Constantine Maroulis Led the Way for “Idol” Rockers

In an interview in People magazine American Idol alum Constantine Maroulis looks back to his career and talks about his past and future plans. The Greek American has been making his mark on Broadway since appearing on the hit FOX show’s fourth season in 2005. He was recently nominated for a Tony for his role in the rock musical Rock of Ages and the actor-musician credits the reality competition for the chance it gave him.

“I was blessed – I was a finalist,” he says. “I probably wouldn’t be in this chair if I wouldn¹t have gone on the audition that day.” He stated in People.

There is something he’d do differently if he were able to appear on Idol again. “They had a hard time getting the support from artists and publishers to clear a lot of the material, so there were a lot of songs I wanted to do that I couldn’t do,” he says. “Stuff from U2, Aerosmith, anything Led Zeppelin, Bon Jovi. That was the stuff I was really good at. If I could have done the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ kind of thing week after week, it would have been interesting to see how it would have worked out.”

The Greek American singer thinks his appearance helped future rockers that appeared on the show. “I definitely opened the door for people after me, like Chris Daughtry and David Cook and all those guys,” he says. “[Season 8 runner-up] Adam [Lambert]’s a good kid, I wish him all the best.”

Maroulis says he is using music to reacquaint himself with his Greek roots.

“We didn’t listen to a lot of traditional Greek music in my house the way a lot of my Greek friends do, but I enjoy it. There’s what we call Greek nights, which is basically a club night with my friends. They (his parents) play a lot more of the modern music from Greece along with the traditional stuff. There’s a lot bouzouki [a traditional Greek guitar] and a lot of fun,” he says. “I really embrace my culture more now than I ever did.”