[piano playing] Paul: All right.

I'm gonna get you some food.

♪ Cause I love you, I love you ♪ ♪ I love you ♪ [dishes clattering] [music from radio playing] ♪ I love you, baby ♪ Paul: Typically, a child could either be born blind or autistic.

It's very rare if it's both.

My son is Paul Jr.

But we call him Pauly.

You good, Pauly?

You good?

Food is almost up, okay?

Music soothes and calms him.

It's very rare when our house is quiet.

When music is on, he's just completely rolling his head and that's his, like, comfort zone.

At the end of the day when he is laying down, I'm like, "All right, Pauly, we gotta shut it down.

No more music."

It is a full day of music.

Okay, turn it.

You're almost there.

Turn it, turn it.

You got it.

Good job, dude.

Okay.

Okay.

Could you put your head up?

Good job.

Almost done.

[trimmer buzzing] Almost done.

[music from radio playing] All right.

Let's tie it for you.

[cane scraping] Okay.

Yeah, we do this every day, around this time.

We -- he gets kind of bored and I'm like, "Do you want to snack?

Do you wanna go on a drive He's all [taps chest] so we just take a little lap and does the job every time.

You ready to go for a drive?

All right.

Come on.

Come on, come on.

Let's go for a little drive, okay?

Can you give me your cane?

Thank you.

Can you open the door?

Gotta do it yourself.

Oops.

Hold on, hold on.

Okay.

Go.

Let's see here.

All right, Mr.

Pauly.

[music from radio playing] When Pauly was born, me and mom, we ended up separating at a very young age.

And I had this hole in my heart, like, man, I'm just gonna be this single father the rest of my life.

I was a hot mess.

Fights and DUIs and drinking and just getting in a lot of trouble.

This one night in particular, pretty much blacked out behind the wheel, totaled my truck.

I remember being in the hospital and just waking up and not even knowing where I'm at.

And just my family -- specifically my mom saying, you know, f you don't wanna live for yourself, live for Pauly."

Those words immediately hit me, because I was feeling selfish.

Man, what if I was in his shoes?

What if I couldn't see?

What if I couldn't talk?

And I look at him and he has a great attitude, smiling.

I check myself.

I look in the mirror and say, I can't let him down.

I gotta step up, and I gotta be a good father, and there's no time to feel sorry for myself.

And I was just like, man, I gotta change my life.

[music playing] Feel better now, Pauly?

You relaxed?

All right, mister.

We're home.

[dog barking] All right.

We're home.

Oh, now, you're smiling.

Now, you're smiling.

You happy?

All right.

Let's get your cane.

Hold your cane right.

Okay.

[piano playing] Sounds good.

Wanna play some more?

That sounds nice, Pauly.

[Pauly sighing] You want me to sit next to you?

[birds chirping] I got a surprise for you.

Do you want your surprise?

Does it work?

Okay.

It works.

Look it.

Look it, look it, look it.

So, you gotta hold this and drop it right here.

Right there.

Okay.

Let it go.

Here's the volume.

Okay, turn it and you could go louder.

[music playing] You wanna dance?

Good job, Pauly.

You like your new record player, huh?

You like your new record player?

♪ That I'm half without you ♪ ♪ We're just meant to be ♪ ♪ Tell me that you feel it too ♪ The man's mic'd up and everything.

Oh, shit.

I forgot.

I gotta watch my language.

Fresh Pauly's Project sweater?

Little somethin', somethin'.

Somebody's gotta do it.

They keep calling me the Mexican Ice Cube, but I don't know.

- [laughs] The Mexican Ice Cube.

- Exactly.

Let's see.

- Are you Edwin?

- I'm Paul.

- Paul, I'm Greg.

- Yeah.

- How are you doing?

- Hey, Greg.

Good.

Yourself?

- EXPO Center.

- Oh, okay.

With Mark.

Mark Rose.

Oh, okay.

Perfect.

Thank you for coming.

Appreciate it.

- Check your operation.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

We're getting situated.

Slowly but surely we're getting there.

So this is our 12th annual.

You Pauly's daddy?

- Yes, yes.

- Nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you, too.

- When you bringing him?

He's coming at 11.

He coming at 11?

- Yep, yep.

- Who's gonna walk him in?

We have a my mom, my -- all -- there's a bunch of us walking him in.

All right, we're getting situated little by little, so it's gonna be a big day.

This is like nothing yet.

You're gonna see.

It's gonna get wild.

Oh, wait, what's wrong?

How's the mic?

Paul: Hello, hello.

Thank you for all the participants.

Thank you for all the volunteers.

Enjoy.

Have fun.

If you have any questions, let us know.

The man of the hour, as far as I'm concerned, my son Pauly is about 10 minutes away.

So, we're getting very excited.

He's gonna touch down soon.

We're gonna show Pauly love.

If you don't know who Pauly is, you can look up on the wall.

The mural behind me, that's my son.

Pauly's the one that inspired this whole project.

So, my son - if you don't know our story, I'm Paul.

My son Pauly was born blind and autistic.

So, he can't see and talk, but what he can do is hear and he loves music.

So, we started 13 years ago, giving free radios out here in the Skid Row community.

Fast forward now, we have a street outreach program, a food outreach program, mentorship program, work development program.

We're doing all sort of stuff... Little did I know that 50 radios turned into 100, 500, 1,000.

I literally lost track after, like, 10,000 radios.

Started so organically and just how it's developed, you know, it's really a miracle.

Pauly can't see and speak, but he's touching so many lives out here and they don't forget him.

[music playing] Paul: Let's go.

Come on, Pauly.

Up, up, up, up, up.

Let's go, Pauly.

Pauly, let's go dude.

- Woman: Love you, Pauly.

- Let's go, Pauly.

- Come on, Pauly.

- All right, everybody.

- Let's go, Pauly.

Come on, let's go.

You ready, Pauly?

Yay, Pauly!

Good job, dude.

Let's go, Pauly.

Come on.

Let's go.

- Crowd Chanting: Pauly!

Pauly!

- Good job, Pauly.

Crowd Chanting: Pauly!

Pauly!

Pauly!

Paul: Okay.

I'm gonna leave right now.

Oh, you guys.

Oh, all right.

Good job.

One more.

All right.

Well, thank you guys.

Appreciate it.

Pauly's gonna go.

Ready Pauly?

You did good today, Pauly.

Proud of you.

Director: Do you know any, like, scales?

Just want to do a quick like... Man, that was brutal.

[laughs] No.

That's great.