While one Wellington man describes himself as just an average Joe who works at a hotel, there's a lot more to Shaun Johnson than meets the eye - and it starts with his love for music.
He told Seven Sharp reporter Arrun Soma he was "just ordinary, just a piano player."
But ordinary just doesn't quite cover it when you know his challenges.
Mr Johnson is blind. He said he "never had much" eyesight to begin with, but he started losing his eyesight completely "about 15 years ago."
"It suddenly started to drop away totally and now I don't even have any perception of light or dark. I can tell when the sun is out because of the heat, but not by the brightness," he said.
However, being blind hasn't stopped the 75-year-old from becoming the resident pianist at Wellington's James Cook Hotel Grand Chancellor.
"I learn by ear, that's the only choice I have. It's a matter of hearing something and playing it."
Not only that, he's also the hotel's longest-serving employee, having racked up close to four decades on the job.
"I started here in 1980, and I'm still here. I'm surprised I can still do it. A lot of people have tried to do this but they haven't."
He's gotten to know the hotel "very, very well" in the decades since, including leading a group of people out the nearest fire escape after a fire alarm went off.
"There was one night we had a fire alarm and I took a whole group of people out of the nearest fire escapes ... none of them knew I was blind."
Razor-sharp Mr Johnson has hundreds of tunes in his mental songbook, and he says he rarely makes a mistake.
"There's a little trick I'll tell you about: if you make a mistake, make sure you do it again, then people will think, 'God, that's clever.' Took me 50-odd years to learn to do it."
SHARE ME