You might think that if you were to tell the handsome 16-year-old frontman of a rock band, riding the wave of a hit single, that he would someday grow up to master the droning instrument known as the didgeridoo, it would be a proposal promising all of the fun and excitement of owning a pet sloth.

But that's precisely the path Phil Jones followed.

The young band Phil Jones and the Unknown Blues created a buzz in their hometown of Sydney, Australia, with their single "If I Had a Ticket," capitalizing on their blues-tinged pop sound. But the same man who belted a thoroughly danceable version of "Pick a Bale of Cotton"--the 1967 video is available for viewing on YouTube--went on to continue evolving the idea of "spiritual" in his own life.

After a brief stab at a solo career, Jones, by then performing under the name "Shiva," was involved with the UK-based Quintessence, playing a multitude of European festivals during their career in the early '70s.

"I had a long background in the healing effects of Sacred Mantras and Meditation going back to the mid 1960’s," Jones comments in an e-mail interview, and Quintessence embraced these ideas as a regular part of their repertoire, frequently highlighting chanting as part of their shows, and even claiming a "household guru."

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