It’s been three years since the release of the film documentary “These Dreams: The Jim Croce Story,” and longtime plans for a feature film on the famed singer-songwriter are currently on hold.
But if Hollywood still hopes to do a big-screen treatment on Croce, whose 1973 death came only 18 months after his first hit record, the real-life story of his singer-songwriter son — A.J. Croce — should make for an equally compelling feature film.
“I’ve had a lot of interest in docs and biopics of my father, though I’m waiting for the right people to be involved,” said A.J., who brings his “Croce Plays Croce” tour to Southern California Sept. 18-20. “The only film I’m involved with right now is a documentary is about me. I’m not sure when it will be finished. There is still some filming and editing to be completed.”
A.J. (short for Adrian James) was not yet 2 years old when his father died in a plane crash following a concert in Louisiana. Two years later, while growing up in San Diego, A.J. lost his vision in both eyes after being brutally beaten by the then-boyfriend of his mother, Ingrid Croce.
Undaunted, A.J. soon began playing piano, an instrument on which he quickly displayed prodigious skills. He taught himself by playing along to songs on the radio by Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones and Elton John, and by listening to albums in his late father’s collection, including classic releases by Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder, the world’s two pre-eminent piano-playing blind singer-songwriters.
A.J.’s performing career began when he was 12 and was paid $20 to play songs by Charles, Sam Cooke and a few originals at a friend’s party.
“I knew then I never had to go to school again!” A.J. said in a 1993 San Diego Union-Tribune interview. “From that point on I was really focused. I was motivated to do music for the rest of my life.”
While Jim Croce had scored eight consecutive Top 40 hits and five Top 10 hits — including the tender “Time in a Bottle (which he had written about A.J.) and the romping “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” — his earnings had been minimal because of onerous music industry contracts he had signed. As a widowed single mother, Ingrid struggled to make ends meet and spent more than a decade embroiled in litigation before finally wrestling back the rights to Jim Croce’s recordings and song publishing in 1985.
That same year saw Ingird open Croce’s Restaurant & Jazz Bar in downtown San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter, which remained open through 2013. A.J. frequently played there and soaked up as much information as he could from local music luminary Daniel Jackson and such visiting performers as blues stalwart Floyd Dixon, with whom Croce began touring at the age of 16. It was also then that he joined The Hottentots, a ’60s-styled San Diego garage band.
Within a few months after that, A.J. became the youngest member in Romy Kaye & The Swinging Gates, a band that specialized in swing, R&B and jump-blues. A.J. dropped out of John Muir High School in Kearny Mesa during his senior year, in order to focus entirely on music.
At 17, he did his first recording session in Nashville where he was teamed with guitar ace James Byron, drummer Ronnie Tutt and the other former members of Elvis Presley’s TCB Band.
‘I just loved it all’
“It was a real eye-opener, because I was filling in on piano for Jerry Lee Lewis. He walked out of the session and I walked in,” recalled A.J., whose deeply introspective 11th solo album, “Heart Of The Eternal,” was released last year.
“I was just a kid. But what I realized then was that I was going to be doing something a little different than other folks in my age group. The music I was drawn to was all over the map. I loved rock ‘n’ roll, blues, jazz, funk, soul, gospel, country. I just loved it all.”
Shortly before he turned 19. A.J. hit the road opening shows for blues icon B.B. King. It was a heady experience, if not quite heady enough.
“I thought everything was going so slow, and I was in a rush,” A.J. said. “I was in a rush to make a record, tour, and all of that stuff. I didn’t have a manager or an agent or anything. After I toured with B.B., I got a (music) publishing deal and I started working with (then-Humphreys Concerts by the Bay promoter) Kenny Weissberg, who became my manager.”
Weissberg, who is now retired, recalls their partnership vividly.
“Ingrid invited me to see A.J. at Croce’s when he was 19 and he was phenomenal,” Weissberg said. “I set out to find him a manager and got a bunch of experienced music moguls to come see him in San Diego. All of them were impressed but didn’t add him to their rosters, saying to me: ‘You should manage him.’
“I did and we had 21 fascinating and productive months together. Ultimately A.J. needed a full-time management company and I wasn’t ready to leave Humphreys. I have dozens of terrific memories from those developmental times with him. It was a whirlwind, and A.J. and I remain friends 35 years later.”
Weissberg was instrumental in getting A.J. a national concert booking agent and a record deal. Then came an appearance on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” a Levi’s jeans commercial and tours with legendary artists.
“All of a sudden,” A.J. said, “I was opening concerts for all these amazing artists who were heroes of mine, like Ray Charles, James Brown, Taj Mahal and the Neville Brothers. I got a multi-album record deal and started making my first album in L.A. with people like Ry Cooder and Jim Keltner.”
A.J. was, understandably, elated. He was also conflicted.
“It was interesting living in San Diego at the time,” he said. “I felt like I couldn’t really be sharing all this stuff with people there, because it felt like I was bragging about these crazy things that were happening for me. On the one hand, I couldn’t believe the experiences I was having. And on the other hand, I felt like I had to keep it a secret.”
One thing A.J. did not keep secret was that he had no intention of playing any of his father’s songs, despite multiple lucrative offers were to do so.
“However great their parents might be, no one wants to be just like them,” A.J. said in his 1993 Union-Tribune interview.
“I decided to go into a field that my father was extremely successful at. But I think our music is different enough that what I hope for most in the comparisons people might make is that — once I’m the age he was when he was writing such great songs — my songwriting is (considered) somewhere as good as his was; that the music can be compared in a qualitative way.”
Sharing his dad’s music
True to his word, A.J. resolutely forged his own artistic path — even as he played an increasingly key role behind the scenes in overseeing his father’s recorded legacy and music publishing rights.
About five years ago, with nine solo albums and countless headlining tours under his belt, A.J. finally felt comfortable enough to launch his first “Croce Plays Croce” tour to salute the songs of the father he barely knew. He had laid the groundwork with a 2012 concert at Croce’s that marked the first time he had publicly performed his dad’s sings.
His decision three years later to debut “Croce Plays Croce” coincided with the 50th anniversary of such classic Jim Croce songs as “I Got a Name” and “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim.” The “Croce Plays Croce” concerts mix some of A.J’s own songs with a dozen or so classics and deep album cuts by his dad, along with anecdotes and archival video clips.
“I thought: ‘Let’s try this out and see how I can put a show together that would be really satisfying for me every night, and that had enough room to improvise so that I could feel that it was really enjoyable and interesting’,” A.J. explained. “I feel like I’ve been able to share his music and bring it to a new generation.”
A.J. will take his “Croce Plays Croce” tour to Canada, Europe and Australia next year for the first time. But his current fall dates mark the final “Croce By Croce” performances in the U.S. for the foreseeable future and, perhaps, ever.
“I don’t know that I’m going to make it better than what I am doing now,” A.J. said. “And I’ve already played this tour for twice as long my dad’s actual career lasted. So, I felt like it was time to leave on a high note.
“If I can make it as special as it’s been and don’t feel like I’m repeating myself, then I’m not saying never. And I’m not saying I’m not gonna do any of his songs again. I’m more than happy to play his music in my shows. They’ve become a part of me in a way I wouldn’t have expected.
“But I don’t want to feel obligated to play his hits every night. I want it to be a joy.”
Joy is what A.J. has experienced over the years with his music and his memorable songwriting and recording collaborations with such Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees as Leon Russell and Allen Toussaint.
Soul-numbing shock and grief is what he experienced when his wife of 24 year, Marlo Gordon Croce, died suddenly in 2018. He became a single father to their two adult children.
A.J., 51, spoke last week for more than 80 minutes from his home in Nashville, where he has lived since 2015. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: When you were a teenager in San Diego playing with The Hottentots and Romy Kaye’s band, what were you thinking?
A.J.: I knew I wanted to do it for a living. I knew that, if I kept practicing, I could be great at what I did. And so, I just practiced all day, every day.
Q: After you signed your first record deal, what were your long-term goals?
A.J.: I just wanted to have enough recognition to be able to make another record and do another tour, because I needed to. I didn’t have an inheritance from my father. He died broke. So, it was a fact that I needed to play. And I was never above playing a private party, or a wedding, or a small club, or anything. I was ready to work hard and do whatever I needed to in order to keep going.
At some point around 2009, I got audited, and it turned out my CPA had been really irresponsible. I (had a legal battle) for eight years, and it was one of the most stressful times of my life. It ended up with me leaving California and moving full-time to Nashville, where I had already been splitting my time between San Diego. I had to sell my house in San Diego as part of my settlement with the IRS. Quite honestly, it was a quagmire.
Q: Did moving to Nashville work out the way you hoped?
A.J.: It was great. There is such a spirit of (musical) collaboration there. I was meeting all these wonderful songwriters. I was signed (as a songwriter) to EMI and was doing about 80 co-writes a year, mostly for country artists. They weren’t necessarily songs that I would perform, you know. But it was like a wonderful chance to become better at the art of writing and at completing songs, never leaving anything unfinished.
I played keyboard and wrote about half the songs on (“American Idol” winner) Bo Bice’s album. I did two or three K-Pop recording sessions. I played on hip-hop and Euro-dance records, and on country and blues sessions.
Q: The last interview we did was in 2021 after your album, “By Request.” came out. It featured songs entirely by other artists. You said it was cathartic for you, because you were still grieving the death of your wife and it was just too difficult then to express yourself in your own songs. Your new album, “The Heart Of The Eternal,” seems like the next step, where you are able to express those feelings.
A.J.: That’s very true. I’m also in a much better place in my life, emotionally, in my current relationship.
Q: I’ve learned never to make assumptions. But on your newest album, “Heart Of The Eternal,” the lyrics to at least six of the songs — “The Finest Line,” “The Best You Can,” “Turned Around,” “All You Want,” “Complications of Love” and “Didn’t You Want That” — seem to be drawing deeply from the same well of inspiration, and they feel very personal to me. Is that accurate? Do they feel more personal to you?
A.J.: I think they are. I don’t think that they’re more personal than individual songs on other records I’ve made. But as a group, I think that’s the case. “The Finest Line” addresses the idea of death and life, and the other side, and the fine line between them.
Q: As wrenching as it is to lose a loved one, has there been an unexpected silver lining?
A.J.: Absolutely, without a doubt. Marlo and I were together for 28 years and married for four. When you’re with someone that long and as close to them as I was, they’re a part of you. So when that wasn’t there, it took me a good 18 months before I could pull myself together. I really went off the deep end. I drank too much and was doing drugs. I was messed up for a period of time, and then I really pulled it together.
I realized I had this gift to be able to use my music as a way to come to terms with everything that was good, bad, and otherwise in life, and it was my solace. So, when you ask if there has been a silver lining, the answer is: “Yes.” I’m in a wonderful relationship that is healthy and I feel better than I ever have in my life.
A.J. Croce presents “Croce Plays Croce”
When: Friday, Sept. 18, through Sunday, Sept. 20
Where: Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, Cerritos; Humphreys Concerts by the Bay, San Diego; and The Orpheum Theatre, Los Angeles
Tickets: $48-$104
Online: ticketmaster.com