This is “Bone.” His real name is William T. Bone and he lives on the streets of Nashville, Tennessee. "Bone is my last name, it's my real name," he said as if I didn't believe him.
“I clean the parking lot of Circle K near Belmont, It’s the cleanest parking lot in town,” he told me. Knowing that he does not work for Circle K I asked him why he does that and he told me, “I clean it because they help me and let me use their bathroom… They are nice to me. They don’t usually pay me, but one time they gave me $4 - - I didn’t ask for it. I used the money to buy a sandwich for me and a homeless friend of mine.”
If you look closely, you will see small dot’s tattooed to his left arm. He tattooed the solar system to his arm along with the sun. I asked, “Who did the tattoo?” He smiled and said, “I did.” He pointed it out to me naming every planet.
Bone can often be found on Music Row drawing in his small portfolio. He showed me a picture of butterflies that were actually humans with wings. He then showed me his picture of a Kiss concert that he drew with pen. "Do you ever see any famous people on Music Row," I questioned? "Sometimes, but not usually."
Bone, who is in his mid fifties, has bi-polar disorder and is on his 12th day with brand new medication. One of the side effects is that he feels tired as his body adjusts to the new prescription. “Sometimes I feel happy, very happy and then all of a sudden I feel sad,” he said in describing his bi-polar disorder. As he was talking he said, “It’s weird, I can be mad at someone and then something clicks and I’m like, why am I mad?”
“I feel like I'm a snow globe and someone shook me up and now every little piece of me is falling back randomly and nothing is ending up where it used to be.” ― a quote by Amy Reed, who wrote the book Crazy. Her book is about two people who fell in love, but one has bi-polar disorder.