Rock of Ages Star CJ Eldred on Learning How to Sing with Journey and His High School Musical-Inspired Start in Theater

Before CJ Eldred ever stepped on a stage, he was just a middle-schooler with a love for rock music. "My dad listened to a ton of classic rock, like the Beatles and Foreigner," the actor said in a recent #LiveAtFive interview. "So then I wanted to sing that with my friends because my buddy could play the drums, I was noodling on the guitar and his dad was sick on the guitar. So, his dad was our lead guitar. I played rhythm, he played the drums and his sister sang backup." Their garage band's rendition of "Carry on My Wayward Son" at a talent show was Eldred's first introduction to singing in front of an audience. 

It only makes sense, then, that now he finds himself leading the New York return of Rock of Ages as the aspiring rocker Drew. The show began performances at New World Stages on June 19, four years after the original Tony-nominated Broadway run ended. "I've always loved it," Eldred says. "I remember watching the Tony Awards... and I was just starting to really get into music theater at the time. And I was like, 'Whoa. This show looks like a blast.'" He also remembers his current co-star Mitchell Jarvis, who not only starred in the Broadway run, but also the 2008 off-Broadway and national tour productions. "He went out to somebody in the audience and was like, 'Look at this pretty little thing down here,'" he remembers. "I forget who it was, but my mind was blown. I was like, He's so brilliant. And he's still got it."

Bridging the gap between his talent for rock music and a career in musical theater was a matter of happenstance, Eldred explains. "I got into high school and I was playing football," he says. "All the guys on the team knew that I could sing, and so to mess with me, they'd be like, 'Hey!' in the locker room, 'Sing that, sing that one Journey song.' And so I'd start singing like 'Don't Stop Believin'.'" When the school's new choir director heard his voice from the music room above the lockers, she pressured him to audition for the school musical. That's how he came to play Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls, and yes, he recognizes how similar this is to the plot of High School Musical. "It sounds like it! And it was before all that, so I can be like, I wasn't copying anything."

Before graduating from the University of Michigan, Eldred booked the national tour of Book of Mormon as the standby for Gavin Creel's Elder Price. "That man is just the most amazing human being. If he's watching, I love that guy," he joked. "He taught me so much about technique and longevity. And I mean that show is really tough to sing eight times a week." Since he still needed a few credits to graduate, he went on the search for affordable online classes that would fill his requirements. "I was perusing and I found that BYU had the cheapest classes," he hinted. "So, I ended up taking a two-credit class studying the Book of Mormon." Did that research improve his performance? "Man, it really helped. I had a little insight there." An actor prepares!

Be sure to catch Eldred in Rock of Ages, now playing at New World Stages. 

Watch the full #LiveAtFive episode below!