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NASHVILLE – Ayron Jones is turning up the volume and taking a closer look at the man behind the music. The Seattle-bred singer, songwriter, and guitarist will release Excuse Me on February 26, 2027, through Thirty Tigers, with the Nashville-recorded project bringing his hometown’s grunge roots into focus. Recorded with longtime collaborator Marti Frederiksen, whose credits include Aerosmith and Ozzy Osbourne, the album marks Jones’ first new music in three years. Leading the way is “Glad You Came,” a single that explores the pull of complicated relationships and the uncomfortable work of accepting responsibility for what happens within them.
For Jones, the connection between Seattle and Nashville offers room to bring his many influences together. Heavy, drop-tuned guitars and live drums underpin a record that draws from grunge, metal, blues, punk, soul, R&B, and hip-hop. His musical reference points stretch from Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, and Alice in Chains to Michael Jackson, Prince, and OutKast, with songwriting that confronts economic strain, isolation, anger, and uncertainty. Those themes carry a personal weight for an artist who has spent the past several years reconsidering both his public identity and the experiences that brought him here.
“My dad was a pimp and a gangster,” he says. “My mom was a gangster
“Not every connection is meant to last, but there’s beauty in the experience.”
“Glad You Came” introduces that perspective through a story about connection, self-discovery, and forgiveness. “‘Glad You Came’ is about those intense connections that pull us in, sometimes for reasons we don’t fully understand. Sometimes we lose ourselves in someone else, only to discover who we really are. That feeling is something I tried to embody in the music, with a dark, seductive edge rooted in the Seattle sound I grew up with. Not every connection is meant to last, but there’s beauty in the experience. Some are deep, some are raw and visceral, but they all leave their mark. And in the end, you can look back with a smile and say, ‘I’m glad you came.'”
The song also asks listeners to look inward before assigning blame. “It’s easy to point the finger and blame others for situations,” he says of the song’s meaning. “We chase after relationships or people because we’re trying to heal ourselves. We’re searching for an answer that lives outside ourselves. But at the end of the day, it’s all about you.”
That willingness to examine himself runs throughout Excuse Me. Jones broke through during the pandemic, reaching the top of Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart and earning Best New Rock Artist at the 2022 iHeartRadio Music Awards. His career has taken him across musical circles, including a performance on the Rolling Stones’ Paris bill before 70,000 people. But as the audiences grew, so did his questions about the expectations attached to success. Away from the stage, his life as a husband and father prompted him to examine relationships, past mistakes, and what remained when the demands of being a rock star fell away.
“I was becoming a character, but that character wasn’t truly based on me,” he continues. “It was something the industry put together to help sell records. This is me.”
The new album brings that reassessment into the studio, where Jones and Frederiksen built a project around the full range of his abilities. “I’m a guitarist, but I’m also a singer, songwriter and composer,” Jones continues. “This is the record where every part of my artistry comes together. The songwriting, the singing, the guitar playing, all of it. The album is a sign of the times and a proclamation simultaneously,” Jones affirms. “We have a lot of escape music right now. It’s happy and distracting music, but the price of eggs and gas are skyrocketing, and people are feeling pretty dismal. This record is a reflection of that.”
Jones’ connection to people navigating difficult circumstances began long before his recording career. Raised in Seattle amid instability, he found an outlet in music, first studying violin and then picking up the guitar at 13. Largely self-taught on guitar, he initially immersed himself in the blues, playing alongside older musicians before embracing the rock and grunge traditions that were also part of his upbringing. “My dad was a pimp and a gangster,” he says. “My mom was a gangster. I was a ward of the state. I’ve had to learn a lot of life lessons on my own and through trial and error. I’m a deeply contemplative person, and I’ve always been in tune with working class people in the streets. I want to be able to represent the voices of the people that don’t really have a voice.”
Seattle’s musical community helped him find his footing. Sir Mix-a-Lot supported the launch of his independent career, while playing guitar for Deep Cotton within Janelle Monáe’s Wondaland collective broadened his understanding of artistic possibility. Connections with Screaming Trees’ Barrett Martin, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, and Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan further linked his own path to the city’s musical history. Those experiences inform an album that considers what a lifetime in music has taught him—and what he still hopes to communicate.
“Excuse Me is the culmination of a lifetime dedicated to music,” Jones shares. “Everything I’ve learned, every stage I’ve stood on, every success and disappointment has shaped the artist I’ve become. Growing up in Seattle, I was surrounded by a musical legacy that taught me to embrace every influence, from grunge and blues to soul and hip-hop, and make it my own through rock and roll. This record carries the maturity of those experiences and a lifetime spent developing my craft. There’s something special about having a record like Excuse Me to share with the world. It’s a reflection of everything I’ve lived and the things I’ve come to understand along the way. At its heart, it’s about the human experience—life, death, love, loss, and finding peace in the acceptance of our own mortality. We’re living through uncertain times, but humanity’s been here before. This is just our turn. There’s comfort in knowing we’re not alone in what we’re going through, and beauty in recognizing how much we share. I wanted to make a record that speaks to that connection, that reminds us even in our darkest moments, hope is never truly lost.”
With “Glad You Came” out now and Excuse Me arriving in February, Jones is opening a chapter shaped by both self-examination and concern for the world beyond his own experience. The Nashville sessions gave those ideas a home; his Seattle roots supplied much of their musical foundation. As Jones explains, the people he hopes to reach are central to the record’s purpose.
“There are people who want to scream right now,” Jones says. “People are frustrated. People are scared. People are trying to hold onto hope and optimism. I wanted to speak to them.”
WEBSITE: www.AyronJonesMusic.com
TRACKLIST
Strike Of A Match
Glad You Came (metalic / soul vibes!)
Hollywood (facemelting awesome track, metalica meets lenny kravitz)
What You Need
A La Prochaine (Grungy shimmering guitar – pearl jam, alice in chains!)
Fate (bass heavy – reminds of deftones)
Freedom
When My Day Comes (what a chorus melody!!!)
Coming Of A New Age
Hang On
UPCOMING TOUR DATES
Dec 5 – Kent, WA – Accesso ShoWare Center
Dec 6 – Lincoln, CA – Thunder Valley Casino Resort
Aug 22 – El Reno, OK – Lucky Star Casino Outdoors – Concho KATTfest
Mar 11 – Nantes, Pays de la Loire – Stereolux
Mar 12 – La Rochelle, France – Le Crossroad
Mar 13 – Bordeaux, France – Le Rock School Barbey
Mar 14 – Toulouse, France – La Cabane
Mar 16 – Paris, France – Bataclan
Mat 18 – Lyon, France – Le Transbordeur
Mar 19 – Reims, France – La Cartonnerie
Mar 20 – Strasbourg, France – La Laiterie
