Taking his name from a Saturday Night Live character, ASTRONAUT JONES landed in the ROCK ON RADIO studios this past Sunday evening. This solo acoustic artist from Long Branch, NJ stopped by to discuss his soon-to-be-released CD, "Not An American Idol."

JONES, who's first name is Tony, began the evening by first explaining how he became ASTRONAUT JONES. "I was sitting around drunk with some friends one night, and a character on Saturday Night Live, a lounge-singing astronaut came on. He answered with one-word answers and my friends said "that's you," so I became ASTRONAUT JONES." The part that I myself found amusing was that when I looked him up online there were multiple people using the same moniker.

JONES began his musical "journey" at the age of five when he began playing piano. After drifting away from the piano, his mother enrolled him in the church choir. Being a young man, he began to tire of the choir. Upon approaching his mother on a way to remove himself from the church choir, which didn't go as well as he had hoped, she coerced him into becoming a hand bell ringer.

Finally, at the age of fifteen, he found a way out of the church scene... the guitar! JONES began taking lessons at a local establishment and has also studied at a music conservatory in New York City.

After spending time in a punk rock band (Muffled Crap), and a rock band (Exit 117), he launched a solo career. His soon-to-be-released solo CD, "Not An American Idol," which he has subtitled "Songs To Drink Beer To," is due for a late Feb./early March release.

On the show, we played several cuts from the CD as well as a one particular cut, "Plastic Jesus," which he performed live. This song invoked a large response from my listeners as the e-mails and instant messages began to come into the show in rapid-fire succession.

JONES also relayed to us his brush with fame on "The Howard Stern Show." Stern had asked listeners to submit parodies of the song "I'm A Gay Papa." JONES submitted his personal version and then told us that he was "shocked and almost crashed his car" when he was listening to Stern and heard his song! Stern has played it on a couple of occasions.

Look for ASTRONAUT JONES and his soon-to-be-released CD, "Not An American Idol," all over the tri-state area.

Check him out at www.myspace.com/astronautjonesmusic or at www.astronautjonesnj.com.

This Sunday, my guest is another Long Branch, NJ artist, singer/songwriter MELISSA CHILL (www.myspace.com/melissachill).

Turn on... Tune in... and as always... ROCK ON!