Meet Neo: homeless by choice, musician by chance, and social activist by conviction. He's been a silver-service waiter to royalty, trained with the British karate team, travelled – homeless – around the world, and recorded a remarkable album just 10 months after he first picked up a guitar. He's packed about a dozen ordinary lifetimes into his 45 years, but this, he tells us from behind his rockstar dark glasses, is just the beginning.

I met Neo on the streets of Oxford when his voice and the song he was playing stopped me dead. Rocking his self-described 'gothic cowboy' look, he's been called a male Adele by some... and they may not be far from the mark. Music industry aficionados have begun to take note and he's soon to appear on the TV show 'The Voice', but he's not looking for fame. He wants to change how we understand homelessness and support people trying to get off the streets.

Neo's vision is to create a Crisis Centre run by the homeless, for the homeless – a place sensitive to each person's background and needs, unlike the often toxic, spreadsheet-driven environments government and council programmes create. Retired doctors and nurses are already pledging their support and Neo's donating 100% of the profits from his music to raise the £3 million they need to make the Centre a reality. And even that is just the beginning.

This podcast will challenge everything you think you know about homelessness, inequality, and life on the margins of society. With a roll-up wedged between his lips, Neo opens up about a life few of us can imagine but all of us can identify with. We talk about love, loss, violence, family, music, mental health, and much more besides. It was, without exaggeration, a privilege to spend time with him, and to share this conversation with you here.

This is the second episode of 'Talking the Walk', the show that brings you conversations with interesting people doing cool and unusual things. We'll talk about life, people, philosophy, music, politics... Quality pub conversations with a microphone, in short.

Many thanks to Tom McRae for the beautiful theme music