Early life Croce was born in
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, on September 28, 1971, the son of singers
Jim Croce, who was from an Italian Roman Catholic family, and
Ingrid Croce, who is Jewish. His father died in a plane crash in September 1973, at age 30, eight days before A.J.'s second birthday. Shortly before his father's death, in the summer of 1973, the family moved to San Diego. When he was four years old, he was temporarily blinded by the physical abuse of Ingrid's boyfriend. He was hospitalized for six months and was totally blind in both eyes for six years. Croce grew up listening to
Ray Charles,
Sam Cooke, a lot of
soul music, early
rock 'n' roll,
jazz, and
blues. He later regained sight in one eye. For junior high, Croce attended
Hebrew school. When he was 15, in 1987, the family's house burned down.
Career Croce's first paying gig was at the age of 12, when he was paid $20 to perform 25–30 minutes of
cover versions at a
bar mitzvah party. Croce played music for a living from the age of 15. By the age of 16, Croce was performing regularly at San Diego nightclubs as a sideman and band leader. Ron Goldstein and
Peter Baumann of
Private Music signed Croce to his first recording contract, at age 19. He recorded two albums for Private Music: his self-titled debut,
A. J. Croce, produced by
T-Bone Burnett and John Simon; and ''
That's Me in the Bar'', produced by
Jim Keltner, and featuring
Ry Cooder and
David Hidalgo. Croce's third album,
Fit to Serve, was recorded in 1998 in Memphis and produced by Jim Gaines, who produced
Van Morrison,
Carlos Santana, and the
Steve Miller Band. Songs on
Transit, released in 2000, were compared to the works of
The Beatles,
Elvis Costello, and
The Posies. In 2003, Croce launched his own record label, Seedling Records. Croce's next three albums were self-produced.
Adrian James Croce, Croce's only pop-oriented album won Best Pop album at the 2004 San Diego Music Awards. His 2006 album,
Cantos, on his own label, Seedling Records, features
Ben Harper. In 2009, his album
Cage of Muses was released on Seedling, garnering a 4-star review from
Rolling Stone. In 2012, he publicly performed an entire set of his father's songs for the first time. In 2013, Croce signed with
Compass Records and released
Twelve Tales. He recorded two songs with each of six producers in five U.S. cities over 12 months, releasing one song per month exclusively on iTunes in 2013. The full album was released in 2014. The album's producers were
Jack Clement,
Allen Toussaint,
Mitchell Froom,
Kevin Killen,
Tony Berg, and
Greg Cohen. Croce co-wrote a few of the songs on
Twelve Tales, including one song with
Leon Russell. In 2014, Croce spoke at TEDxLaJolla, an independently produced
TED. His 2017 album,
Just Like Medicine, according to
ABC News, "sounds like it was crafted with the influence of greats like
Van Morrison,
Bob Dylan and
Elvis Costello in mind". ==Personal life==