Leaving Juilliard

During the summers of 1974, 1975 and 1976, Williams worked as a busser at The Trident in Sausalito, California. He left Juilliard during his junior year in 1976 at the suggestion of Houseman, who said there was nothing more Juilliard could teach him. Gerald Freedman, another of his teachers at Juilliard, said that Williams was a "genius" and that the school's conservative and classical style of training did not suit him; no one was surprised that he left.