CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. (FOX Providence) - Greg Roman was a quarter of a million dollar a year television director with two homes and a farm until he literally lost the farm and almost every thing else but his voice.
“It just came to an end,” Roman said. “But I knew I wasn’t alone.”
He admits feeling down and almost out until he created an alter-ego with his penchant for performance. Roman put together a mobile sound system and took his voice on the road as Charlie Cockpit.
“My job is to sing, not to fly,” he said when we asked him whether or not he actually is a pilot. “And everyone loves pilots especially when they can sing.”
He set up his suitcase sized speaker and microphone at the Pawtucket RIPTA bus station on Roosevelt and despite a few skeptical looks aimed his way, he burst into song.
“My name is Charlie Cockpit, the singing airline pilot,” he announced right before offering a rendition of High Hopes.
Some walked by without a look but there were more smiles than sneers and with that Charlie had his payday.
“I’m on the streets of America,” he said to one passerby at the Providence Amtrak station. “I’m cheering up everybody.”
She paused for a moment and then smiled.
“I’m so glad he’s not flying,” she said.
“In my mind, they're bored,” Roman told us. “Look at their faces and then look at them when I leave.”
So far, he's brought his own version of Broadway to street corners from Philadelphia to Boston with ‘high hopes’ to sing and fly even farther.
“My goal is go to every city in America and sing on every street in America and cheer up America. It needs it and it needs it badly.”
He's not passing the hat but was very close to a high flying corporate sponsor. Until he finds one, Roman tells us, he’ll just keep singing.
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