Richard Goodall’s song choice in Tuesday night’s “America’s Got Talent” finale was significant, at least to one watcher.
Following the performance, Goodall said to reporters from WTWO-TV in Terre Haute that he decided to cover the Journey song “Faithfully” from 1983 since he sings it with his fiancée, Angie Vanoven.
He stated, “I wanted my journey to be like a bookend,” in a WTWO interview. “I’m going to close the book on Journey, just as I started.”
And Goodall disclosed even more: the darling of Season 19 and native of Terre Haute announced that he and Vanoven would tie the knot in Pasadena, California, on September 18.
Richard Goodall and Angie’s love story started with music
Goodall told IndyStar in May that he started performing stand-up in the 1990s at karaoke parties and eventually worked his way up to the local radio station competition circuit. After that, the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a halt, and in June 2021, his wife Patty died of cancer.
He said, “Your biggest concern is figuring out who you are without them when you’re married for so long and they pass away and you’ve got that void there.” Again, music was the intermission.
Goodall stated that a karaoke night was the catalyst for a new chapter in his life and the discovery of new love a few months after the death of his wife. Resuming her public singing, Goodall was motivated when a fellow janitor shared on Facebook that he would be using his karaoke machine at a club.
Vanoven continued to appear on the bar’s Facebook page, which he watched. On New Year’s Day 2022, he asserted, they clicked and started talking, and “the rest is me and her history.”
Despite the activation of a GoFundMe by the Terre Haute community to assist with the expenses of both trips, Vanoven was unable to travel with Goodall to his audition in California. She was able to accompany him on stage in the future as a result. During his quarterfinal performance, Goodall paid tribute to her with a rendition of Michael Bolton’s “How Am I Supposed To Live Without You?” Since then, she has been featured on the show frequently, both in pre-recorded segments with him and in comments from the audience.