School Janitor Going Viral for Amazing Cover of Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’

You never know where you're going to find the next amazing voice! But word of mouth has started to spread about Richard Goodall, a grade school janitor who performed a cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" for an audience of youngsters at a school assembly that mirrored a concert experience.

Goodall, who hails from Terre Haute, Indiana, casually stepped up to the mic, using a boombox for musical accompaniment, and showed the kids that he had some amazing pipes. As you can hear in the video shared below, an audible "Oh god" response can be heard from an audience member after he sang the first line.

And the kids got into it as well, first waving their arms along to the song, then slowly rising to their feet to dance along, eventually providing Goodall with a standing ovation by the end of the video.

Goodall posted his first TikTok earlier this month, covering the Lee Greenwood song "God Bless the USA." But things started to really take off once he posted the video of himself singing the Journey classic to the school assembly. Shared on Twitter (as seen below) by a poster under the moniker Arlong, the video has surpassed over 16.2 thousand "loves." Arlong added in their post, "Nothing but respect for school janitors, especially ones like this.. People don’t realize how cool students actually become with the janitors. They really were the coolest adults in the building by far."

And Goodall didn't just stop at "Don't Stop Believin'." He's also posted a pretty awesome cover of Journey's "Still They Ride" (seen below) and "Stone in Love" as well as other selections via his TikTok account. He even got a response back on his performance from Journey's original vocalist Steve Perry, who offered "I love this," to which Goodall beamed, "Love your music, sir!!! Thank you for commenting. This means so much to me!!! Thank you."

According to video posted on his TikTok account, Goodall took part in an open Virtual Call for The Voice, but was not selected to move forward for the show. He later posted, "Disappointed you bet! For one moment I bought into everyone telling me how great I am but… I’ll continue on. I’m sad I thought 2 million views would make a difference. But I guess I’ll still have to take out the trash at 6am. But that’s what I do. And I’ll continue to do it. Love you all for you positive support. It’s hard being told your not good enough."

True to his word, Goodall has continued posting covers, most recently taking on songs from Billy Joel, Chicago and Kenny Rogers among others.

@rg69rich #journey #over50 #gournitor ♬ original sound – Richard Goodall