Million Dollar Quartet's Robert Britton Lyons on Slipping Into Broadway's Blue Suede Shoes

Age: “Old enough to know better.”

Hometown: Seattle, Washington

Currently: Making his Broadway debut (and rocking some blue suede shoes) as “King of Rockabilly” Carl Perkins in the jam session musical Million Dollar Quartet.

Rock City: When you consider the rock ’n’ roll pedigree of Seattle, where Lyons grew up with his parents and older sister, it’s no surprise he ended up in the business. “Music was everywhere,” he recalls. “I still remember the first time I heard John Popper of Blues Traveler ripping that harmonica apart. I was like, ‘I wanna do that.’” By age 10, Lyons was plucking strings on guitar. Come high school, he was gigging for classmates. “My first real performance was in the school lunchroom—a few friends put a band together and got permission to play for the students. I basically begged or bullied them, I can’t remember, to let me sing a Spin Doctors song. We rocked that lunchroom the best we could.”

Hidden Talent: Lyons threw himself head-on into music, becoming proficient in guitar, drums, harmonica, Appalachian jaw harp…and the beer bottle? “It started as a party trick, but it's actually a groovy, legitimate kind of musical expression,” he explains. “It originated with the Pygmy tribe in Africa—they fill bottles with water to tune them, then sing notes while blowing into the bottle to make this hypnotic kind of sound. Herbie Hancock, the piano player, used it in the song “Watermelon Man” on the album Head Hunters. It’s not something utilized a lot, but when you bust it out, it's pretty cool.” So what is Lyons’ preferred beer for bottle playing? “Rolling Rock! There’s a little mark on the bottle—when it’s filled to that exact level, it’s perfectly tuned.”

A Million Dollar Gig: After high school, Lyons took a series of survival jobs while continuing to pursue music. “I worked a paper route, sold instruments at Guitar Center; I even worked at a law office for a while,” he says with a laugh. “I really enjoyed quitting that one.” The day-jobbing allowed Lyons to moonlight with members of high profile groups like Pearl Jam, Santana and Harvey Danger. By 2006, he was a respected rocker in the Seattle scene—and the first person a friend at Seattle Repertory Company dialed when a workshop of a musical about real-life legends Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins (the role Lyons would take on) came to town. “At the time it was just another gig,” Lyons says of Million Dollar Quartet. “I had no idea what it would turn into.”

Now Leaving the Comfort Zone: Recreating the sound of edgy rockabilly king Carl Perkins, best known for his “Blue Suede Shoes,” was easy enough for Lyons. Acting in what developed into a full-scale musical was harder. “I’d only ever acted in school plays or Christmas pageants at the mall as a kid,” the performer explains. “Million Dollar Quartet was close to my comfort zone musically, but a huge challenge.” Lyons honed his skills during the show’s Seattle and Dayton mountings, landing in Chicago in 2008 for a critically acclaimed run. Then, in 2009, came the news: Million Dollar Quartet was moving to Broadway. “I thought, ‘How the hell does some rock guy from Seattle, without ever trying to [act], end up on Broadway?’” the guitarist recalls. “Somehow I’d helped create a viable Broadway show. It was humbling.”

New Kid in Town: Lyons was a true Broadway baby when he arrived in New York. “I assumed there’d be limos waiting to take me everywhere,” he jokes. “I’d never seen a Broadway show when I got here!” (Next to Normal became the first; Enron is his favorite so far.) He quickly fell in love with the community. “The level of professionalism on Broadway blows me away—everyone’s ready to work. I haven’t met any divas. It’s very different from playing at some bar at midnight…not that there’s anything wrong with that.” He’s even thinking of sticking around after his current show ends. “I’ll always do music, but acting has inspired me. I want to see if Million Dollar Quartet is a flash in the pan thing, the only part I can do, or if I’m capable of bringing another character to life. I want to stay in New York and figure it out.”

Best. Review. Ever.: Playing with Million Dollar guest performer Melissa Etheridge (“She’s so normal. It’s always nice when your expectations of someone are exceeded.") and taking the David Letterman stage top Lyons' list of NYC highlights—but nothing will beat opening night, when he sat down with Carl Perkins’ son, Stan. “I was so nervous when I found out he’d be in the audience. But he was the nicest guy and had such good things to say about my portrayal of his father. After that, I was like, ‘The [critics] can say what they want—I just got the real deal’s approval. That’s all I’ll ever need.’”