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As a young boy Jon knew his life was going to be a little different. At the young age of ten he realized that he could sing, and sing as good as anything that he heard his parents playing or that he heard on the radio. Add a guitar to the mix, and a young musician was born. Jon started writing lyrics, then setting it to music. He would seek out any kids he could find to form a band, to get the lyrics and music he had on paper and in his head, into reality sound.

After playing around for a while he formed his first real band, "Uncle Booby", named after his real life uncle in Texas. This band was a mix between straight out raucous country to flat out rock & roll. They started performing and playing to groups that kept getting bigger, and soon they were playing to crowds of people, who were enjoying what they heard. The audiences kept getting bigger. Jon's playing and songwriting abilities were improving as well. He was now the lead singer and strong rhythm player of a band traveling around the Midwest playing every gig they could get.

With nothing but live shows to get them noticed, Jon needed to come up with something else to get the band wider recognition. "Solid State", recorded by Dave Feeny at Tempermill Studios in early '98 was a collection of cleverly crafted songs. Offering a first glimpse at what would emerge as the band's obvious strong point-songwriting. The first pressing of "Solid State" sold out in just over six months! Not bad for a first effort.

For their second album, Jon and Rooster journeyed to Nashville in the fall of '99 to record their self financed, "The Nashville Sessions" and to work with producer Clark Hagen. Mr. Hagen is credited for his work with Days of The New, Chet Atkins and Ray Stevens. Recorded at Nightingale Studios and Omnisound Studios "The Nashville Sessions" allowed Jon to explore the deeper self of his southern side of his musical make-up, while still holding true to their energetic pop formula. These recordings were initially intended for promotional use only, but Rooster's fans were quite insistent on getting a hold of this batch for themselves. The songs were released exclusively on the group's MP3 site with over 15,000 hits to date.

Jon returned to a now familiar studio setting in September 2000, namely Rustbelt Studios in Royal Oak, MI. There, a three-song demo was produced by Al Sutton and Bob Ebeling. Sutton and Ebeling both received Grammy nominations in 2001 for their production, engineering and performances on Kid Rock's "American Bad Ass", as well as Eminem's "The Marshall Mathers LP". With award winning producers at the helm, Rooster's work offers harder edged, and more polished versions of crowd favorites; "Perfect One" and "EverRain" (originally recorded on "Nashville Sessions"), as well as a new composition titled "Hothouse". Through the recording process and playing live, Jon's music was getting noticed.

In the summer of 2000 Jon's band was picked by Peter Frampton himself over 300 bands to open a sold out show at Pine Knob Music Theater. At the end of 2000, Rooster was chosen by Jim Beam over 800 bands for the prestigious B.E.A.M. grant. IN 2001, Jon and Rooster were invited to the huge South by Southwest Music Conference held annually in Jon's home state, of Austin Texas. In Austin, GHS strings approached Jon and gave him the first endorsement, a lifetime supply of strings. Jon is the first unsigned talent to be given that endorsement. More endorsements would be coming from JVC Car Audio, and Dean Guitars among others.

The year 2002 would bring Jon and Rooster to play with major headliners in larger venues. Jim Beam once again called on Jon to be the opening act for Platinum selling artist Nickelback on the Mid-Western leg of their summer tour. This opening gig led to other opportunities with Maverick Recording artists, Tantric. Jerry Cantrell, formerly of Alice in Chains, would see Rooster in Indianapolis and asked them to join him on some dates as well. At the end of 2002 Jon found himself in Los Angeles at the legendary Viper Room to audition for Maverick records. After being signed to Maverick records and selling almost 100,000 copies of the self titled ROOSTER cd the band went on to do nationwide tours with the bands NICKELBACK, JERRY CANTRELL, DAVID GRAY, CREED and KID ROCK to name a few.

With a studio rented in Pontiac, Michigan, the band set fourth to record their second full-length release on a major label, but the time and money spent was all for not, when Jon and Maverick records decided to part ways before the record was to be released. With the loss of the recording contract and the all-important financial backing from the label, a hard decision was made to disband Rooster. Armed with a large catalog of original songs and an acoustic guitar Jon set out for a solo career.

Jon decided after 13 years in Michigan that it was time for a change of scenery. A small hiatus in Hawaii for a while then back to business Jon went. Originally from Texas, Jon though the south seemed right and Pensacola Florida was where he ended up.

During the winter of 2008 Jon was contacted by his former manager, Dan Colucci, and told about the regional auditions for NBC "Nashville Star". Jon headed to Tallahassee Florida for the auditions in February with high expectations. Over 2000 people showed up to audition and only 40 made it to call backs. Jon was one of the 40. Now a regional finalist, Jon was asked to attend the National auditions in Austin Tx in mid March. Jon headed to Austin and was one of 30 out of 3000 to make it to call backs the following day. Unfortunately Jon heard back from the casting co. and was told he just missed the cut for this season but they would be in touch for the 2009 show in the fall of next year.

This brings us to the present time. Jon has spent the last few years writing and honing his craft. The material submitted is a mix of music from all the above-mentioned material, with some new acoustic only tracks. Jon has copy write ownership of all Rooster recordings with no co-writing credits to date. He is open and available to any suggestions concerning the direction of his career.

Jon's new solo album "Texas Sun" as well as "Solid State", "Nashville Sessions", "A.P.C." and 2 other unreleased cd's will be available for you to download from his website. You can now catch Jon playing solo acoustic shows all over the Pensacola area. Stay tuned at www.jonkott.com to find out when and where. Jon Kott - Intro

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