Something you might not know about me is my love for the theater. I've had the great opportunity of performing in many community theater musicals. One of the very first took me all the way Ankara, Turkey for the International Community Theatre Festival. I played the part of the Newsboy in the musical "Working" by Studs Terkel. The theatre group I was part of was called Jesters Roving Players and we were the very first community theatre group in all the United States to perform at the International Community Theatre Festival. It's by far one of the most amazing experiences of my life in so many ways. I was surrounded by some of the most talented people I've ever known being a part of Jesters Roving Players. Plus, traveling to Turkey at 14 years old and being surrounded by so many amazing different theatre groups from so many different cultures was incredibly eye opening and educational proving to me that MUSIC truly is the international language. I was also accepted into the Wright State University Musical Theatre Program but switched my major after a couple years and focused on my radio career instead.
The rock musical Jesus Christ Superstar is one of my absolute favorite musicals of all time. If you've only seen the old movie starring Ted Neeley as Jesus do yourself a favor and listen to the recording below featuring Ian Gillian of Deep Purple as Jesus. Gillian's vocals as Jesus will blow you away. I was lucky enough to see Ted Neeley perform as Jesus on his final tour with Jesus Christ Superstar but I have never felt that anybody has quite lived up to Ian Gillian's performance.
I'm excited and a little nervous for the upcoming "Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert" airing on Easter on NBC. Being such a huge fan of the musical I have high hopes for it. John Legend will play Jesus, Alice Cooper is King Herod. There's no doubt that John Legend will be able to match the incredibly wide vocal range of Jesus (watch his rehearsal below) and I'm sure Alice Cooper will play a fantastic King Herod!
Below is the original 1970 recording of Jesus Christ Superstar featuring Deep Purple's Ian Gillian as Jesus Christ. This is the version that made this musical one of my all time favorites!