Here are the stories behind the songs on our second single of 2026:
THE ALL-IMPORTANT PROSPECT
What is the all-important prospect? It's the prospect (possibility or likelihood) that Jesus of Nazareth could be "the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
About 2000 years ago, a former fisherman came to the conclusion that this prospect was a reality, and Jesus confirmed it, saying, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it" (Matthew 16:17-18).
This parody imagines Peter's perspective. I wrote most of the lyrics on January 16, 2026, while driving to and from Cleveland for the memorial service of my friend Ron Whipple. A longtime ApX fan, Ron was only 59 but had lingering health problems after suffering a heart attack in August 2021. He actually died in October 2025, but the family kept the matter private for a few months.
When his sister invited me to his "celebration of life," she told me he'd always said he wanted me to sing at his funeral. I was touched and honored. I'd talked with Ron at concerts in the past, and we'd emailed many times over the years. Thankfully, I was able to attend the service and sang our parodies "Death" and "One More Wall" (his favorite).
Ron had a quirky sense of humor and loved reading our songbook journal entries, so I know he would've gotten a kick out of the fact that he made it into one and that a parody was written on the way to his memorial.
"The All-Important Prospect" features J. Jackson on lead vocals, Rich Mannion on keyboards and backing vocals, Tom Tincha on guitars, Keith Haynie on bass, and Jimmy "Vegas" Tanner on drums and percussion.
BILLY’S CHOIR
Ric Ocasek, leader of Boston-based rock band The Cars once referred to himself as a “test pilot for mass hysteria.” This is a parody of a different Boston-based artist of the same era, but the sentiment is similar. Maybe.
I'm not positive what Ocasek meant by his colorful statement ... was he claiming to be a pioneering agent of societal chaos or just somebody trying to survive it? If it's the latter, I can relate; we live in crazy times where a lot of people with crazy ideas are trying to make us think we’re the ones who are crazy.
ApologetiX has released parodies before where our title played off the name of the artist rather than the song (like "Credence Thru Deepwater Survival," "Simp Liztik," "Herman's Sermon," "The Wonder of Christmas," "Parrseverance," and "Barely Manilow"), but this is the first time two have appeared on the same single ("The All-Important Prospect" and "Billy's Choir").
In the case of the Alan Parsons spoof, I just didn't want the title to be "Eyeing This Guy." With the Billy Squire tune, we rhymed something different every time he sang "Everybody Wants You" ("read the Bible once through," "and the Bible was, too," "guess the Bible was true," and "yes, the Bible was true"), and none of those really stood out to me as title contenders.
Special thanks to our mixer David Michael, who came up with all the special effects in the first 11 seconds of the intro (aside from the guitars by Tom Tincha and the finger-snapping by Jimmy "Vegas" Tanner).
"Billy's Choir" features J. Jackson on lead and backing vocals, Tom Tincha on guitars, Rich Mannion on keyboards, Keith Haynie on bass, Jimmy "Vegas" Tanner on drums and percussion, and David Michael on special effects.
The cover of this single features a photo of Tom Tincha taken by Scott Schmitt.
