A homeless widow has become an online star after footage of him playing the piano in the street was posted on YouTube . 
 
 Donald Gould plays a community piano in Sarasota, Florida, every day, scraping together enough money for food. 
 
 A passerby, Aurore Henry, filmed Gould's impressive playing and posted the footage online, where it was viewed over two million times in two days. 
 
 The 51-year-old served in the US Marine Corps, where he played the clarinet, and says he travelled the world in a symphonic band. He then enrolled at Spring Arbor University to study music education, with plans to become a teacher. He says he can play every instrument from the piccolo to the tuba. 
 
 He eventually dropped out of university after struggling to pay his tuition fees, and took a series of other jobs. He also got married and had a child. 
 
 But in 1998 Gould's wife died unexpectedly, and his life spiralled into depression and substance abuse; as a result, he lost custody of his son. 
 
 Gould has been homeless for six or seven years, after losing his job. 
 
 "I sleep under the stars every night, unless it's raining," he says. 
 
 Since Henry's video went viral, Gould has been interviewed by TV stations and is surprised by the sudden interest in him. 
 
 "I was thinking I could just put my hat on the piano and make a couple dollars and get tips,” he says. “I didn't expect it to jump out to this." 
 
 Now, a local bar in Sarasota has offered to give him a trial job, performing in its piano bar. 
 
 A funding page has also been set up online to help Gould complete his music degree. ||||| Donald (Boone) Gould has become an overnight viral sensation with his beautiful musical talent! This Sarasota homeless man has over 2 million hits on the video of him playing the piano in downtown Sarasota. Listen to the video of his absolutely beautiful version of Styx, "Come Sail Away"! Donald is a former Marine and is just a few classes short a degree in music theory. He tragically lost his wife and is now in search of his 18 year old son. Donald needs a second chance at life. He is extremely musically talented and can play or teach any instrument that comes his way! Let's help make this man's dream come true. He's a very sweet soul! He deserves a chance to make his dream of teaching music come true! All funds will go to Donald (Boone) Gould to secure a home, a car and to possibly return to school for his last 3 classes for his music theory degree. We are of course making our first priority to seek counseling and rehab services for him as well. We want him to have every opportunity to get back on track to his true potential. God Bless and Thank you!! Feel free to message me with any questions. ~Jacqueline Bevan *** My husband and I are friends with Donald and he is aware of this specific account. All funds will be deposited directly to an account set up for him by a lawyer. We will not be personally accessing these funds. *** ||||| The Homeless Piano Player Whose Concerts Are Stunning His Florida Hometown, and Then the Internet 
 
 Sarasota installed 'public pianos' throughout downtown. This homeless man now has the opportunity to be something other than 'just a nuisance' to all the people downtown. Just took my breath away. Wow.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCguq3hTC2M Posted by Aroar Natasha on Monday, June 29, 2015 
 
 He was only hoping to make some tips. But now, homeless man Donald Gould is an bona fide Internet star – and he might just score a regular piano-playing gig in Sarasota, Florida.A video of Gould, 51, playing a cover of Styx's "Come Sail Away" on a Main Street sidewalk went viral on Facebook in recent days. And no wonder – the woman who uploaded it, Aroar Natasha, knew she was seeing something special."Sarasota installed 'public pianos' throughout downtown," she wrote in the video's caption. "This homeless man now has the opportunity to be something other than 'just a nuisance' to all the people downtown. Just took my breath away. Wow."More than 3 million views later, Gould – who goes by the nickname "Boone" – is a Sarasota celebrity."I was thinking I could just put my hat on the piano and make a couple dollars and get tips," he tells local station WWSB-TV . "I didn't expect it to jump out to this."Gould typically plays a five-song set, including Billy Joel's "Piano Man" and Bach's "Toccata." "I might not do the whole song complete as it was recorded originally, but I [know] enough to touch people out here – 'cause I've touched a lot of people apparently," he says.A former U.S. Marine who played clarinet in the Corps, he originally wanted to be a music teacher. But after his wife died in 1998, he says he "just lost it," developed an addiction problem and lost his 3-year-old son to Social Services.o But this sudden attention could be his redemption. A local piano bar has said it is willing to give Gould a tryout as a potential act. And perhaps even better, Gould is giving young people musical tips."I play the 'Heart and Soul' bass. I say, 'Just hit the white keys, you can't screw up,' " he says. "It doesn't matter how they play, if they play crappy or good, I always clap for them. I'm a nurturer, I'm a teacher." ||||| Aroar Natasha 
 
 Sarasota installed 'public pianos' throughout downtown. This homeless man now has the opportunity to be something other than 'just a nuisance' to all the people downtown. Just took my breath away. Wow. 
 
 Original video: 
 
 To learn more about Donald, see our interview with him: Sarasota installed 'public pianos' throughout downtown. This homeless man now has the opportunity to be something other than 'just a nuisance' to all the people downtown. Just took my breath away. Wow.Original video: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=JCguq3hTC2M To learn more about Donald, see our interview with him: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=O3wb-Yt1V9Y ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites.
– A homeless man in Florida is an Internet star after footage of him playing the piano went viral this week. But more than that, the newfound fame may give him a chance to stop being homeless, reports People. Donald Gould, 51, who has been living on the streets of Sarasota about seven years, plays one of the city's "public pianos" every day to earn money, reports the Telegraph. His profile increased dramatically when a woman uploaded a video of him playing Styx’s "Come Sail Away" on Facebook, which has now been viewed more than 5 million times. "Just took my breath away," wrote Aroar Natasha. "Wow." The Marine vet says he formerly played in a symphonic band, and studied music education at Michigan’s Spring Arbor University, though he never got his degee. Gould says the death of his wife led to a downward spiral that included substance abuse and him losing custody of his young son. Now the video could be a way back. A GoFundMe account has been created to help Gould finish school, and to help buy him a home and a car. A local bar says it might hire him as a weekend piano player. "I was thinking I could just put my hat on the piano and make a couple dollars and get tips,” Gould tells WWSB. “I didn't expect it to jump out to this." (In Canada, a homeless man made headlines because of his generosity.)