An Artist Beyond One Band

Although Bowling For Soup is the center of Jaret’s career, it has never contained the full range of what he wants to make.

He formed People on Vacation with singer-songwriter Ryan Hamilton, created Jarinus with his best friend Linus of Hollywood, and recorded as Jaret and Kelly with Kelly Ogden of The Dollyrots. He has produced and written with numerous artists and co-hosted several podcasts, including Jaret Goes to the Movies and The Rockstar Dad Show.

His voice also became part of several worlds far beyond pop punk.

The creators of Phineas and Ferb, Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, were Bowling For Soup fans. Jaret expanded the show’s theme into the complete song viewers know, and he later became the singing voice of Danny from the fictional 1980s hair-metal band Love Händel. The show introduced him to an entirely new generation—many of whom knew those songs before discovering “1985.”

When asked, Jaret will tell you the Phineas and Ferb theme is Bowling For Soup’s biggest song.

He has no issue with that.

For Sonic Unleashed, Jaret wrote the lyrics and performed “Endless Possibility.” The song became another piece of work that grew far beyond the project for which it was created.

Since 2012, he has also voiced Chuck E. Cheese. Somehow, it makes perfect sense. Jaret is a father, a natural character performer and a man whose professional mission has largely involved making people smile. He was also a huge Chuck E. Cheese fan as a kid, although he could visit only when staying with his grandparents in Lawton, Oklahoma.

His Texas country project, released under the name Jaret Ray Reddick, allowed him to remove the expectation that every difficult truth needed a joke attached. The 2022 album Just Woke Up drew from the country storytelling he heard as a child while confronting adult experiences involving divorce, family, identity, biological parentage and the complicated process of understanding his own history.

His goal was not to make a polished “Nashville” country album. He wanted an organic record like the ones he heard in the car growing up. It became an outlet he did not know he needed and then took on a life he never expected.

Frank Turner had helped reopen that door.

Around 2012, Jaret was moving through a dark personal period and felt increasingly disconnected from music. His friend Dave Lake of Diesel Boy visited, wrote songs with him, ate chili, helped with the kids and repeatedly insisted that Jaret listen to Frank Turner.

After dropping Dave at the airport, Jaret put on Frank’s music. There was something in the way Dave had recommended it—as though he knew Jaret needed it.

Ask Dave today and he will tell you that is exactly what happened.

The feeling was immediate: the same electric recognition Jaret had experienced with Mötley Crüe, Testament and the Descendents. It reminded him that music could still surprise him. That he still believed. That there was still magic in music if he listened hard enough.

Frank later became a friend, something Jaret occasionally finds difficult to process because part of him still places Frank on the pedestal reserved for artists who changed his life. They have now toured together and hope to write together someday.

Jaret remains grateful that his own career has allowed him to meet so many of the people who shaped him.

He also enjoys bragging that some of their phone numbers are in his phone.

Just ask him.