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Tony Lucca

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Tony Lucca
Background information
Birth nameAnthony James Lucca
Born (1976-01-23) January 23, 1976 (age 48)
Pontiac, Michigan, U.S.
OriginWaterford, Michigan, U.S.
Genres
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • guitar
Years active1991–present
Labels
Spouse
Rachel Lucca
​
(m. 2007)​
Websitetonylucca.com
Children1

Anthony James Lucca (born January 23, 1976) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is perhaps best known for starting his career on The Mickey Mouse Club. After the Mickey Mouse Club, Lucca went to Los Angeles for a brief career as an actor, then became a full-time musician. He has toured with several acts, including Maroon 5, Kelly Clarkson, *NSYNC, Marc Anthony, Sara Bareilles,[1] Matt Duke, Tyrone Wells, and the late Chris Whitley. He finished in third place on the second season (2012) of the American reality television singing competition talent show, The Voice, broadcast on NBC.

Early life

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Lucca was born in Pontiac, Michigan, the son of Sally and Tony Lucca.[2] Lucca is of Italian, Welsh, French, and English descent.[2] Lucca grew up around a large and musical extended family,[3] as his mother Sally was tenth of twelve children of the Detroit jazz piano player James "Jimmy" Stevenson.[4][5][6] Lucca grew up in Waterford, Michigan, and began singing at age 3[7] and child modeling at age 9.[2] When he was 12, he began playing in Detroit-area bands with his cousin, Cole Garlak.[4][7][8][9]

Professional and musical career

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Early career

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When Lucca was 14, he went to Detroit to audition for the Disney movie Newsies, only to find out the audition was for The Mickey Mouse Club instead.[3] Encouraged by his sister, he auditioned for the show and was picked for callbacks in Los Angeles.[2][3] In Los Angeles, he was selected along with 8 other kids to join the cast for the fourth season of the show. Lucca moved to Orlando, Florida, with his mother and lived in an apartment complex with other castmates and traveled back to Michigan between seasons.[2] He remained with the show for four seasons, until being let go during the seventh season when the show was canceled.

In 1995, after the cancellation of the Mickey Mouse Club, Lucca moved to Los Angeles to begin an acting career.[7] He lived with fellow Mickey Mouse Club castmate Keri Russell, his girlfriend at the time. Russell and Lucca were cast and played leads together on the Aaron Spelling-produced Malibu Shores,[10][11] a television teen drama series, which lasted for one season. During this time he filmed commercials for Levi Jeans, J.C. Penney, and Blockbuster Video.[2] He had minor success in movies, appearing in an NBC movie of the week, Her Last Chance with Kellie Martin and Jonathan Brandis,[12] as well as two independent features.[13] He left acting in 1997 to pursue music.

In 1997, Lucca self-released his first music album, So Satisfied, which he also co-produced.[4] In 1998, he launched his website www.tonylucca.com and began to sell his debut CD and its self-released follow-up, Strong Words Softly Spoken through the website and at live shows he later released two EPs and a limited series of Live & Limited CDs through his site; each CD sold was numbered and signed. In 2001 and 2002, he served as opening act for boy band NSYNC, which featured fellow Mickey Mouse Club co-stars Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez.

Lucca's third full-length album and his first commercially distributed, Shotgun, was released in 2004 in conjunction with Lightyear and New Vibe Records; the album was executive co-produced by JC Chasez, who Lucca toured with to support the album.[14] 2006 saw the release of Canyon Songs, recorded in both Laurel and Beachwood Canyons,[15] and Live in Hollywood, a live concert album; both albums were distributed by Rock Ridge Music. Come Around Again was released in 2008.

Lucca participated in a cooperative tour with Jay Nash and Matt Duke, which resulted in the 2009 EP entitled TFDI. The collaboration, which stands for "Totally Fuckin' Doing It"[16] was recorded in the Evanston, Illinois, studio SPACE during an impromptu visit to the studio, after the three artists formed a friendship during the tour.[7][17] Lucca briefly returned to acting in 2010, starring in a 901 Silver Tequila commercial, which was directed by the brand's founder Justin Timberlake.[18] He also played himself on an episode of Parenthood, appearing as a performing musician.[19] Lucca's sixth album was released in 2010, entitled Rendezvous With the Angels, on Rock Ridge Music. Solo, an acoustic CD composed of b-sides and previously unreleased recordings was released in November 2010, and given away for free in conjunction with Amazon.com's MP3 web store. Lucca recorded a second collaborative CD with Jay Nash and Matt Duke, TFDI II, which was released mid-2011.

The Voice and 222 Records (2012–2018)

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On February 5, 2012, Tony appeared on the Blind Auditions of the American reality talent show The Voice in its second season. He performed Ray LaMontagne's "Trouble", and all four judges hit their red "I Want You" button for him. He chose to join Adam Levine's team.[20] It was also in this show he reunited with fellow Mouseketeer Christina Aguilera. He advanced to the semi-finals, which he performed "How You Like Me Now" by The Heavy and moved on to the final round. For the final round on May 7, he performed Hugo's country-styled version of the Jay-Z song, "99 Problems". On May 8, 2012, Lucca made his last performance on the show duetting with fellow contestant Jordis Unga formerly of Team Blake on the Fleetwood Mac song, "Go Your Own Way". Later that night, it was announced he had placed third in the competition, barely placing ahead of Mann by one quarter of a percentage point and coming behind winner Jermaine Paul from Team Blake and first runner-up Juliet Simms from Team Cee Lo. Lucca was later signed to Adam Levine's record label, 222 Records.

Performances on The Voice
Show Song Original artist Order Result
Blind Audition "Trouble" Ray LaMontagne 9 All four chairs turned
Lucca joined Adam Levine's Team
Battles (Top 48) "Beautiful Day" (vs. Chris Cauley) U2 — Saved by Adam Levine
Live Show "In Your Eyes" Peter Gabriel 3 Saved (Public Vote)
Quarter-finals (First Week) "...Baby One More Time" Britney Spears 5
Semi-finals "How You Like Me Now?" The Heavy 1 Safe (108 Points)
Live Finale (Final 4) "99 Problems" Jay-Z 4 3rd Place
"Harder To Breathe" Maroon 5 11
"Yesterday" (with Adam Levine) The Beatles 7

Lucca released a six-song EP, With the Whole World Watching, on July 16, 2013. Lucca toured extensively following the release, including six dates on the Honda Civic Tour opening for Kelly Clarkson and Maroon 5.

Lucca joined Patreon in 2013. On November 12, 2013, while plugging Patreon on his YouTube channel, Tony announced he is no longer with Adam Levine's record label 222 Records. Excerpt: "Some of you know that recently I was signed to a fairly high profile record deal. -Super cool. What most of you don't know is that, said "record deal", has since come to an end. -Not as cool. Your basic record business 101 really..."

Tony Lucca then moved to Nashville, Tennessee to further develop his songwriting. He funded his 2015 album Tony Lucca via crowd-funding platform Kickstarter, also releasing a corresponding collection of songs called Made To Shine – The Kickstarter Sessions. Lucca would later share that the 2015 album took a personal toll on him, like "going through a really bad breakup,"[21] and told Billboard that after the record he "was in no hurry to get back in the studio" but instead elected to co-write as many songs as he could with Nashville collaborators.[22]

In 2018, Lucca partnered with Nashville startup company RootNote and began work on his new record Ain't No Storm, which he recorded with Nashville-based producer and former Wilco drummer Ken Coomer.[23] He released the first single and music video, "Everything's Changing," in November 2018. At the end of 2018, he signed a publishing deal with Demolition Music.[24]

Ain't No Storm (2019–present)

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Tony Lucca independently released Ain't No Storm on March 29, 2019. The album received critical acclaim, with PopMatters calling it an "expanding of his musical boundaries" and likening Lucca to contemporaries Amos Lee, Jason Isbell, and Ben Schneider.[25] Others called it "one helluva record," "highly crafted songwriting," and "more inspired than ever."[26][27][28][29]

Other ventures

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Many of Lucca's songs have been featured in various TV shows, including Friday Night Lights, Brothers & Sisters, Shark and Felicity and in the movie Open Range. He appeared in an episode of the E! True Hollywood Story series, covering his time spent on The Mickey Mouse Club in 2007.[30] He has performed numerous times on NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly as a part of the show's band.[9]

Personal life

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Lucca dated fellow Mouseketeer (and eventual Malibu Shores co-star) Keri Russell on-and-off for eight years.[31][32]

On July 7, 2007, Lucca married Rachel. He adopted her son and they later had a daughter together.

Discography

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Studio albums

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  • So Satisfied (1997)
  • Strong Words, Softly Spoken (1997, re-issued 1999)
  • Shotgun (2004)
  • Canyon Songs (2006; re-issued 2013 'Bonus Edition')
  • Come Around Again (2008)
  • Rendezvous with the Angels (2010)
  • TFDI – When I Stop Running with Jay Nash and Matt Duke (2011)
  • Solo (2011)
  • Under the Influence (2011)
  • Tony Lucca (2015)
  • Ain't No Storm (2019)

Live albums

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  • Live & Limited V3 (2005) – CD-R-only independent release; recorded February 2005 in Brooklyn, New York; limited to 300 copies
  • Live in Hollywood (2006) – digital-only independent release
  • Live at Jammin' Java (2011)

EPs

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  • So Far (2001)
  • Simply Six (2002)
  • Songs from the DVD "Anatomy of a Blackbird" (2005) – digital-only release
  • Through the Cracks (2006)
  • Close Enough (2008)
  • TFDI with Jay Nash and Matt Duke
  • TFDI II with Jay Nash and Matt Duke
  • With the Whole World Watching (2013)
  • Drawing Board (2014)
  • Made to Shine: The Kickstarter Sessions (2015)
  • Sessions Volume 1: Sun Studio (2016)
  • Sessions Volume 2: Muscle Shoals (2016)
  • TFDI – Beggars & Ballers with Jay Nash and Matt Duke (2017)
  • TFDI – The Minute You Get It with Jay Nash and Matt Duke (2017)

Singles

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List of singles, with selected chart positions, showing year released and album name
Title Year Peak chart positions Album
US
"Trouble" 2012 — Non-album releases by The Voice
"Beautiful Day" —
"In Your Eyes" —
"...Baby One More Time" 117
"How You Like Me Now?" —
"99 Problems" 58
"Yesterday"
(with Adam Levine) 		68
"Never Gonna Let You Go" 2013 — With the Whole World Watching
"Delilah (When the Lights Go Out)" 2014 — Tony Lucca
"Imagination" —
"Right On Time" —
"Home for the Holidays" — A Rock by the Sea Christmas: Volume Five
"Nashville" 2018 — Non-album single
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.

Selected filmography

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DVDs

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  • Anatomy of a Blackbird (2005) – recorded live at Mama Juana's in Los Angeles, California
  • A Night at The Mint (2009) – recorded live at The Mint in Los Angeles, California

References

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  1. ^ "Blackbird bio". Blackbird Artist Agency. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Evan Amos (May 19, 2011). "Evan Amos interview". Retrieved June 2, 2011.
  3. ^ a b c Brian Lush. "Rockwired interview". Rockwired. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
  4. ^ a b c "Lightyear bio" (PDF). Retrieved June 2, 2011.
  5. ^ Sam Stephenson (January 11, 2010). "Jimmy's Last Jam". Jazz Loft Project. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
  6. ^ Chris Smith (January 7, 2010). "Obituary: James "Jimmy" Stevenson". Press Democrat. Retrieved June 2, 2011.
  7. ^ a b c d "Tony Lucca Bio". tonylucca.com.
  8. ^ Vanessa Rose (August 20, 2006). "Artist Interview: Tony Lucca 8.20.06". 7duckets/mrvanessarose. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
  9. ^ a b "IMDb bio". IMDb. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
  10. ^ "'Extreme Couponing' gone too far? Expert offers tips on how to save big without obsessing". Daily News. New York. Archived from the original on March 21, 2011.
  11. ^ Todd Everett (March 7, 1996). "Malibu Shores Review". Variety. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
  12. ^ Carole Horst (April 7, 1996). "Her Last Chance Review". Variety. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
  13. ^ Emanuel Levy (March 29, 1997). "Take A Number Review". Variety. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
  14. ^ "Shotgun Album Listing". Lightyear. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
  15. ^ "Rock Ridge Store bio". Rock Ridge Music. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
  16. ^ Joe Lawler (December 15, 2010). "Tony Lucca: Beyond the TV sing-alongs". Des Moines Metromix. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
  17. ^ Courtney Devores (December 1, 2010). "Singer gives up solo standing for tour". Charlotte Observer. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
  18. ^ "901 Silver Tequila 'Improved by Use'". Adweek. July 28, 2010. Retrieved May 11, 2011.
  19. ^ "Charlotte Today feature". WCNC. March 11, 2011. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
  20. ^ Lisa Torem (July 29, 2010). "PennyBlack interview". pennyblackmusic. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
  21. ^ "The Voice alum Tony Lucca is inspired about making music again". FanSided. February 25, 2019. Retrieved May 10, 2019.
  22. ^ "'Voice' Alum Tony Lucca Premieres 'Come Around,' Talks Songwriting Hustle In Nashville". Billboard. Retrieved May 10, 2019.
  23. ^ Amanda (January 9, 2019). "Nashville Music Startup ROOTNOTE to Present in London at The Annual NY:LON Connect Conference". Nashville Music Guide. Retrieved May 10, 2019.
  24. ^ "Tony Lucca Signs With Demolition Music". December 17, 2018. Retrieved May 10, 2019.
  25. ^ "With 'Ain't No Storm', Tony Lucca Brings Nashville Influence to His Sound (album stream) (premiere)". PopMatters. March 25, 2019. Retrieved May 10, 2019.
  26. ^ "SONG PREMIERE: Tony Lucca Finds Hope with Soulful Americana Tune "Other Side of the Clouds" - Glide Magazine". glidemagazine.com. Archived from the original on May 10, 2019. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
  27. ^ Vigo, Phoenix Brown & Lars (April 22, 2019). "Music from Steve Earle, Matthew Mayfield, Lost Leaders, Tony Lucca, Kelly Augustine, Jonathan Stevens". Off-Center Views. Retrieved May 10, 2019.
  28. ^ "Anne Carlini – Exclusive Magazine – CD Reviews". annecarlini.com. Retrieved May 10, 2019.
  29. ^ "Blog- Take Effect Reviews". Take Effect. Retrieved May 10, 2019.
  30. ^ "IMDB actor listing". IMDb. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
  31. ^ John J. Moser (December 5, 2009). "Indie music takes Tony Lucca beyond Mickey Mouse career". The Morning Call. Retrieved June 2, 2011.
  32. ^ "Keri Russell bio". People. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
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