After sleeping rough, pianist Rhys Wynne-Jones is spending his first Christmas in his own home

Rhys Wynne-Jones was homeless and sleeping rough on the streets when he walked into Nightchurch Penzance in January 2024 and asked if he could play the piano.

Nightchurch is a volunteer-run community based at St Mary’s Church, offering support to people who are homeless or vulnerable. Wynne-Jones says he asked to play not as a performance, but to help him cope. Music had always been how he managed when life became overwhelming.

Someone filmed him playing “Bohemian Rhapsody”. The video was shared online and quickly garnered thousands of views on Facebook. For months, he was known only as the “Mystery Nightchurch Pianist”.

Read more:

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Since then, Wynne-Jones has used the attention to raise more than £26,000 for homelessness, mental health and local charities. He has taken part in a South West church tour of Let’s Face It, a homelessness arts installation by Social Justice Methodist, and released an EP, Hi & Bye, written while he was homeless.

He says he did not want to be rescued or to receive anything in return for what he does. “I wanted to prove it’s possible to help yourself and others at the same time,” he explains.

When we spoke, Wynne-Jones was in the middle of a run of winter concerts. He told Big Issue about growing up using the piano as a refuge, what homelessness really takes from people, and why this Christmas will be different.

TBI: You sounded busy today. What’s life like for you right now?

Wynne-Jones: Really, really busy. I’ve been sorting out a lot. There are things happening in 2026 already. I’ve got a cathedral date, I’m playing there again. There’s also a Japanese TV thing that wants to do something. I’ve been booked for a couple of weddings as well. I’m looking at doing collaborations with other fundraisers I met at the Pride of Britain ceremony in October.

I’m playing all the way up till New Year’s Eve, nearly every day. So I’m on a winter concert tour at the moment.

If we go back to this time last year, did you imagine Christmas 2025 would look like this?

No. I thought it was all going to die down after the cathedral show. I went viral playing the piano when I walked in off the streets, and I thought: OK, 2025 is going to be the year it dies down.

I didn’t think I was going to meet people I’ve met. I didn’t think I was going to record my own album and release it. I didn’t think I was going to win a Pride of Britain award. It’s just… overwhelming is the norm for me.

What about compared to two Christmases ago? Before you went viral

If anybody told me that this would have happened a couple of Christmases ago, I wouldn’t believe them.

Why not?

I don’t have much of a way of self-worth. A couple of Christmases ago, I was just trying to survive, trying to find ways of fitting into life, and nothing was working. I tried so many different paths, different avenues, and being someone like myself, with a half diagnosis of neurodivergence, it’s been a struggle.

Not only do people not understand me, but I feel like I don’t understand myself. And the only way that people can understand me is when I’m on the piano. The piano has kind of saved my life in that way, because it allows me to communicate with others.

How does it allow you to communicate?

When I play, people feel things. People get really emotional. They can feel the things that I felt, and it creates a bridge. But also, when I play, people understand themselves. It’s a beautiful instrument that I’m using to help others.

When I first went viral, when I was this “mystery” pianist, nobody knew who I was for six months before I did my first concert. I decided to push for helping people. I saw a lot of people suffering around me on the streets. I saw a lot of pain. I wanted to do something about it.

What’s your relationship with the piano like when you’re actually playing?

I kind of forget where I am. I’m in another world. The piano was always my safe place. Growing up, when I was being bullied, and in adulthood too, when things got too much, when my mind got too loud, or when things around me got too intense, the piano was my safe refuge.

In adulthood, my piano was the only home that I had. My only safe point. And when things got too much for me… the night I went viral, I didn’t expect to go viral. I just played. I asked to play the piano in the church to clear my head, to ground myself.

How long have you been playing?

I officially started taking lessons when I was about 11 or 12. Quite a late start. But even before then, I used to pick out tunes with one finger on the electronic keyboard we had.

Did you ever worry you’d lose it if you couldn’t play for a while?

I practised so much as a child. Every break time, every lunchtime, I was in the music department, especially in secondary school. It was an all-boys school, and it could be rough. The playground wasn’t safe for me, so I was in the piano room.

I practised for hours every day, not only at school, but at home as well. That’s how I got good really fast. I got up to Grade 6 and was about to take Grade 7 in four years. I took to it naturally.

Even when I wasn’t playing for a long period in adulthood, I think the muscle memory has just kind of stuck with me.

It’s hard to carry a piano through life, especially when you’re moving around. Do you have an instrument of your own?

I’ve got a Roland. I nicknamed him Finley. I give my instruments names sometimes. Every piano has its own character. Baby grands, uprights, they’re all unique. Some you can play anything on and it’ll sound good. Some don’t like slow, expressive classical pieces; they prefer fast, intricate stuff. And some just don’t like being played at all.

Finley was getting thrown out, a couple of notes weren’t working, but when I kept playing him, the notes came back. So I got a perfect working keyboard for nothing in the end.

What kind of repertoire is your go to?

I’m definitely a jack of all trades. My go-to is classical and film music. I absolutely love playing Hans Zimmer; I do a Hans Zimmer medley in my concerts that goes down really well. I go from Gladiator to Interstellar into The Lion King, and sometimes finish on Pirates of the Caribbean for good measure.

I do classical. I do most artists. I also do a “radio roulette” medley where I hear something on the radio, pick it out, and add it into all these other melodies. That can be chart music, but also 90s dance, rave classics, Eminem, stuff like that.

You’ve talked about seeing “horrors” on the streets. What made you want to help other people when you were struggling yourself?

I just hate seeing pain. That’s the bottom line.

When you’re homeless, everybody assumes you’ve lost everything… but the reality is more horrific. You continue to lose everything. Every day you’re losing something. Your relationships deteriorate. Your possessions start to go missing. Big chunks of your life disappear. Little routines you take for granted crumble away.

And the worst thing is seeing other people around you who are homeless too, trying to cope with that pain, the pain of continuously losing everything, which is a pain you don’t really feel in society. A lot of people don’t cope with it. People try using alcohol and drugs. I have witnessed people attempting to take their own life. Sometimes people just disappear without a trace.

If I didn’t have the piano to cope with that pain, I wouldn’t be here.

What do you think is the biggest misconception about homelessness?

The biggest misconception is that homelessness symbolises failure. Like, if you’re on the streets, you failed at life. But most of the homeless people I’ve met haven’t failed. Circumstances in a demanding life failed them.

Has music helped you express things you couldn’t otherwise put into words?

Yes. I released an EP in July, and it’s music I wrote while I was on the streets and in winter services. It’s called Hi and Bye, because those were sometimes the only two words I would hear all day.

There’s one track… actually two tracks, that relate closely. One is called Hand Hold, which is about hidden homelessness. Hidden homelessness is worse than street homelessness, because you’re pushing a friendship to its limits. When you’re sofa surfing, you’re dependent on people around you. It’s a horrible feeling; you feel like a burden. You change your life to adapt to the person you’re staying with, but it’s still so difficult to get out of homelessness, and misunderstandings can happen so easily.

What’s next?

I want to use my growing platform the right way, the best way I can, to make an actual difference. I just want to make the world a better place. That’s all I’m about.

I still want to do fundraising concerts, but I want to do bigger venues. Collaborate with bigger artists. Do more fundraising collaborations. Just help, because the world really needs it.

What’s the dream venue?

Royal Albert Hall. I would love to do a show there. It could be a solo show, it could be with other artists – but if I can play Royal Albert Hall, that would be… yeah.

You’ve also mentioned education and going into schools. Why is that important to you?

I like to go into schools, do conferences, do talks about homelessness to make people aware that homelessness doesn’t symbolise failure, and anything can happen to anyone. I want to raise that stigma on an educational level.

And my big dream, if this continues to go well, I’d love to make a charity that focuses on the mental health of people who have been or are homeless. Everybody thinks homeless people need a home most of all, but the truth is what homeless people need most is to heal. Every homeless person has had life break them.

If homeless people want to rejoin a society that traumatised them, there’s going to be healing that needs to be done before that can happen.

What are your plans for this Christmas?

I’m performing every day up until Christmas, including Christmas Eve. I’ve got a big concert coming up, a charity collaboration, and teaming up with other fundraisers to do bigger fundraisers feels like a brilliant step in the right direction.

And Christmas Day itself?

Christmas Day… I’ve just realised I’m spending Christmas Day in my own home. I’ve never been able to say that.

My partner’s coming down. We’re long-distance and he’s coming to spend Christmas Day with me. In my own home. I’ve never had… wow. A wave of emotions just hit me.

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