Rocker Jon Bon Jovi has stressed the importance of charity donations to aid the relief effort in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, insisting "cash is king" in times of need.

The Bon Jovi frontman was left heartbroken after a visit to his native New Jersey last week's (beg29Oct12) to witness the havoc the superstorm had wreaked.

His trip was filmed for Friday night's (02Nov12) U.S. telethon and Bon Jovi admits it was hard to see his hometown in such a mess.

The singer has been doing his bit to help by serving up hot food to locals daily from his charity restaurant, Soul Kitchen, and while he insists volunteers across the whole disaster area are much appreciated, he is urging more people to reach into their pockets and donate money instead.

During an appearance on U.S. talk show Katie on Monday (05Nov12), he said, "People want to help, they just don't know how... In this case, I think the best case is to donate money because, to come from points unknown and to say, 'I want to help in New Jersey', it's much appreciated but right now, until we figure out where we can use that help, it's best to donate and cash is king. We have to rebuild entire towns and houses are needed, cars are needed."

Bon Jovi fears the death toll from Sandy, which has already crept past 110, will only keep rising as the clean-up effort continues and communities struggle to return to some sort of normality.

He continued, "There's such a long tail on this event - we don't know what else is coming, how many more bodies we're gonna find, the devastation and enormity of the situation..."