Steve Lopez Shares the Story Behind “The Soloist”

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Author: Kara McVey

In the winter of 2005, Los Angeles Times journalist Steve Lopez wandered the streets of downtown L.A. researching a story. He was looking for information on the city’s broken escalators – what he found was far more compelling. A man stood playing a broken two-stringed violin in front of an overflowing shopping cart on which was tacked the sign: “Little Walt Disney Concert Hall.” Even on this derelict instrument, the man’s musical talent shone through.

The man was Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, a former Julliard student who had dropped out before graduation after suffering a mental breakdown in his sophomore year. Their meeting would come to change both of their lives. Lopez has since made it his mission to share his experience with as many people as possible. At noon on Tuesday, Nov. 3, in Thorne Hall, Oxy was proud to host Steve Lopez as our First Tuesday speaker.

Lopez’s acclaimed series of articles on the life of Ayers has led to wide-spread attention, awards and job offers, as well as a book deal and last spring’s film “The Soloist,” starring Robert Downey Jr. as Lopez and Jamie Foxx as Ayers, which was screened in Johnson 200 on Monday, Nov. 2. However, despite the flurry of public attention he’s received, Lopez remains fairly down to earth.

In his talk on Tuesday, Lopez focused on his experience with Ayers as he recounted his journalistic experiences to an avid audience. He was casual and candid, speaking to audience members directly, and took joy in talking about his unique acquaintance.

When they met, he said Ayers seemed not unlike thousands of other homeless people living on the streets of L.A. He was clearly suffering from a mental disorder (which Lopez later discovered was paranoid schizophrenia), not unlike many of L.A.’s homeless population.

Ayers lived with only what he could carry. And, like many other homeless, he played music on the streets and under bridges. The only thing that immediately stood out about him was that he could really play.

Lopez said that, at the time, Ayers was living on Skid Row, a place where classical music is not usually on people’s minds. Lopez compared it to the Wild West – a place where life is “lawless and sad.”

The streets teem with refuse, drugs, homelessness, insanity and desperation. Every day, Ayers would wake up, pack his few belongings and walk toward the center of the city, where he would set up near Pershing Square’s statue of Ludwig van Beethoven.

Ayers first moved to Los Angeles from Cleveland, Ohio, Lopez explained, because of his mother’s death. He was left unable to take care of himself, with a condition that, especially in the 1970s, was widely misunderstood and onerous to treat. He came to L.A. to search for his father, but when his task proved impossible, he felt utterly lost in the world.

Ayers told Lopez that while rambling around the city, he stumbled across Beethoven’s statue. That day he decided to sit down and play with his favorite composer. He went back to that same spot almost every day since.

Over the course of Lopez’s articles, Lopez and Ayers became more and more comfortable with each other. Lopez repeatedly attempted to set Ayers up with housing, and for a long period, Ayers repeatedly refused his offers.

Ayers also refused to receive treatment for his condition, which probably stemmed from his very negative experiences with shock therapy and Thorazine. For a long time, it seemed that they were at an impasse. But after Lopez started to understand Ayers’ perspective better, especially after spending a night with Ayers on Skid Row, their relationship slowly became mutually beneficial.

Ayers was eventually persuaded to take up an apartment. He also started taking music lessons again (this time private classes from a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic) and is now frequently invited to concerts at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. In his coverage of this story, Lopez has brought attention to the plight of the mentally ill and to the suffering of L.A.’s homeless.

He has since been lauded by various organizations for his work. To Lopez, however, all the acclaim is only a fringe benefit to their ongoing friendship. He believes that knowing Ayers, seeing his irrepressible passion and being able to bring his passion to others has “re-dedicated” him to journalism. As he sees it, “Mr. Ayers’ greatest gift to me was letting me get to know him well enough to tell his story.”

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