) and actors Robert Downey, Jr. (Tropic Thunder) as Lopez and Jamie Foxx (The Kingdom) as Ayers.
???Lopez couldn't speak more highly of the film, explaining that it stays true to all essential themes in his book within a short period of time.
???"I'm flattered by the portrayal and really gratified with the movie...I feel we couldn't have been luckier to end up with Robert Downey, Jr.," admitted Lopez. "I told him I trusted his instincts and depth as an actor."
???The Soloist opens in theaters on April 24.
