Adrian James "A.J." Croce (born September 28, 1971) is an American singer-songwriter. He is the son of Ingrid Croce and Jim Croce. Biography Croce was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, on September 28, 1971. His father died in a plane crash eight days before the boy's second birthday, and he and his newly widowed mother had to move to San Diego, almost 3,000 miles from his native city, with the rest of his family. Two years later, he was temporarily blinded as a result of abuse from his mother’s boyfriend. He later regained sight in one eye. When he was 15, the house in which he had lived for most of his life burned down. In 2018, his wife, Marlo Gordon Croce, died of a rare and sudden heart virus while he was in the midst of his own health scare. A.J. was left a single father to two children, a daughter, Camille, and a son, Elijah. Musical career Croce's first paying gig was at the age of 12, when he was paid $20 (worth $53.45 in 2019) to perform at a bar mitzvah party. By the age of 16, Croce was performing regularly at San Diego nightclubs as a sideman and band leader. Croce reflected, "I was into every kind of music... you might say I was unfocused, but I consider an eclectic taste in music to be the foundation of versatility." 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 is also the owner/operator of his own record label, Seedling Records. Croce's third album, Fit to Serve, was recorded in Memphis and produced by Jim Gaines, who produced Van Morrison, Santana, and the Steve Miller Band. Croce then made a musical change with the release of his album Transit. He explained, "I had been playing blues-based music for a long time, and I was ready to try something new." Transit was compared by critics to the work of John Lennon, Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, and Van Morrison. Glen Starkey of New Times labeled Croce "a song crafter of the first order". Croce's next three albums were self-produced. Adrian James Croce (Croce's