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.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
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
00:36singer-songwriter has proven his continued resilience over the past three decades,
00:41releasing an impressive catalog of 11 studio albums. His most recent, Heart of the Eternal,
00:47yet another wonderful work from the uber-talented artist. Fresh off the heels of his successful
00:53Croce Plays Croce 50th anniversary tour, which celebrated his father's iconic work,
00:58he stopped by the Life Minute studios to tell us all about it and more. This is A. Life Minute
01:03with A.J. Croce. A.J. Croce in the house. Such an honor and a pleasure to have you. Thanks so much
01:10for joining us on Life Minute. Hey, thank you for having me. It means a lot. Oh, it means a lot to us.
01:15So, a new album. Is this your 10th or 11th album? This is the 11th album. I can't believe it.
01:23It's amazing. And it was such a fun project. You would think that after all of these albums,
01:29that it's kind of, they run together and they don't. They really have unique moments. Sometimes
01:34it's just because of the time you're in life. Sometimes it's the, what's going on in the world.
01:39Sometimes it's just because the people you get to work with. And in this case, it was all of those
01:45factors. It's so good. It's so cool and edgy and funky and heartfelt. All of it at the same time.
01:53It's really great. Thank you so much. What did Propellet? Well, you know, I had recorded an album
01:59of covers that was released in 2021. And it was partially due to the situation in my life.
02:05And it just felt better to do these songs, which were celebrations at that time. And so it'd been
02:11a long time since I released an album of original music. And I write every day. So I was picking and
02:18choosing and trying to find material that was really representative of what is inspiring to me.
02:25All different genres, eras, styles, but finding a sort of through line with it as far as they're all
02:32representative of who I am. I think I came to realize that my strong suit as an artist is
02:41the fact that I am so influenced by other music. And finding a way to pay tribute to something or tip the
02:51hat to a genre or style or era without using it as a crutch or wearing it on your sleeve, this became
02:59my calling card, was using these different styles to create something new. And it took me a long time
03:08to realize that that was a good thing. You know, it always felt right. But on this record, it's sort of
03:15all solidified. And I became really conscious of the fact that like, I am drawing from all these
03:21wonderful 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.
03:34And who are you?
03:37On any given day, you know, who am I? It's a, that's a tough, tough question in that, you know,
03:44we are walking emotion. We are constantly changing our moods and ideas in terms of how we feel in a
03:53given day. And who we are in that day is completely driven by our confidence in what we are doing,
03:59what we're saying, how we're feeling about ourselves and other people. You know, I love life. I love what
04:06I do. And I wake up an optimist. Even if I see negative things in the world every day, I think
04:14that I feel like there is a way through humor and music and art and life to have a wonderful time.
04:23We're just not here very long. So I feel like we really have to take advantage of it.
04:27I love it. You're such a beautiful person. I can sense it already. And you've been through so much.
04:33You lost your wife in 2000 and 18. Yeah, 18. I 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. He had just
04:49visited 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
05:02reunion, that he is ready to reconnect with the people he's lost and loved. And I thought this is
05:08really a beautiful sentiment because we've all lost people in our lives that are important and special.
05:15And we understand that whatever our ideology is or religion or faith, it is beautiful to think
05:23about that other side and being able to potentially see the people we love. And so that's what the song
05:29came 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,
05:42but of course, it's drawn on all of it.
05:57I like your version. I interviewed John actually a little bit ago and he just loves you.
06:03He just loves you. He is so wonderful. What 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
06:13psychedelic soul vibe to it.
06:22You know, it was inspired by Chambers Brothers. It was Shuggy Otis, Sly and the Family Stone.
06:27And, you know, and I get to play lead guitar as well as the keyboard solos on it. So it was really fun
06:34to do that. And it just flowed. Hey Margarita was another one where I was like, this, this groove,
06:41it just feels right. Inspired by two totally different guitarists that I was thinking about.
06:54You need to know I'm a piano player first, but as I've thrown myself into the instrument over the last
07:0020-some years, I've become just a fanatic about it. I just love, I love to practice. I love to write on
07:08guitar now. Still, piano is my first instrument, but it was in Hey Margarita that I sort of tried to
07:15evoke the spirit of both Hubert Sumlin and Link Wray, who were very different in their way. But it's a
07:21blues song. It's relatively simple. The thing that is unique about it is that it's a blues song that is
07:28based on a mid-20th century Russian novel, which I think a lot of blues songs are these days.
07:35I'm just kidding. Want 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.
07:54The way that it came about was that on my day, the travel day to Los Angeles from Nashville,
08:01where I was going to record with Shooter Jennings and work in the studio for a couple weeks and make
08:06this record, I was looking at all the material that I had compiled and had many more songs than I
08:13needed for this, but wanted to like go through it with Shooter and just see what we were working
08:17with. And that song, I had always written it on guitar. And then when I transferred it to piano,
08:24it came alive in a different way. And then I had been touching up the lyrics on that song for probably
08:30a year. I would play with it and then I'd put it away and play with it and put it away. And it wasn't
08:34like the top of my list for completing. It was in a way, it was an exercise. What happened was that
08:43Margot Price happened into the studio, not planning on singing or anything, heard what we were doing
08:48and was like, if you need someone to sing, let me know. She was in LA visiting for a period of time.
08:55And so it was really cool. I took this song that was not even on my mind for being on the record,
09:02necessarily realized that if I broke the verses in half and made it a conversation,
09:07it was really meaningful. And it was, it had something that was really ethereal and, uh,
09:15and somehow, you know, profound. What about So Much Fun?
09:22So Much Fun came about because of that time a few years back where we got to stay home for a year.
09:33And, uh, and at first I had taken it really personally, you know, because I was told I was
09:39non-essential. You know, and I'm like, music saves lives. No, but the reality is I was non-essential.
09:45And so, so it took a couple of weeks for me to embrace my non-essentialism. And I was watching,
09:52you know, TCM and all these great old movies and, you know, brushing up on my French and my Italian.
09:57And, and, uh, and as time went on, I was practicing scales from countries I'd never been to or will never
10:03go to. And I got a pair of tap shoes because I was watching all these old movies with like the
10:10Nicholas Brothers and, you know, and, uh, uh, and Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. And, and, and,
10:17and I thought, okay, well, I can tap dance with my fingers. Maybe I could do it with my feet,
10:22but as it turns out, I can't. And I discovered in that moment that tap shoes are like Prozac with,
10:29with like far fewer side effects, you know? And, and the reason is, is because I would be walking down
10:35the hall and, and I would hear clop, clop, clop, clop, clop, clop. And because I, I just, my,
10:40my costume of the day was my tap shoes, my bathrobe and my motorcycle goggles, you know? I mean,
10:46if someone was at the door. And, uh, so I'm walking down the hall and I'm just laughing at myself,
10:55right? And, and it's hard to be depressed when you're laughing. And so I get back to, uh, walk back
11:02to my room and I'm, I'm just laughing at this, this whole preposterous thing that I've concocted.
11:08And so I, I'm, I'm thinking at a certain point of, of inviting friends over. And I finally invite
11:15folks over. I love to cook and listen to music with friends, make music with friends. It was like
11:20this really wonderful evening. And I hadn't seen anyone in that, in that proximity in nearly a year.
11:27And it was, it was like just amazing to see these wonderful, talented people. And
11:37I just could not believe that after two hours of being in contact with people I hadn't seen in over
11:42a year, I 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. Anyway, yeah, you know,
12:01another song that was really, really fun to put together on this album was Turned Around.
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,
12:17it, it was an exercise initially in lyric writing. It was an exercise because I was trying to string
12:24these oxymorons together and make sense out of nonsense. And when I couldn't, I created an oxymoron
12:33of my own that would tie it, tie it together to the next line. And so there's these idiosyncrasies
12:39about the song and about the each line of the song that, you know, it was part of a writing exercise
12:46that became something really fun and interesting and putting kind of quirky unusual chords underneath
12:53it really added something kind of unique. So cool. Is that how it works for you? Do you come up with the
12:59lyrics first and then the sound? That one was unique in this way. Like most of this album, you know,
13:07with the exception of Reunion, which I wrote with John and we wrote it in the moment, both the music
13:12and the words together. But that one, I wrote the words first. The other songs on this album were kind
13:19of unique in that I wrote all the music before I even presented the, the music to, to a collaborator,
13:26if I, if I did collaborate on the song. And it really changed, you know, I've done that in the past,
13:32but it really changed my perspective on how to approach the song. Cause I lived with some of these
13:38pieces of music for some time, like Complications of Love, even Hey Margarita. And, and I got a feeling
13:44before I really came to a storyline that really was compatible with the music. And I think that was
13:50the interesting part of it was like the music was already completed and it wasn't in the same time frame.
13:57sometimes it was months later that I would go back, listen to the music and go, Oh, I know what this
14:02reminds me of. This makes me feel this way. And I think it was that sense of feeling and emotion that
14:08it drew from the music that allowed me to write lyrics that were really compatible, um, and, and really
14:15suited, uh, the songs in a way that I, I really don't think I had before. Hmm. That's so interesting.
14:21And you have a great band too. I've got an amazing band. Are they the same band on the album? Same band
14:27that's on the album. I mean, just iconic players. Um, most of them have all won Grammys for their
14:33musicianship. And, you know, Gary Malabur who plays drums. He was with Van Morrison on Moon Dance and
14:38Tupelo Honey, St. Dominic's Preview. He was with Steve Miller for 28 years on all those records. And,
14:44and Joe Walsh and Frampton and on and on. And David Berard, I've known since I was 19. He plays bass
14:50and sings with me. We met when he was with Dr. John, who he was, you know, with for almost 40 years.
14:55And between Mac and Etta James and BB King and the Neville brothers, all of whom I had played with,
15:02you know, kind of got my start with those guys. And I was on tour with them after he had played with
15:08them. So it was kind of cool when we met, we had this immediate connection. And of course,
15:12Alan Toussaint was our other connection. And James Pennebaker is playing guitar and a bunch of
15:20instruments. James is a wonderful utility player, great fiddle player as well as guitarist and steel
15:26player. He can play anything you give him with strings. He's, he's wonderful. And I met him on
15:31the set of Austin City Limits when we did that about 30 years ago. He was with Leroy Pornel on that show,
15:39but he was with Delbert and just so many artists he's toured with and recorded with. I can't even
15:45begin to mention. And the ladies are so wonderful. They're such a big part of the band and the show,
15:50you know, both from Nashville and Catrice Ford is wonderful. I found Jackie Wilson through James
15:57Pennebaker and, and Catrice through, through Jackie. And that's how that all came about. And it's just
16:03such a wonderful group of people and they're fun to be around too, you know, I'm sure it's a fun show.
16:09It is a really fun show. It's really fun for me every night. So I think that's the thing that comes
16:14across as much as anything else. I think it's disarming to see someone having a lot of fun.
16:21And I think a lot of times people come in expecting one thing and, and leave with a, you know, feeling
16:27another way. And I, that's, that's a good thing. So cool. Love it. Love it. And of course, you're the son of the legendary Jim Croce.
16:35Do you remember him at all? You were so young when he passed. You know, I was very fortunate to have
16:55a lot of home recordings. He recorded everything because he was always writing or hanging out with
17:01friends and wanting to capture a song that he, you know, he was going to play at a, at a show. So, you
17:07know, when I was born, he hadn't yet recorded his first, his first album. And it was a, really at a time,
17:16it was a kind of a make or break moment for him. He had to decide whether he was going to really put
17:24everything into being a musician and a writer and a performer and artist or get a, a real day job. You
17:30know, he had avoided it for almost 10 years. You know, he stayed in college as long as he could and
17:35got two master's degrees and came out and worked as many odd jobs as he could to avoid a real job
17:41because what he really wanted to do was play music, which he finally got to in the last 18 months of
17:46his life. You realize like everything you know of his was written, recorded and toured in 18 months.
17:54So, yeah, I'm really fortunate to be able to have those home recordings and get to know him through
18:01his conversations with friends, family. To me, it's really special. And the other thing that really
18:08came about at an early age was my recognition of, of the music that he left, not just the music he
18:14wrote and created and recorded, but his record collection. It was profoundly influential and one of
18:20his jobs was being a DJ and he had such a variety of music. You know, as a kid, I lost my sight at four
18:28and being turned on to Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder and all of the great blind, uh, blues artists
18:34of the twenties and thirties and forties and fifties, they were, it was all really influential. Ray Charles
18:41was my gateway drug. But, but after that, it was like, it was like, there was so much good music of all
18:48genres. That's what really sparked my interest in music. I didn't hear, uh, Ray Charles being
18:54different than the Rolling Stones or Lee Dorsey or Fats Waller or, uh, Ellington or Stevie Wonder.
19:01It was all great, beautiful. It was, it was, uh, soulful. Hank Williams was soulful and Jimmy Rogers
19:08was soulful and the best music is soulful, regardless of, of where it comes from. And so,
19:15that was what really inspired me to want to do what I do. How did you know you had the gift? When did you
19:23know? I don't know that I ever thought I had the gift. I felt like I had the patience to practice.
19:33I was inspired to want to, to practice piano and I practiced, you know, five, six hours a day,
19:40every day. It was a joy. And as I got better at the instrument, it became a lot easier to practice
19:46because I was practicing for a goal. Oh, I want to be able to play this, this style, or I want to play
19:51this, this piece. I was never interested in copying note for note, a piece of music. So, you know, the
19:59first real kind of heavy style of music that was like very complicated and physically demanding was
20:05stride piano. So, in guy, with guys like, uh, James P. Johnson, Willie the Lion Smith and, and Fats Waller,
20:13they had bigger hands than I have. They, they could reach these thirteenths. They could reach these
20:18tents and with their eyes closed. For me, it was like, I can only reach those in certain keys, you
20:22know? And so it became, for me, a way to, how do I, to learn? How do I, how do I access this? This is
20:30some of the most challenging music of the twentieth century. How do I learn how to do this? And it was
20:34all by ear. And it, it came through simplifying it, you know? It came through simplifying it just as
20:41rock and roll simplified the boogie woogie of the thirties and forties. You know, I learned what made it
20:47work, never tried to play it note for note, not that I necessarily could in the case of, you know, some of
20:54those players, but I wanted to be able to understand how it worked. What, and, and same thing with music
21:02in general. It's not just how to play it, but like, why does it make me feel like this? You know, it's the
21:09same thing in reading a great story or a poem or even watching a great film is wondering, like, what is
21:17it that makes me feel this way about this scene? It's not immediately obvious, but it's emotional.
21:25And I don't think I'm the only one that feels this way. And that's what I love about music.
21:30Love it. And how old were you when you started the piano?
21:34I started playing when I was just a baby. I mean, I was crawling up to the keys and as long as I can
21:43remember, I was, I was, you know, playing. And when, after I lost my set, I had a little transistor radio
21:49set to the mighty 690. And it was like a kind of a top 40 radio station and broadcast out of Tijuana.
21:57And I would hear a song and this 1970s. So I would hear a song by the Stones or ELO or Elton John or
22:06McCartney or John Leonard, someone, whoever was on the charts at the moment and run to the piano and
22:11and try and play along. And it was in that, that I, you know, started to understand
22:17popular music and the form and, and how it worked. And it became sort of an understanding of more than
22:23just the, the mechanics of it. And you couldn't see and you still kept playing. Of course. Yeah. I mean,
22:31when you're moved by something emotionally, when you're, when you're inspired, inspiration doesn't
22:37come from vision or from hearing. It comes from your heart. It comes from your emotion of, of, of
22:46your mind and what you're thinking and how it, how profound it might be to you in a moment,
22:51in any given moment. You know, um, it's why, you know, people have asked, what's your favorite song?
22:56What, you know, do you have a favorite artist? No, music is, is about emotion and, and mood. And we need
23:04to, I think really in, in thinking of, of things that way, really just understand, at least for myself,
23:12I do, that every day I'm going to have a different favorite, you know, every hour I might, within the
23:18hour. I mean, I might hear something and then it, and I want to, I'm like, oh, there's another song
23:23that reminds me of this. And, and then I'm like, oh, this is so great. How can any, you know, and then I
23:29reach out to a friend who's also loves this. And I'm like, isn't this amazing? Like, how did they
23:34do this? How did they make this feel this way? You know? And I, I'm just, I'm a student of, of life
23:42and music and art. And so I will always be interested in, in understanding and trying to understand at
23:49least. And by the time, was it, by the time you were 21, you played with both B.B. King and Ray Charles?
23:56I did. It really started, so when I was 16, I got to play with a guy named Floyd Dixon.
24:03He was a boogie woogie piano player and songwriter, famous for his drinking songs. He, he wrote wine,
24:09wine, wine, and, and a hay bartender and, and one scotch, one bourbon, one beer. And he was a fixture
24:16on the Central Avenue LA scene. And he heard me play in San Diego and, and asked if I would open the
24:23shows for him. So I started opening shows for him. And, uh, there were a number of, of kind of
24:30well-known blues 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 and, and whatever you do, always get paid in cash and,
24:45you know, things like this. And he would, he would tell me these, you know, great old stories of
24:50hanging out with this person or that person. And, and he was just an eccentric. He was a total
24:55character. And that kind of led to giving me a certain amount of confidence, you know, as a,
25:00as a player. It was shortly after I was, you know, running around doing those, those shows with him
25:06that a woman named Mae Axton heard me play. Mae Axton wrote Heartbreak Hotel for Elvis. She's also
25:12Hoyt's mother and, um, just a really wonderful, uh, woman. She heard me play and called up Jack
25:20Clement, Cowboy Jack and said, you got to hire this kid. And I was 17. That was my first session.
25:27And so, you know, I'll be honest. It was, that was my very first session. I didn't know what I was
25:33walking into and he's in Nashville. He flies me to Nashville and I'm walking into the studio and
25:41Jerry Lee Lewis is walking out and I don't realize I'm filling in for Jerry Lee Lewis. And I'm like,
25:47we're recording all, and I get in there and it's Elvis's band. If you're not familiar with Cowboy
25:52Jack Clement, he was the engineer and producer of the Million Dollar Quartet in Memphis on Sun Records.
25:59He was staff producer, engineer, songwriter, you know, bon vivant for Sun Records from 1953 to 1960,
26:08and worked with all of those artists. And most notably Johnny Cash, who he worked with
26:12for as long as he was alive. So when I walk in knowing this history, I'm, I'm looking at James
26:20Burton and, and, and, and Tut and Jerry Sheff and it's like Elvis's band, his 68, you know, band. I'm
26:28like, oh my God. I think after that session, I was like, I know what I need to practice. I don't think I
26:35was great. I think I did a fine job, you know, but, but obviously he had, you know, he had some of the
26:41best people in the field doing this recording. And I, what I really took away was, A, I know what
26:47I need to practice and, and, and B, I think that this is going to lead me down a path that's kind of
26:56unique in that I may not be a celebrity because of doing this. I'm outside the box. There's not really
27:03another piano player who's my age, who's doing what I do now. I mean, I was drawing from a lot
27:12of different places in that case, from like the rockabilly and rock and roll and that kind of a
27:17boogie piano style that Jerry Lee and, and little Richard and Fats Domino were famous for in the 50s.
27:23That was where that came in handy. But of course the new Orleans music was, was always a part of,
27:29of, of, of my heart. And it was really in that moment that I realized I might not fit into like
27:37a box very easily. This is not necessarily going to be easy, especially because I didn't want to use
27:43my father's name and fame to propel myself. I needed to do it on my own abilities. I needed to do it because
27:54people heard me and said, he's great at what he does. That's how it happened because I couldn't
27:59have gone out on the road with B.B. King without having built that confidence and having prepared
28:06for that. Same thing with Ray Charles or Aretha or James Brown or, or Willie or any of the people
28:11that I've been so fortunate to, to, uh, have sat in with or played with or, uh, written with. Leon
28:18Russell was a, uh, person who I was always, you know, fan of. Leon had this wonderful, um, style.
28:26I really understood it because of my record collection as a kid. He and I had the same record
28:33collection. So it was like when we met and like started connecting before we ever wrote together,
28:39Leon and I would just, could just talk about piano players for hours, you know, bore everyone else around
28:44us, but be completely, you know, wrapped in this, in this, uh, amazing conversation that, that inspired
28:51us both, you know? So that's kind of how we, we came to work together. What's Willie Nelson like?
28:57Well, it's been a while since I've seen him, but he is one of the few people that I could say that
29:03offstage and onstage, he's the same man. He is what you, what you see is what you get. He's a real,
29:09down to earth, funny, uh, irreverent, generous human being. And you've written for so many people
29:17too. Tell us a little bit about that. I think sometimes if, if you're writing for a film or
29:22television or you're writing for an artist, you know, I spent years, a period of time where I wasn't
29:28touring as much. And, and, you know, this career is, is a rollercoaster ride. Being a musician, even some
29:34of the most famous musicians, you know, have ups and downs in their careers. And for me, it was a,
29:41one of those down periods where I was, I was, um, you know, this is all I can do. I'm a musician. I'm a,
29:47I've worked in publishing and I've worked as a, as a musician and, and running a small, uh, indie label,
29:54and I understand how, how this business works. But it was in that time that I really started doing a lot of
30:02sessions, uh, in 2008, 2009, um, when I first moved to Nashville, um, doing all kinds of, of unusual
30:11projects from K-pop to, you know, working with Japanese artists, um, doing, uh, commercials for,
30:18uh, for Asia through Japanese agencies in Tokyo and writing for the Olympics and writing for this and
30:24that it was really came about in an unusual fashion. And it was also in that time, I was
30:32collaborating probably 95 co-writes. I saw, looked at my calendar not long ago. It was, it was 95 co-writes
30:40one year, 92 the other. In that two or three year period, I was just working with someone almost every
30:48day of the week, you know, and I got really good at the formula, you know, it's, this song is for so
30:55and so, uh, they want a song that sounds exactly like their last hit, but a little different, you know,
31:00how do you make it exactly like their last hit without, you know, you know, how do you do that?
31:06Well, you, you have to really listen to what was good about the hit song and then, and then kind of,
31:13uh, reverse engineer it in a way, you know, and even though that's not my preferred way of writing
31:20by any means, it was a learning, uh, experience and I love learning and I love the challenge of,
31:27of writing with a theme or an artist in mind because it gives me the ability to contribute to
31:35the greater good. So great, so great. What does music do for people?
31:40I think at its best music stops time. I think music has the ability to completely captivate an
31:48audience in a number of ways, but in the live setting, it allows people to completely forget
31:54about their day, completely forget about the outside world outside of that venue and be at one and,
32:03unified with everyone in that space. There are very few spaces where we all agree
32:10in a space for listening to music and hearing music. That is one of those places where we can
32:15all agree because we're being moved emotionally. I think the other side of how music is really, um,
32:22powerful in this way and stops time is that when you hear a song that moves you and there are certain
32:30things going on in your life, whether you're a teenager and emotional about, about everything or you're,
32:36you know, or you're in your twenties and you don't really know what your future is going to be or
32:40in your thirties and wondering whether the path you took is the right one. It doesn't matter what age
32:46you are. When you hear a song and it becomes sort of identified with that time in your life and that
32:54song doesn't need to have been written at that time. It could be a hundred years old. It could be,
33:00it could be the number one song on the chart or it could be something that is just a deep cut on a
33:07record that moves you and you hear it and forever time has stood still. You are in that space when you
33:15hear that song. I, I think there were times where I've had this happen in a really curious fashion in
33:25that, for example, when I was a kid, Cat Stevens was popular on the radio and I always felt a
33:31connection because my father had known him and, and he gave me this, this really beautiful book,
33:37children's book for, of teaser and the fire cat. And it was, it was lost. It was lost in a fire. So I had this
33:44very personal connection to that music, but completely outside of family and just time and the era of which this
33:53music was created and the, the art was created. I was on a trip with my late wife and we were in Turkey
34:00and we're in this little dive bar on the coast of, of Turkey. And all, the only album they have is
34:09Cat Stevens and it's that album. And, and I'll tell you, it was in that moment where like that music
34:16in that moment, all of a sudden it wasn't my childhood anymore. It was my, it was, I was in my, you know,
34:22late twenties and this was a new experience. And all of a sudden the memory of it as a child,
34:29it was erased and replaced by the memory of being in this moment where this is the only
34:34thing that they play is this one cassette, you know? And so, you know, you ask me, uh, how music
34:41affects us. And it, you know, of course it affects us in all different ways, but I think the most profound
34:46thing about music is that it stops time. Time in a bottle like someone wrote. Yeah, absolutely.
34:54The fire too. Another thing you've been through with all you've been through, how do you stay
35:00positive in life since this is life minute, life tips we go over as well. You know, I think that we
35:06have a choice every day about how we want to react to the things around us and how we choose to
35:14digest them, you know, emotionally and, and psychologically. And how do we come to terms
35:20with the world around us every day? And, and I found that through humor and kindness and forgiveness,
35:30I'm able to look at the world in a really positive way. And I can see that, you know, you need to deal
35:37with those, those parts of life that are painful. You can't just disregard them. You can't just put them in
35:43a box and put them away. You have to look at it all. You have to investigate your, your experiences and, and give
35:51them their, their due because, um, it's just, they become part of who we are. And if we don't investigate
36:00that, then we kind of lose track of who we are and why we feel certain ways. And so I think that by being
36:08open and aware and forgiving and having a sense of humor that we, we always, uh, find a way through.
36:17Good answer. How's your mom doing? She's doing pretty well. She has Alzheimer's and she has had a
36:25speech aphasia for about eight years. And she's not really able to communicate any longer, but she can
36:33say yes. And, which is the opposite of what she said when I was growing up. And, and I'll be honest,
36:41she's very, very happy. My stepfather is a wonderful, wonderful human. I love him dearly. And, and I talk
36:47to him, uh, multiple times a week and talk to her, even though she doesn't, isn't able to really say much.
36:53And one of the amazing things about the brain that I've come to see and learn is, you know, she's very
36:59present when I'm, when I'm with her. Um, she's not able to say anything. That changes when I start
37:06playing a song and she, she can sing any song. She can't speak, but she can sing.
37:14If it's one of my dad's songs, one of my songs, uh, you know, I heard her playing guitar and singing
37:32this Leonard Cohen song that had like 15 verses. And, and I'm just like completely in awe of the
37:42fact that she's still able to play finger style guitar and she's still, uh, able to sing a song
37:49all the way through, but she can't talk. And so, um, wherever possible, whenever possible, I bring her
37:59out and have her join me on stage and, um, sing a song or two. And I know she loves it still. And it's,
38:06it's really special because we never, we never played music together when, when I was growing up,
38:10you know, she sort of lost her voice and had, um, uh, vocal cord surgery and as in, in the eighties.
38:17And so she never really sang after that. It wasn't until she couldn't speak that she started to sing.
38:24Wow. That's amazing. Wow. And what do you mean she said no to you when you're young? I was going to ask
38:30you that, like, she's the one who must've noticed when you're a baby, like, oh my gosh, she has the gift.
38:35Two things about that. One is that when I say that she said no to me, she was a, uh, very busy person.
38:44She was a workaholic, you know, she was, uh, trying to manage the legacy of my father's music,
38:50which was not easy. And there were a lot of lawsuits and things through my childhood that were,
38:55that were really difficult for her. She also had gone through a lot with, you know, because of what
39:01happened to me and the consequences of, of the blindness and where it all came from. She was,
39:08you know, vice consulate of Costa Rica. She had, she ran restaurants and bars. She had nightclubs.
39:14She was a really busy person. And so I think that because of that, she couldn't say yes as often,
39:23you know, or she didn't. And so, no, I heard a lot more often than yes. Can I do this? No. Can I,
39:31can I go here? Uh, no. And then, and then, and then she'd think about it and go, no, it's okay. Yeah.
39:38You know, she was supportive of your music career. You know, it, she was supportive of my music,
39:44um, at a certain point. I think that she really wanted me to go to college and it was not that I
39:51didn't want to go to college because I love learning. It was that I knew what I wanted to do. And so I think
39:59by my, by the time I was 15, I was good enough. I think it, I think I had gotten to a place, um,
40:07as a musician that was, I think, I think she felt like, okay, I, he can, he can make this work.
40:14I think before then, you know, she didn't know. She knew it wasn't going to be easy. And she knew that
40:19like, I'm really stubborn and I wasn't going to play my dad's stuff. And that wasn't where I wanted to go.
40:26I wanted integrity. You know, there wasn't going to be integrity if I just jumped into playing Leroy
40:31Brown. So it was, I think in that, that she was protective, but also encouraging. And then at a
40:40certain point she knew that like, this is, yeah, you've got something. And, and, and then she really
40:47became proud of, of what I am. And I think she, you know, she told a lot of people, well, you know,
40:54well, what is his music like? And, and she was so supportive at a certain point, you know,
41:0018 years old, 19 years old. She's like, if you, if you like Jim, you're going to be blown away.
41:05He is next level, you know, piano player, and you're going to love it. And she was my biggest
41:12cheerleader for, for a period of time, you know? And I think that, you know, we had a,
41:19like all families, we had, um, challenging times and there were ups and downs and that's just the
41:24way families are. But, you know, when I discovered that she had the speech aphasia and that she was,
41:31you know, it was, it was, um, degenerative and, and I could really, really hear it. It,
41:36it brought us closer and it changed our dynamic as a, as a family and, and as, as friends, you know?
41:42That's beautiful. And she did good. Thank you. Amazing. Anything else you want to tell us that
41:51I didn't cover? The thing I was thinking about, I was sitting with a friend last night and we were,
41:58we were talking about, about just life in general. And he, he's a journalist and we weren't talking as
42:05me being interviewed by him. It was just that I've done thousands of interviews and so many of them
42:12focus on the, on the, the tragedy, you know, and then tragedy struck. And then you've been through
42:19this and this and this. And I just want people to know that, that I'm in love, that I have a new
42:26chapter, that life is great. And I don't, I, it, it hurts me to know that, that like to, to think
42:34that people think that, you know, that they should pity me in some way because I feel so grateful to
42:40have a new lease on life and love and happiness and, and a future forward. So I just think it's
42:47really important that people know that, but also in their own lives know that it's absolutely possible.
42:53Yeah. That's beautiful. I love it. Oh, I'm so happy for you too.
42:57Yeah. I don't think that I just, but you're just aura is so positive. So, so I, you know,
43:03but you have been through a lot.
43:04Yeah, of course.
43:04I'm so happy that you, you're with somebody else.
43:07Oh, thank you.
43:08Want to tell us more about that?
43:09No. She, bro, she loves the, she loves getting credit, but I don't think, you know, I think that
43:17it's, it's kind of interesting. I had such a difficult time with
43:22celebrity growing up. Um, you know, it was hard to have an identity of my own with,
43:28with a father who was so kind of iconic as, as my father, father was. And as much as I loved music
43:36and, and realized that I needed to have a certain amount of, of recognition to be able to make another
43:44record and go on tour and, and fill the seats that are, you know, I struggled for so many years
43:53writing this, you know, balancing act of how do I stay true to myself and true to the music and also
44:03be a public figure. It was the challenge of the first half of my life or more was,
44:10uh, was finding this way of, of dealing with, uh, notoriety or recognition. And I never felt famous.
44:18I never embraced it. I looked for inspiration. I looked for a way to be great at what I do.
44:25So it was at a certain point, some years back, maybe six years ago, seven years ago, where I realized,
44:32I need to let people know that, you know, that I'm doing something that's really unique. I want
44:39people to know it. I'm proud of it. And I'm proud of who I am. And I think that it took me a long time
44:46to feel that way. And I think that's, um, something a lot of people go through in, in, in this world in
44:53all different ways, not even, uh, having nothing to do with, with, uh, fame or celebrity, but just feeling
44:59a sense of, of, of peace with themselves and feeling worthy of recognition and worthy of
45:06love. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, you are excellent and you are different and you're so beautiful.
45:14I love you. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm so glad that you, you know, glad that you came to that
45:20realization. Well, thank you. To hear more of this interview, visit our podcast,
45:25Life Minute TV on iTunes and all streaming podcast platforms.