General Hospital veteran Jonathan Jackson (ex-Lucky Spencer) has found a great deal of musical success since leaving the ABC soap in 2011. Jackson currently appears as Avery Barkley on the ABC primetime soap Nashville, and now the actor-slash-singer has landed a record deal. Billboard reports that Jackson has inked a deal with Loud & Proud Records.

"Being a part of a show like Nashville, [with] the music side of it, I knew from the very beginning that it was extremely important and that they were obviously putting a lot into it," Jackson told Billboard. "It was pretty easy to see that at the least, I would get more exposure as a singer. For years, I've thought about a project or a way where I could do acting and music together, and I never really thought that would happen. Then Nashville came along, and it was like a dream come true to marry both of those worlds."

Though this is Jackson's first solo record deal, he's been making music for more than a decade. Jackson has been the frontman for the rock group Enation since 2002. The group has released numerous records, which can be sampled on enationmusic.com and purchased on Amazon.

ABC, meanwhile, has released most of the songs Jackson has performed on Nashville via iTunes. The show also has released a couple of full-length albums, which are available on CD via online retailers like Amazon. A third release is scheduled for later this year.

Jackson and his former GH costar, Steve Burton, recently collaborated on a song that was featured in an episode of CBS's The Young and the Restless.

Additional details on when Jackson will release his solo debut album will be made at a later date.

Jackson made his daytime debut on General Hospital in October 1993. Jackson remained with GH through 1999, picking up three Outstanding Younger Actor Daytime Emmys during that time. Jackson returned to GH in October 2009 before leaving to pursue other opportunities in 2011.