BOSTON -- At birth, Tony DeBlois weighed less than 2 pounds, became blind within days and was later diagnosed as autistic, but ignoring conventional wisdom, his mother's love uncovered his musical genius.

NewsCenter 5's Liz Brunner reported Tuesday that DeBlois plays 20 instruments and knows more than 8,000 songs. It's been said that our minds are a mystery, which is never more apparent than when you hear his story.

To hear DeBlois perform, one might never know the myriad of obstacles and death defying challenges he has faced in his lifetime.

"I feel special when I play this kind of music. I sort of blossom," he said.

DeBlois, 31, is blind and autistic, but his unfolding life's journey revealed a musical savant.

It was his mother who first noticed his musical ability at the age of 2, when she bought him a toy piano.

"The more music that we've given him, the more language we got out of him. I used to teach him vocabulary by singing songs to him," DeBlois' mother, Janice DeBlois, said.

Yet, he never really spoke conversationally until he went to the Berklee College of Music and graduated with honors, much to the amazement of all the so-called "experts."

Now, his extraordinary life is in the pages of a new book -- "Some Kind of Genius."

"I've always wanted to write a book for a long time. Anytime you write something out on paper, you relive every event," Janice DeBlois said.

It has truly been his mother's love that not only saved DeBlois from death when doctors suggested shortly after birth that she let her one-pound son die, but her unwavering determination to help him find his destiny.

"Some Kind of Genius" is dedicated, in part, to local musicians Bo and Bill Winiker, who happened to meet DeBlois 15 years ago at Skipjacks during one of their Sunday brunch performances.

"I feel like I'm in the company of a genius," Bo Winiker said. "When I first met Tony, he wasn't able to communicate with me through the spoken word, but we were able to communicate with music. Working with Tony has been the highlight of our career. I feel like I'm in the company of a genius."

Whether it was the devotion and tutelage of musicians like the Winikers or the other mentors along the way who believed in giving DeBlois a chance, his biggest dreamer has been and continues to be his mother.

"There's nothing that he doesn't think he can do. I open the doors for him, he proudly walks through them," she said.

DeBlois has recorded his fifth CD to go along with the book, "Some Kind of Genius."

He's launching both Tuesday night at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston. The Winiker Brothers Jazz Quartet will be joining him at both shows, which are at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.