Today, Seattle-bred rocker Ayron Jones announced his return with the new solo album, “Excuse Me”, due out on February 26th, 2027, via Thirty Tigers. Loud, visceral, and assertive, his unique blend of grunge, hard rock, metal, blues, punk, soul, R&B, and hip-hop collide inside a sound unmistakably his own.
Recorded in Nashville with longtime collaborator Marti Frederiksen (Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne), “Excuse Me” is raw, immediate, and full volume. His first new music in three years, Jones definitively steps away from industry expectations and leans fully into his grunge and metal DNA. “Excuse Me” is genre-spanning with heavy guitar, angsty lyrics, and his signature soulful swaggering vocals that are gritty in both sound and substance. Excuse Me is packed with working-class anthems that reflect Jones’ own journey through tough times while confronting the pressure, anger, and uncertainty of the world around him.
Alongside the announcement, Jones releases the first single “Glad You Came”, a searching examination of toxic relationships, personal accountability, and forgiveness.
Of the track, Ayron Jones shared:
“‘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’”.
“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”.
Watch the music video for “Glad You Came” below.
“‘Excuse Me’ is the culmination of a lifetime dedicated to music”, Jones shares, adding, “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”.
“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”.
Born and raised in Seattle, Jones grew up amid extraordinary instability. “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”.
Music first offered an escape, then became an obsession. After several years playing violin, he picked up the guitar at 13 and largely taught himself to play. He began as a blues purist, playing alongside older blues musicians, before recognizing that the rock and grunge sounds of his hometown were just as fundamental to his musical identity. Sir Mix-a-Lot helped launch his independent career, while an early experience playing guitar for Deep Cotton within Janelle Monáe’s Wondaland collective expanded his understanding of what an artist could be. He connected with Screaming Trees’ Barrett Martin, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, and Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan, and what followed was a career as expansive as the music itself.
Amid that rapid ascent, Jones increasingly felt he was playing the character of “rock star”, and he spent the years that followed questioning how much of that identity was actually his. As a husband and father, he examined relationships, personal accountability, past mistakes, and the process of figuring out who he is when the expectations surrounding him fall 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”.
“Excuse Me” is a bold statement from an artist making an album in which he fully recognizes himself, bringing together the many sides of an artist who has spent his career refusing to fit comfortably into a single musical world, while affirming his place as one of rock music’s brightest and most singular stars.
“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”.
Pre-order & pre-save “Excuse Me” here.
Tracklist:
1. Strike of a Match
2. Glad You Came
3. Hollywood
4. What You Need
5. A La Prochaine
6. Fate
7. Freedom
8. When My Day Comes
9. Coming of a New Age
10. Hang On
Ayron Jones broke out during the pandemic and became the first Black solo artist to have a Number One single on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, land Best New Rock Artist at the 2022 iHeartRadio Music Awards, and connect with artists and audiences that might otherwise seem worlds apart. B.B. King, Jeff Beck, Guns N’ Roses, Public Enemy, Shinedown, Daughtry, Koe Wetzel, and The Rolling Stones, who Jones performed with in Paris in front of 70,000 people, became advocates. He’s won over UK audiences from headlining his own shows from London’s legendary 100 Club, to opening for arena-filling southerners Black Stone Cherry. For Jones, those worlds have never felt disconnected. They are all part of the same musical language.
“Excuse Me” dives deeper into the Seattle sound of Jones’ upbringing, mining influences as wide as Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Michael Jackson, Prince, and OutKast. Real drums, drop-tuned guitars, melancholy melodies, and angsty lyrics that mirror the moment with stories of powder-keg tension, economic pressure, uncertainty, anger, and isolation.
Weblinks:
www.ayronjonesmusic.com
www.facebook.com/ayronjonesmusic
