Early Life and Career
Rocket was born in Bangor, Maine. He attended the Rhode Island School of Design in the late 1960s and was part of the Rhode Island underground culture scene in the 1970s that also included Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and film director Gus Van Sant.
Rocket had a son with his wife Beth. They were married on board the battleship USS Massachusetts anchored in Fall River, Massachusetts.
Rocket appeared from time to time with his friend Dan Gosch as superheroes "Captain Packard" and his faithful sidekick "Lobo". In a RISD yearbook, the dynamic duo appeared in a photo at the Rhode Island State House with then-Governor Frank Licht.
Rocket made several short films and fronted his band, the Fabulous Motels, on accordion (which he used in an SNL skit about a crazed criminal who uses an accordion to kill his dates and is killed himself by a bagpipe band). He later anchored the local news at Channel 12 WPRI and at KOAA-TV in Pueblo, Colorado under his own name, and WTVF Nashville under the name Charles Kennedy. He made his network debut on Saturday Night Live in 1980, using the name Charles Rocket. Later in his career Rocket would lend his accordion talents to the David Byrne-produced B-52's album Mesopotamia.
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