Gruff-voiced bluesman Tom Waits has shared the above with a subject line of “Tom Waits: Permission to Come Aboard.”

The American singer/songwriter, who spent the ’70s and ’80s knocking out classic albums for fun (and to be fair, hasn’t exactly fallen off since) , complete with eye patch, sword, and cigar, will be doing or announcing something on August 7. What exactly that means, we have no idea. Rolling Stone half-jokingly suggests that Waits may be announcing a cruise, which is as good a guess as any. But, you know, hopefully it’s an album – last year’s Bad Like Me was excellent.

Speaking of jokes, check out this video of a Tom Waits interview from 1979, which many are pointing out sounds like the inspiration for Heath Ledger’s voice performance as the Joker.