The son of late folk-rock visionary Jim Croce and his wife, singer-songwriter Ingrid Croce, A.J. became a piano virtuoso at a young age, destined to follow in his famous father’s musical greatness.
At just 18 years old, he toured with B.B. King and later with Ray Charles—all before reaching the age of 21—after enduring the tragic loss of his father in a 1973 plane crash when he was just two, and a total loss of eyesight from ages four to ten.
The musician and singer-songwriter has proven his continued resilience over the past three decades, releasing an impressive 11 studio albums and charting on an eclectic array of charts from Top 40, blues, Americana, jazz, and more.
His most recent record, Heart of the Eternal, the follow-up to his critically lauded cover album By Request, debuted in the Top 20 on the Billboard Americana/Folk charts and in the Top 40 on the Billboard Current Rock Albums.
Fresh off the heels of his successful Croce Plays Croce 50th Anniversary Tour, which celebrated his father’s iconic work, the enormously talented artist with his refreshingly positive spirit joined us in the LifeMinute Studios to tell us about his new album, remembering his dad through his music, and how he has a new lease on life and love.
This is a LifeMinute with A.J. Croce.
At just 18 years old, he toured with B.B. King and later with Ray Charles—all before reaching the age of 21—after enduring the tragic loss of his father in a 1973 plane crash when he was just two, and a total loss of eyesight from ages four to ten.
The musician and singer-songwriter has proven his continued resilience over the past three decades, releasing an impressive 11 studio albums and charting on an eclectic array of charts from Top 40, blues, Americana, jazz, and more.
His most recent record, Heart of the Eternal, the follow-up to his critically lauded cover album By Request, debuted in the Top 20 on the Billboard Americana/Folk charts and in the Top 40 on the Billboard Current Rock Albums.
Fresh off the heels of his successful Croce Plays Croce 50th Anniversary Tour, which celebrated his father’s iconic work, the enormously talented artist with his refreshingly positive spirit joined us in the LifeMinute Studios to tell us about his new album, remembering his dad through his music, and how he has a new lease on life and love.
This is a LifeMinute with A.J. Croce.
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MusicTranscript
00:00Hey folks, this is A.J. Croce. You're watching Life Minute TV.
00:08Son of late folk rock visionary Jim Croce, A.J. Croce, became a piano virtuoso at a young age,
00:16destined to follow in his famous father's musical greatness. At just 18, he toured with B.B. King
00:22and later with Ray Charles before reaching 21. After the tragic loss of his father in a 1973
00:29plane crash at just two years old and a total loss of eyesight for six years, the musician and singer-songwriter
00:37has proven his continued resilience over the past three decades, releasing an impressive catalog of
00:4311 studio albums. His most recent, Heart of the Eternal, yet another wonderful work from the
00:49uber-talented artist. Fresh off the heels of his successful Croce Plays Croce 50th anniversary
00:55tour, which celebrated his father's iconic work, he stopped by the Life Minute studios to tell us
01:01all about it and more. This is A Life Minute with A.J. Croce. A.J. Croce in the house. Such an honor
01:08and a pleasure to have you. Thanks so much for joining us on Life Minute. Hey, thank you for
01:12having me. It means a lot. Oh, it means a lot to us. So, a new album. Is this your 10th or 11th?
01:19This is the 11th album. This is the 11th album. I can't believe it. It's amazing. And it was such a
01:25fun project. You would think that after all of these albums that it's kind of, they run together
01:30and they don't. They're, they really have unique moments. Sometimes it's just because of the time
01:35you're in life. Sometimes it's the, what's going on in the world. Sometimes it's just because the people
01:41you get to work with. And in this case, it was all of those factors. And it's so good. It's so
01:47cool and edgy and funky and heartfelt. All of it at the same time. It's really great. Thank you so
01:54much. What did Propellet? Well, you know, I had recorded an album of covers that was released in
02:012021. And it was partially due to the situation in my life. And it just felt better to do these
02:07songs, which were celebrations at that time. And so it'd been a long time since I released an album
02:13of original music and I write every day. So I was picking and choosing and trying to find material
02:20that was really representative of what is inspiring to me. All different genres, eras, styles, but
02:28finding a sort of through line with it as far as they're all representative of who I am. I think I
02:35came to realize that my strong suit as an artist is the fact that I am so influenced by other music. And
02:47finding a way to pay tribute to something or tip the hat to a genre or style or era without using it as a
02:56crutch or wearing it on your sleeve. This became my calling card was using these different styles to create
03:05something new. And it took me a long time to realize that that was a good thing. You know, it always felt
03:13right. But on this record, it's sort of all solidified. And I became really conscious of the fact that like, I am
03:20drawing from all these wonderful places, musically, artistically, but the way that I'm doing it and the way that I'm
03:27presenting it and writing songs around those, those things is very much who I am.
03:35And who are you?
03:37On any given day, you know, who am I? It's, that's a tough, tough question in that, you know, we are walking emotion.
03:47We are constantly changing our moods and ideas in terms of how we feel in a given day and who we are in that day is
03:56completely driven by our confidence in what we are doing, what we're saying, how we're feeling about ourselves
04:02and other people. You know, I love life. I love what I do. And I wake up an optimist. Even if I see negative things
04:11in the world every day, I think that I feel like there is a way through humor and music and art and life to have a wonderful time.
04:24We're just not here very long. So I feel like we really have to take advantage of it.
04:28I love it. You're such a beautiful person. I can sense it already. And you've been through so much.
04:34You lost your wife in 2000?
04:3618, yeah.
04:3718, was it? Okay. And that prompted reunion?
04:41You know, reunion actually came out of a song. It was a song that John Oates and I wrote.
04:48He had just visited his 100-year-old father. He was 100 years old. And he came back to Nashville from Philadelphia.
04:56And we started talking about it. And he said, you know, my father told me that he's ready for his reunion.
05:03That he is ready to reconnect with the people he's lost and loved. And I thought this is really a beautiful sentiment.
05:11Because we've all lost people in our lives that are important and special. And we understand that whatever our ideology is,
05:19or religion or faith, it is beautiful to think about that other side and being able to potentially see the people we love.
05:28And so that's what the song came out of. It's interesting. Reunion, also the finest line was another song on Heart of the Eternal
05:36that really talks about that other side. And it's not just because of my own personal experiences, but of course it's drawn on all of them.
05:45I like your version. I interviewed John actually a little bit ago and he just loves you too.
06:04He is so wonderful.
06:05What are some of your other favorites on the album?
06:07I'm really proud of this record. So it's hard for me to say, but I got a feeling it has this like psychedelic soul vibe to it.
06:16I've got a feeling I can't hide.
06:22You know, it was inspired by Chambers Brothers. It was Shuggy Otis, Sly and the Family Stone. And you know, and I get to play lead guitar as well as the keyboard solos on it.
06:34So it was really fun to do that. And it just flowed. Hey Margarita was another one where I was like, this groove, it just feels right.
06:43Inspired by two totally different guitarists that I was thinking about.
06:55You need to know I'm a piano player first, but as I've thrown myself into the instrument over the last 20 some years, I've become just a fanatic about it.
07:05I just love, I love to practice. I love to write on guitar now. Still piano is my first instrument, but it was in Hey Margarita that I sort of tried to evoke the spirit of both Hubert Sumlin and Link Wray who were very different in their way, but it's a blues song.
07:22It's relatively simple. The thing that is unique about it is that is that it's a blues song that is based on a mid 20th century Russian novel, which I think a lot of blues songs are these days.
07:34I'm just kidding.
07:38Want to tell us about any other ones?
07:40You know, the finest line was really unique. I did not conceive it as a duet.
07:46Between our life and death, it's drawn the finest line.
07:53The way that it came about was that on my day, the travel day to Los Angeles from Nashville where I was going to record with Shooter Jennings and work in the studio for a couple weeks and make this record, I was looking at all the material that I had compiled and had many more songs than I needed for this, but wanted to like go through it with Shooter and just see what we were working with.
08:18And that song I had always, I had written it on guitar. And then when I transferred it to piano, it came alive in a different way.
08:26And then I had been touching up the lyrics on that song for probably a year. I would play with it and then I'd put it away and play with it and put it away.
08:34And it wasn't like the top of my list for completing. It was in a way, it was an exercise. What happened was that Margo Price happened into the studio, not planning on singing or anything, heard what we were doing and was like, if you need someone to sing, let me know.
08:52She was in LA visiting for a period of time. And so it was really cool. I took this song that was not even on my mind for being on the record necessarily, realized that if I broke the verses in half and made it a conversation, it was really meaningful.
09:09And it was, it had something that was really ethereal and somehow, you know, profound.
09:16What about So Much Fun?
09:18So Much Fun came about because of that time a few years back where we got to stay home for a year. And at first I had taken it really personally, you know, because I was in the
09:38I was told I was non-essential, you know, and I'm like, music saves lives. No, but the reality is I was non-essential. And so it took a couple weeks for me to embrace my non-essentialism. And I was watching, you know, TCM and all these great old movies and, you know, brushing up on my French and my Italian. And as time went on, I was practicing scales from countries I'd never been to or will never go to.
10:03And I got a pair of tap shoes because I was watching all these old movies with like the Nicholas brothers and, you know, and, uh,
10:12and, uh, centuries and Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. And, and, and, and I thought, okay, well, I can tap dance with my fingers. Maybe I can do it with my feet. But as it turns out, I can't. And I discovered in that moment that tap shoes are like Prozac with,
10:28with like far fewer side effects, you know, and, and the reason is, is because I would be walking down the hall and, and I would hear clop, clop, clop, clop, clop.
10:37And cause I, I just, my, my costume of the day was my tap shoes, my bathrobe and my motorcycle goggles, you know, I mean, if someone was at the door,
10:47and, uh, and, uh, so I'm walking down the hall and I'm just laughing at myself, right? And, and it's hard to be depressed when you're laughing.
10:58And so I get back to, uh, walk back to my room and I'm, I'm just laughing at this, this whole preposterous thing that I've concocted.
11:07And so I, I'm, I'm thinking at a certain point of, of inviting friends over and I finally invite folks over.
11:15I love to cook and listen to music with friends, make music with friends. It was like this really wonderful evening.
11:22And I hadn't seen anyone in that, in that proximity in nearly a year. And it was, it was like just amazing to see these wonderful, talented people.
11:34And I just could not believe that after two hours of being in contact with people I hadn't seen in over a year,
11:43I would feel that, I don't know, I just felt like I cannot wait for them all to go home.
11:52So I wrote a song about it and called it so much fun.
11:57Anyway, yeah, you know, another song that was really, really fun to put together on this album was Turned Around.
12:06Oh, I feel awesome, Neil. I'm turned around. You'll find me, baby.
12:11Turned Around is, is kind of a unique song. I don't know if it's going to be a single, but it's, it, it was an exercise initially in lyric writing.
12:20It was an exercise because I was trying to string these oxymorons together and make sense out of nonsense.
12:27And when I couldn't, I created an oxymoron of my own that would tie it, tie it together to the next line.
12:35And so there's these idiosyncrasies about the song and about the, each line of the song that, you know, it was part of a writing exercise that became something really fun and interesting.
12:48And putting kind of quirky, unusual chords underneath it really added something kind of unique.
12:55So cool. Is that how it works for you? Do you come up with the lyrics first and then the sound?
13:00That one was unique in this way. Like most of this album, you know, with the exception of Reunion, which I wrote with John and we wrote it in the moment, both the music and the words together.
13:12But that one, I wrote the words first. The other songs on this album were kind of unique in that I wrote all the music before I even presented the music to, to a collaborator.
13:24If I, if I did collaborate on the song and it really changed, you know, I've done that in the past, but it really changed my perspective on how to approach the song.
13:36Cause I lived with some of these pieces of music for some time, like complications of love, even Hey Margarita.
13:42And, and I got a feeling before I really came to a storyline that really was compatible with the music.
13:48And I think that was the interesting part of it was like the music was already completed and it wasn't in the same timeframe.
13:56Sometimes it was months later that I would go back, listen to the music and go, Oh, I know what this reminds me of.
14:02This makes me feel this way. And I think it was that sense of feeling and emotion that it drew from the music that allowed me to write lyrics that were really compatible.
14:12Um, and, and really suited, uh, the songs in a way that I, I really don't think I had before.
14:19Hmm. That's so interesting. And you have a great band too.
14:22I've got an amazing band.
14:24Are they the same band on the album?
14:25Same band that's on the album.
14:27I mean, just iconic players. Most of them have all won Grammys for their musicianship.
14:33And, you know, Gary Malabur who plays drums. He was with Van Morrison on Moon Dance and Tupelo Honey, St. Dominic's Preview.
14:40He was with Steve Miller for 28 years on all those records and, and Joe Walsh and Frampton and on and on.
14:46And David Burrard, I've known since I was 19. He plays bass and sings with me.
14:50We met when he was with Dr. John, who he was, you know, with for almost 40 years.
14:55Between Mac and Etta James and BB King and the Neville brothers.
14:59All of whom I had played with, you know, kind of got my start with those guys.
15:03And I was on tour with them after he had played with them.
15:07So it was kind of cool when we met, we had this immediate connection.
15:10Of course, Alan Toussaint was our other connection.
15:13And James Pennebaker is playing, um, a guitar and, um, a bunch of instruments.
15:19James is a wonderful utility player, great, uh, fiddle player as well as guitarist.
15:24And steel player, he can play anything you give him with strings.
15:28He's, he's wonderful.
15:29And I met him on the set of Austin City Limits when we did that, uh, God, 30 years ago.
15:35He was, uh, with Leroy Pornel on that show, but he was with Delbert.
15:39And, I mean, just so many artists he's toured with and recorded with.
15:43I can't even begin to mention.
15:45And the ladies are so wonderful.
15:46They're such a big part of the band and the show, you know.
15:49Both from Nashville and, um, Catrice Ford is wonderful.
15:53I found, um, Jackie Wilson through, uh, James Pennebaker and, and Catrice through, through Jackie.
15:59And that's how that all came about.
16:01And it's just such a wonderful group of people and they're fun to be around too, you know.
16:05Yeah, yeah.
16:06I'm sure it's a fun show.
16:08It is a really fun show.
16:09It's really fun for me every night.
16:11So I think that's the thing that comes across as much as anything else.
16:16I think it's disarming to see someone having a lot of fun.
16:20And I think a lot of times people come in expecting one thing and, and leave with a, uh, you know, feeling another way.
16:26And I, that's, that's a good thing.
16:28So cool.
16:29Love it.
16:30Love it.
16:31And of course, you're the son of legendary Jim Croce.
16:34Do you remember him at all?
16:50You were so young when he passed.
16:52You know, I was very fortunate to have a lot of home recordings.
16:56He recorded everything because he was always writing or hanging out with friends and wanting
17:01to capture a song that he, you know, he was going to play at a, at a show.
17:05So, you know, when I was born, he hadn't yet recorded his first, his first album.
17:12And it was a, really at a time, it was a kind of a make or break moment for him.
17:19He had to decide whether he was going to really put everything into being a musician and a writer
17:25and a performer and artist or get a, a real day job, you know.
17:29He had avoided it for almost 10 years.
17:31You know, he stayed in college as long as he could and got two master's degrees and came
17:36out and worked as many odd jobs as he could to avoid a real job because what he really
17:41wanted to do was play music, which he finally got to in the last 18 months of his life.
17:46You realize, like, everything you know of his was written, recorded, and toured in 18 months.
17:53So, yeah, I'm really fortunate to be able to have those home recordings and get to know
18:00him through his conversations with friends, family, to me.
18:04It's really special.
18:05And the other thing that really came about at an early age was my recognition of, of the
18:11music that he left.
18:12Not just the music he wrote and created and recorded, but his record collection.
18:16It was profoundly influential and one of his jobs was being a DJ and he had such a variety
18:23of music.
18:24You know, as a kid I lost my sight at four and being turned on to Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder
18:30and all of the great blind blues artists of the twenties and thirties and forties and fifties.
18:36They were, it was all really influential.
18:39Ray Charles was my gateway drug.
18:41But, but after that it was like, it was like there was so much good music of all genres.
18:48That's what really sparked my interest in music.
18:51I didn't hear Ray Charles being different than the Rolling Stones or Lee Dorsey or Fats
18:57Waller or Ellington or Stevie Wonder.
19:00It was all great, beautiful.
19:03It was, it was soulful.
19:06Hank Williams was soulful and Jimmy Rogers was soulful and the best music is soulful,
19:10regardless of, of where it comes from.
19:14And so that was what really inspired me to want to do what I do.
19:19How did you know you had the gift?
19:22When did you know?
19:24I don't know that I ever thought I had the gift.
19:27I felt like I had the patience to practice.
19:32I was inspired to want to, to practice piano.
19:37And I practiced, you know, five, six hours a day, every day.
19:40It was a joy.
19:41And as I got better at the instrument, it became a lot easier to practice because I was practicing for a goal.
19:47Oh, I want to be able to play this, this style, or I want to play this, this piece.
19:52I was never interested in copying note for note a piece of music.
19:57So, you know, the first real kind of heavy style of music that was like very complicated and physically demanding was stride piano.
20:05So with guys like James P. Johnson, Willie the Lion Smith, and, and Fats Waller, they had bigger hands than I have.
20:14They, they could reach these thirteenths.
20:17They could reach these tenths with their eyes closed.
20:19For me, it was like I can only reach those in certain keys, you know.
20:22And so it became, for me, a way to, how do I, to learn?
20:27How do I, how do I access this?
20:29This is some of the most challenging music of the twentieth century.
20:31How do I learn how to do this?
20:33And it was all by ear.
20:34And it, it came through simplifying it, you know.
20:38It came through simplifying it just as rock and roll simplified the boogie woogie of the thirties and forties.
20:43You know, I learned what made it work.
20:47Never tried to play it note for note.
20:49Not that I necessarily could in the case of, you know, some of those players.
20:54But I wanted to be able to understand how it worked.
20:59What, and, and same thing with music in general.
21:01It's not just how to play it, but like why does it make me feel like this?
21:06You know, it's the same thing in reading a great story or a poem or even watching a great story.
21:12Watching a great film is wondering, like, what is it that makes me feel this way about this scene?
21:20It's not immediately obvious, but it's emotional.
21:24And I don't think I'm the only one that feels this way.
21:26And that's what I love about music.
21:29Love it.
21:31And how old were you when you started the piano?
21:34I started playing when I was just a baby.
21:38I mean, I was crawling up to the keys.
21:41And as long as I can remember, I was, you know, playing.
21:45And when, after I lost my set, I had a little transistor radio set to the mighty 690.
21:50And it was like a kind of a top 40 radio station broadcast out of Tijuana.
21:56And I would hear a song, and this is 1970s, so I would hear a song by The Stones or ELO or Elton John or McCartney or John Leonard, someone, whoever was on the charts at the moment and run to the piano and try and play along.
22:12And it was in that that I, you know, started to understand popular music and the form and how it worked.
22:19And it became sort of an understanding of more than just the mechanics of it.
22:25And you couldn't see.
22:26And you still kept playing.
22:28No.
22:29Of course, yeah.
22:30I mean, when you're moved by something emotionally, when you're inspired, inspiration doesn't come from vision or from hearing.
22:38It comes from your heart.
22:40It comes from your emotion of your mind and what you're thinking and how profound it might be to you in any given moment.
22:51You know, it's why, you know, people have asked, what's your favorite song?
22:55What, you know, do you have a favorite artist?
22:58No, music is about emotion and mood.
23:02And we need to, I think, really in thinking of things that way, really just understand, at least for myself I do, that every day I'm going to have a different favorite.
23:15You know, every hour I might, within the hour.
23:18I mean, I might hear something and then I want to, I'm like, oh, there's another song that reminds me of this.
23:23And then I'm like, oh, this is so great.
23:26How can any, you know?
23:27And then I reach out to a friend who's also loves this and I'm like, isn't this amazing?
23:33Like, how did they do this?
23:34How did they make this feel this way?
23:36You know, and I, I'm just, I am a student of, of life and music and art.
23:42And so I will always be interested in, in understanding and trying to understand at least.
23:48And by the time, was it, by the time you were 21, you played with both BB King and Ray Charles?
23:56I did.
23:57It really started.
23:58So when I was 16, I got to play with a guy named Floyd Dixon.
24:02He was a boogie woogie piano player and songwriter, famous for his drinking songs.
24:07He, he wrote wine, wine, wine and, and a hay bartender and, and one scotch, one bourbon, one beer.
24:14And he was a fixture on the Central Avenue LA scene.
24:18And he heard me play in San Diego and, and asked if I would open the shows for him.
24:23So I started opening shows for him and, uh, there were a number of, of kind of well-known
24:30blues artists who came to see him perform and they consequently saw me perform.
24:35And he would always, you know, impart these pearls of wisdom, like, you know, after the show,
24:40AJ always dress up for the audience.
24:42And, and whatever you do, always get paid in cash and, you know, things like this.
24:46And he would, he would tell me these, you know, great old stories of hanging out with this person
24:51or that person.
24:52And, and he was just an eccentric.
24:54He was a total character.
24:55And that kind of led to giving me a certain amount of confidence, you know, as a, as a player.
25:01It was shortly after I was, you know, running around doing those, those shows with him that
25:06a woman named May Axton heard me play.
25:08May Axton wrote Heartbreak Hotel for Elvis.
25:11She's also Hoyt's mother and, um, just a really wonderful, uh, woman.
25:16She heard me play and called up Jack Clemon, Cowboy Jack, and said,
25:23you got to hire this kid.
25:24And I was 17.
25:25That was my first session.
25:27And so, you know, I'll be honest.
25:29It was, that was my very first session.
25:31I didn't know what I was walking into.
25:34And he's in Nashville.
25:36He flies me to Nashville and I'm walking into the studio.
25:40And Jerry Lee Lewis is walking out.
25:42And I don't realize I'm filling in for Jerry Lee Lewis.
25:45And I'm like, we're recording all, and I get in there and it's Elvis's band.
25:50If you're not familiar with Cowboy Jack Clement, he was the engineer and producer of the Million Dollar Quartet
25:56in Memphis on Sun Records.
25:58He was staff producer, engineer, songwriter, you know, bon vivant for Sun Records from 1953 to 1960.
26:06And worked with all of those artists and most notably Johnny Cash, who he worked with for as long as he was alive.
26:14So when I walk in knowing this history, I'm, I'm looking at James Burton and, and, and, and, and Tut and Jerry Sheff.
26:24And it's like Elvis's band, his 68, you know, band.
26:27I'm like, oh my God.
26:29I think after that session, I was like, I know what I need to practice.
26:33I don't think I was great.
26:35I think I did a fine job, you know, but, but obviously he had, you know, he had some of the best people in the field doing this recording.
26:43And I, what I really took away was A, I know what I need to practice and, and, and B, I think that this is going to lead me down a path that's kind of unique in that I may not be a celebrity because of doing this.
27:00I'm outside the box.
27:02There's not really another piano player who's my age, who's doing what I do now.
27:09I mean, I was drawing from a lot of different places in that case from like the rockabilly and rock and roll and that kind of a boogie piano style that Jerry Lee and, and little Richard and Fats Domino were famous for in the fifties.
27:22That was where that came in handy.
27:24But of course the new Orleans music was, was always a part of, of, of my heart.
27:30And it was really in that moment that I realized I might not fit into like a box very easily.
27:38This is not necessarily going to be easy, especially because I didn't want to use my father's name and fame to propel myself.
27:48I needed to do it on my own abilities.
27:51I needed to do it because people heard me and said, he's great at what he does.
27:56That's how it happened because I couldn't have gone out on the road with BB King without having built that confidence and having prepared for that.
28:06Same thing with Ray Charles or Aretha or James Brown or, or Willie or any of the people that I've been so fortunate to, to have sat in with or played with or written with.
28:17Leon Russell was a, uh, person who I was always, you know, fan of.
28:21Leon had this wonderful, um, style.
28:25I really understood it because of my record collection as a kid.
28:30He and I had the same record collection.
28:33So it was like when we met and like started connecting before we ever wrote together.
28:38Leon and I would just, could just talk about piano players for hours, you know, bore everyone else around us, but be completely, you know, wrapped in this, in this, uh, amazing conversation that, that inspired us both, you know?
28:51So that's kind of how we, we came to work together.
28:54What's Willie Nelson like?
28:56Well, it's been a while since I've seen him, but he is one of the few people that I could say that offstage and onstage, he's the same man.
29:05He is what you, what you see is what you get.
29:07He's a real, down to earth, funny, uh, irreverent, generous human being.
29:14And you've written for so many people too.
29:17Tell us a little bit about that.
29:18I think sometimes if, if you're writing for a film or a television or you're writing for an artist, you know, I spent years, a period of time,
29:25where I wasn't touring as much and, and, you know, this career is, is a rollercoaster ride.
29:32Being a musician, even some of the most famous musicians, you know, have ups and downs in their careers.
29:38And for me, it was a, one of those down periods where I was, I was, um, you know, this is all I can do.
29:46I'm a musician.
29:47I'm a, I've worked in publishing and I've worked as a, as a musician and, and running a small, uh, indie label.
29:53And I understand how, how this business works.
29:56But it was in that time that I really started doing a lot of sessions, uh, in 2008, 2009.
30:04Um, when I first moved to Nashville, doing all kinds of, of unusual projects from K-pop to, you know, working with Japanese artists,
30:14um, doing, uh, commercials for, uh, for Asia through Japanese agencies in Tokyo and writing for the Olympics and writing for this and that.
30:24It was, really came about in an unusual fashion.
30:28And it was also in that time I was collaborating probably 95 co-writes.
30:35I saw, looked at my calendar not long ago.
30:37It was, it was 95 co-writes one year, 92 the other.
30:41In that two or three year period, I was just working with someone almost every day of the week, you know,
30:48and I got really good at the formula, you know, it's, this song is for so-and-so.
30:55Uh, they want a song that sounds exactly like their last hit, but a little different.
30:59You know, how do you make it exactly like their last hit without, you know, you know, how do you do that?
31:05Well, you, you have to really listen to what was good about the hit song.
31:10And then, and then kind of, uh, reverse engineer it in a way, you know, and even though that's not my preferred way of writing by any means,
31:20it was a learning, uh, experience.
31:23And I love learning and I love the challenge of, of writing with a theme or an artist in mind,
31:30because it gives me the ability to contribute to the greater good.
31:37So great. So great. What does music do for people?
31:40I think at its best, music stops time.
31:43I think music has the ability to completely captivate an audience in a number of ways,
31:49but in the live setting, it allows people to completely forget about their day,
31:54completely forget about the outside world, outside of that venue,
31:58and be at one and, and unified with everyone in that space.
32:06There are very few spaces where we all agree in a space for listening to music and hearing music.
32:12That is one of those places where we can all agree because we're being moved emotionally.
32:17I think the other side of how music is really powerful in this way and stops time is that when you hear a song that moves you,
32:28and there are certain things going on in your life, whether you're a teenager and emotional about, about everything,
32:34or you're, you know, or you're in your twenties and you don't really know what your future is going to be,
32:39or in your thirties and wondering whether the path you took is the right one.
32:43It doesn't matter what age you are.
32:46When you hear a song and it becomes sort of identified with that time in your life,
32:53and that song doesn't need to have been written at that time.
32:57It could be a hundred years old.
32:59It could be, it could be the number one song on the chart,
33:02or it could be something that is just a deep cut on a record that moves you and you hear it,
33:08and forever time has stood still.
33:11You are in that space when you hear that song.
33:16I think there were times where I've had this happen in a really curious fashion in that,
33:25for example, when I was a kid, Cat Stevens was popular on the radio,
33:29and I always felt a connection because my father had known him,
33:33and he gave me this really beautiful book, children's book of Teaser and the Fire Cat.
33:39And it was, you know, it was lost. It was lost in a fire.
33:42So I had this very personal connection to that music,
33:45but completely outside of family and just time and the era of which this music was created
33:53and the art was created, I was on a trip with my late wife,
33:58and we were in Turkey and we're in this little dive bar on the coast of Turkey.
34:05And all, the only album they have is Cat Stevens and it's that album.
34:11And I'll tell you, it was in that moment where like that music in that moment,
34:16all of a sudden it wasn't my childhood anymore.
34:19It was my, it was, I was in my, you know, late 20s and this was a new experience
34:25and all of a sudden the memory of it as a child,
34:28it was erased and replaced by the memory of being in this moment
34:32where this is the only thing that they play is this one cassette, you know.
34:36And so, you know, you ask me how music affects us.
34:41And it, you know, of course it affects us in all different ways,
34:44but I think the most profound thing about music is that it stops time.
34:48Time in a bottle. Like someone wrote.
34:51Yeah, absolutely.
34:53And fire too, another thing you've been through.
34:56Mm-hmm.
34:57With all you've been through, how do you stay positive in life,
35:00since this is Life Minute.
35:01Life tips we go over as well.
35:03You know, I think that we have a choice every day
35:07about how we want to react to the things around us
35:11and how we choose to digest them, you know, emotionally and psychologically
35:17and how do we come to terms with the world around us every day.
35:22And I found that through humor and kindness and forgiveness,
35:28I'm able to look at the world in a really positive way.
35:33And I can see that, you know, you need to deal with those parts of life that are painful.
35:39You can't just disregard them.
35:41You can't just put them in a box and put them away.
35:43You have to look at it all.
35:46You have to investigate your experiences and give them their due
35:53because it's just they become part of who we are.
35:57And if we don't investigate that, then we kind of lose track of who we are
36:02and why we feel certain ways.
36:04And so I think that by being open and aware and forgiving
36:11and having a sense of humor that we always find a way through.
36:16Good answer.
36:17How is your mom doing?
36:19She's doing pretty well.
36:21She has Alzheimer's and she has had a speech aphasia for about eight years.
36:27And she's not really able to communicate any longer, but she can say yes.
36:33And which is the opposite of what she said when I was growing up.
36:38And I'll be honest, she's very, very happy.
36:41My stepfather is a wonderful, wonderful human.
36:44I love him dearly.
36:45And I talk to him multiple times a week and talk to her even though she isn't able to really say much.
36:52And one of the amazing things about the brain that I've come to see and learn is,
36:57you know, she's very present when I'm with her.
37:00She's not able to say anything.
37:03That changes when I start playing a song.
37:07And she can sing any song.
37:10She can't speak, but she can sing.
37:13If it's one of my dad's songs, one of my songs, you know, I heard her playing guitar and singing this Leonard Cohen song that had like 15 verses.
37:37And I'm just like completely in awe of the fact that she's still able to play finger style guitar.
37:44And she's still able to sing a song all the way through, but she can't talk.
37:51That's amazing. Wow.
37:52And so wherever possible, whenever possible, I bring her out and have her join me on stage and sing a song or two.
38:02And I know she loves it still.
38:04And it's really special because we never played music together when I was growing up.
38:09You know, she sort of lost her voice and had vocal cord surgery in the 80s.
38:16And so she never really sang after that.
38:19It wasn't until she couldn't speak that she started to sing.
38:23Wow. That's amazing. Wow.
38:26And what do you mean she said no to you when you were young?
38:29I was going to ask you that.
38:30Like she's the one who must have noticed when you were a baby, like, oh my gosh, she has the gift.
38:34Two things about that.
38:35One is that when I say that she said no to me, she was a very busy person.
38:43She was a workaholic, you know.
38:45She was trying to manage the legacy of my father's music, which was not easy.
38:50And there were a lot of lawsuits and things through my childhood that were really difficult for her.
38:56She also had gone through a lot with, you know, because of what happened to me and the consequences of the blindness and where it all came from.
39:05She was, you know, vice consulate of Costa Rica.
39:09She ran restaurants and bars.
39:12She had nightclubs.
39:13She was a really busy person.
39:17And so I think that because of that she couldn't say yes as often, you know, or she didn't.
39:24And so no I heard a lot more often than yes.
39:28Can I do this? No.
39:29Can I go here?
39:31No.
39:34No.
39:35And then she'd think about it and go, no, it's okay.
39:38Yeah.
39:39But she was supportive of your music career.
39:41You know, she was supportive of my music at a certain point.
39:45I think that she really wanted me to go to college and it was not that I didn't want to go to college because I love learning.
39:53And it was that I knew what I wanted to do.
39:56And so I think by the time I was 15 I was good enough.
40:03I think I had gotten to a place as a musician that was…I think she felt like, okay, he can make this work.
40:13I think before then, you know, she didn't know.
40:16She knew it wasn't going to be easy.
40:18And she knew that like I'm really stubborn and I wasn't going to play my dad's stuff.
40:23And that wasn't where I wanted to go.
40:25I wanted integrity, you know.
40:27There wasn't going to be integrity if I just jumped into playing Leroy Brown.
40:31So it was I think in that that she was protective but also encouraging.
40:38And then at a certain point she knew that like this is…yeah, you've got something.
40:44And then she really became proud of what I am.
40:48And I think she, you know, she told a lot of people, you know, what is his music like?
40:54And she was so supportive at a certain point, you know, 18 years old, 19 years old.
41:01She's like if you like Jim you're going to be blown away.
41:04He is next level, you know, piano player and you're going to love it.
41:09And she was my biggest cheerleader for a period of time, you know.
41:14And I think that, you know, we had, like all families, we had challenging times and there were ups and downs.
41:23And that's just the way families are.
41:25But, you know, when I discovered that she had the speech aphasia and that she was, you know, it was degenerative.
41:32And I could really, really hear it.
41:35It brought us closer and it changed our dynamic as a family and as friends, you know.
41:41That's beautiful.
41:43And she did good.
41:45Amazing.
41:47Anything else you want to tell us that I didn't cover?
41:51The thing I was thinking about, I was sitting with a friend last night and we were talking about just life in general.
42:00And he's a journalist and we weren't talking as me being interviewed by him.
42:06It was just that I've done thousands of interviews and so many of them focus on the tragedy, you know.
42:16And then tragedy struck and then you've been through this and this and this.
42:20And I just want people to know that I'm in love, that I have a new chapter, that life is great.
42:28And I don't, it hurts me to know that, like to think that people think that, you know, that they should pity me in some way.
42:36Because I feel so grateful to have a new lease on life and love and happiness and a future forward.
42:45So I just think it's really important that people know that, but also in their own lives know that it's absolutely possible.
42:52Yeah, that's beautiful. I love it.
42:54Oh, I'm so happy for you too.
42:56Oh, thank you.
42:57I don't think that I just, but your just aura is so positive.
43:00Oh.
43:01So I, you know, but you have been through a lot.
43:03Yeah, of course.
43:04I'm so happy that you're with somebody else.
43:06Oh, thank you.
43:07Want to tell us more about that?
43:08No.
43:09She loves getting credit, but I don't think, you know.
43:15I think that it's kind of interesting.
43:18I had such a difficult time with celebrity growing up.
43:23You know, it was hard to have an identity of my own with a father who was so kind of iconic
43:30as my father was.
43:32Yeah.
43:33And as much as I loved music and realized that I needed to have a certain amount of recognition
43:42to be able to make another record and go on tour and fill the seats that are, you know.
43:48I struggled for so many years writing this, you know, balancing act of how do I stay true
43:58to myself and true to the music and also be a public figure.
44:04It was the challenge of the first half of my life or more was finding this way of dealing
44:13with notoriety or recognition.
44:16And I never felt famous.
44:18I never embraced it.
44:19I looked for inspiration.
44:21I looked for a way to be great at what I do.
44:24So it was at a certain point some years back, maybe six years ago, seven years ago, where
44:31I realized I need to let people know that, you know, I'm doing something that's really
44:38unique.
44:39I want people to know it.
44:40I'm proud of it.
44:41And I'm proud of who I am.
44:43And I think that it took me a long time to feel that way.
44:47And I think that's something a lot of people go through in this world in all different ways,
44:53not even having nothing to do with fame or celebrity, but just feeling a sense of peace
45:00with themselves and feeling worthy of recognition and worthy of love.
45:05Absolutely.
45:06Yeah.
45:07Well, you are excellent and you are different and you're so beautiful.
45:12I love you.
45:15Thank you so much.
45:16I'm so glad that you, you know, glad that you came to that realization.
45:20Well, thank you.
45:21To hear more of this interview, visit our podcast Life Minute TV on iTunes and all streaming podcast
45:27platforms.
45:47We're right back.