The unlikely friendship between Steve Lopez, a Los Angeles Times columnist, and Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless musician, has inspired newspaper columns, a book and now a movie starring Robert Downey Jr.

I was driving through Westlake, on my way to pay Nathaniel Anthony Ayers a visit at his nursing home, when it hit me. My God. Has it been 20 years? Hard to believe, but yes. The year was 2005. It was ...

To the editor: The meeting of Nathaniel Ayers and Steve Lopez is one of my all-time favorite L.A. stories (“20 years and counting: How a chance encounter with a street musician led to a lasting bond,” ...

Nathaniel Ayers is the brilliant, mentally ill musician who was living on the streets in L.A. for many years. L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez has been writing about him for years, including in his ...

Nathaniel Ayers and Yo-Yo Ma chat in a dressing room at Walt Disney Concert Hall in October 2006. (Francine Orr) I was driving through Westlake, on my way to pay Nathaniel Anthony Ayers a visit at his ...

To the editor: The meeting of Nathaniel Ayers and Steve Lopez is one of my all-time favorite L.A. stories ("20 years and counting: How a chance encounter with a street musician led to a lasting bond," ...

I was driving through Westlake, on my way to pay Nathaniel Anthony Ayers a visit at his nursing home, when it hit me. My God. Has it been 20 years? Hard to believe, but yes. The year was 2005. It was ...