He won ‘America’s Got Talent,’ but he’s still working as a school janitor: ‘I’m still the same person’
The singing janitor is still the singing janitor.
“America’s Got Talent” Season 19 champ Richard Goodall may have won the most recent edition of the NBC show, but he remains on the job as a janitor at a middle school in Terre Haute, Indiana. While he received plenty of attention for his voice, he says he’s still the same person, noting he returned to his job as soon as his time on the show ended.
“I’m doing singing things, but I’m still at the school. I’m still a janitor,” Goodall, 55, tells TODAY.com.
“Not much has changed. I mean, I have a manager now, and at some point I’ll probably have to take a leave of absence for a while, and then assess and see if I would stay or start singing, but for the most part, other than singing out, I’m still the same person, same guy, not changed.”
Goodall, who’s worked as a school janitor for 23 years, says everyone in his school views him as just another person in the halls.
“I’m not saying that — I don’t want to say fame — but the fame is kind of wearing off, because they see me Monday through Friday,” he says.
“Everybody says hi and asks me how I’m doing and what’s going on in my life. They just see me all the time, so it’s kind of, you know, it’s just Richard,” he adds.
He may be “just Richard” back home, but he became a star on “AGT.” He burst on the scene when he earned the show’s Golden Buzzer with his scintillating cover of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” before he followed it up with his rendition of “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You” by Michael Bolton, helping him to emerge as a favorite to win the competition.
The road to victory, however, was a long time coming. Goodall initially tried out for the show in 2009, but he didn’t make the cut. He eventually tried out again, thanks to encouragement from his wife, Angela, whom he married several days prior to the Sept. 24 season finale.
“Not to coin the phrase from the show, but I didn’t stop believing. I kept on singing. I kept on pushing,” he says.
“AGT” flew him out to Los Angeles and put him up in a hotel. He was alone as his journey on the show — and to stardom — began. He kept to a budget using a supermarket club card to stock up on lunch meat and cottage cheese, which he kept in the mini-refrigerator in his room. He was anxious, but his nerves would melt away when his time to shine came.
“I was nervous as heck. You could just tell it,” he says. “The thing is, when the music starts, I’m good to go. That’s where my home is. And so, in the following rounds, I had Ange with me, and it was a little bit better, and was a little bit easier. And each round it got a little bit easier, because I was a little more confident.”
While Goodall is back to work, his singing career is about to take off. He’s performed the national anthem at multiple sporting events and will open for “AGT” judge Howie Mandel at a show in December. He says “regular concerts” will begin in January, noting that “things are starting to open up.” There are no plans to record an album right now, but he says he “would love to.”
“America’s Got Talent” is now looking for people to try out as it gets set for its upcoming 20th season, and Goodall thinks no one should balk at the opportunity.
“If somebody like me can try out, get through each round and then ultimately win the show, then anybody can,” he says.
“At this point in time, I think Season 20 is the perfect time for somebody who’s just a regular working person,” he adds. “Try out, give it a shot, because everyone has dreams. Everybody has something inside of them that they want to get out. And, you know, Season 20! I mean, it’s the 20th season of ‘AGT.’ There’s no more perfect time to try out than now.”
“AGT” has crowned singers, ventriloquists, dog trainers, magicians and dancers as champions. It’s a varied list of winners.
“We want the best of the best, no matter what the talent is and no matter who they are,” NBC’s manager of unscripted formats Theresa Graham told NBC Insider in 2022.
“So we encourage everybody with any talent to audition, and if it’s something that we love, something that we think America will love, we will put them in front of the judges. We just want to really represent America and the great and diverse talent that we have out there.”
Goodall is a reflection of that idea and a staunch believer that anyone can emerge as a winner. He also knows that, for him, he remains the genuine article.
“Once you look at me, what you see is what you get. I’m just a regular guy. I’m still a regular guy,” he says.
