Letter O not working with eyedropper or clipping mask

[bohnomusic]

I am trying to get some text to take on a gradient with the eyedropper tool.
I also tried using clipping masks.
Nothing I do is making the letter O do the same thing the other letters are doing.
The other letters with space in the middle of them like A or R work just fine.
But not O.

I have a gradient as a background

And some text that I outlined.

Then I select the group containing the outlined letters, and i use the eyedropper tool to click the background gradient. All of the letters look awesome, except the O. 

Can someone explain to me how I get the letter O, to do the same thing as the others?

[Mylenium]

Have you actually checked the structure of the compound path in the layers palette? Verified the integrity of the sub-paths with the anchor point tool? Checked the appearance palette for styles and settings that may override the gradient? It seems you're messing up somewhere there.

Mylenium

[bohnomusic]

I have verified the integrity of the O. It takes a fill. but only solid color fills. When I try and eyedrop the gradient, it flashes for a half second like it wants to take it, but instead it changes the fill to an orange color that is actually invisible. Seems like a bug to me. Not a mistake. But idk...

I even changed some of the anchor points and connected them to make the shape simpler. and still, the same thing happened.

[Ton Frederiks]

This is a Freeform Gradient I guess.

Can you adjust the control points when you direct select the O?

[Ton Frederiks]

Can you select the O and use Object > Compound Path > Make?