Taylor Hicks opens in Grease at PPAC tonight.

Photorazzi / Scott Legato

PROVIDENCE

Taylor Hicks’ Broadway debut was an uplifting experience, the R&B-belting American Idol winner says.

“My debut was not actually on a Broadway stage; it was in an ice cream cone 40 feet above it!”

Hicks and the rest of the cast of the touring production of Grease start their national tour with a six-night run at the Providence Performing Arts Center beginning tonight, and during a break in rehearsals Hicks, who will play Teen Angel, says that he’s not only enjoyed the experience but says that the gig is another way of staying “a working musician.”

Hicks hasn’t had any acting training — “Never in a million years did I think I would be in a Broadway show,” he says. He says he’d been offered roles after Idol, but as an untrained actor he wanted his first role to be something that fit his personality and singing style, “kind of a type-casting idea that will allow my personality to be exposed, and a comfortable fit for me . . . instead of diving in [to acting] head-first and not knowing.”

While performing in the musical theater is more structured than a live concert, and he obviously won’t be singing as many songs, he says, “It’s very similar to performing musically with a band and interacting with different people in the band. . . . It’s definitely a treat to work off of someone. Little nuances and stuff like that — that’s what’s great about musical theatrics.”

Hicks says that he’d be interested in taking on another role once the six-month run of Grease ends, not only for its own sake but because stage appearances bring him to markets that he hasn’t toured on his own.

And theaters are good places to sell records. “I think this is a great model for a live entertainer who can act a little bit and be a musician who can perform in different markets all over the country. It’s a cool way for fans to get to experience an artist.”

Toward that end, beginning in January Hicks will add a post-show nightclub concert performance in every town where Grease stops.

Part of the reason for the nightclub shows is that Hicks’s new record will come out in February and the Grease tour runs into the spring, so this setup is the only way he’d be able to get any touring done. There is no such appearance planned for Providence, but Hicks says “You never know; I might pop up with a local blues band. I’m not afraid of that.”

After 10 years playing in clubs in and around his native Alabama, winning American Idol in 2006 was a blessing. “I’m thankful for the opportunity that it gave me to continue to keep exploring my artistic expression,” he says, and it gave him the chance to learn the ins and out of recording.

At the same time, Hicks was “a working musician — that’s who I am, and that’s who I’ll always be” — before the TV show came along, and the pop-chart game is a different deal.

“It definitely has its positives and negatives. It’s very short-lived, it seems, along that side,” says Hicks, who was dropped from Arista Records this year. “And for me, the key is that you always have to stay in front of people and work,” says Hicks, who adds that he did 282 shows in 2006, the year his self-titled post-Idol album came out. “That’s something that I’ll always hang my hat on.”

Touring is also where the money is, because it’s something that can’t be taken away from you, and because you can always sell your records at a show. “If you’re a working musician, you’re always going to have a chance to sell your records.”

Hicks has some serious backing players — guitarist Doyle Bramhall II, bassist Nathan East and drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. — on his forthcoming record, and says that “I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised about me as a songwriter. …

“I think this record is going to allow me to touch on a lot of different styles, not just from a songwriting aspect but from a musical aspect as well.” The record will come out on his own label, and Hicks has signed a distribution deal with A2M. He says that going his own way was the way to go.

“I must admit, having your own label is being out on the edge in your art. You don’t get the cushion, but I like that. … “I think this release is going to define who I am as a singer-songwriter. And I want to put myself on the edge that way, because I feel like that’s where I can create my best work … without people telling me what songwriters I need to work with, or what I should do.”

But for now, the gig is Grease, a show that Hicks says is close to his musical heart.

“I’ve always been into songs, and this show has just got some great written music. This was a pop-culture smash at one time, with songs that are timeless. I like to get around songs that are timeless, because you learn from those. … “ ‘Greased Lightning,’ night in and night out, it doesn’t get old.”

He says that he wanted to take “a really hard-line, rock ’n’ roll mentality to the role,” and toward that end he plays harmonica in the show and wrote some driving horn lines to his big number, “Beauty School Dropout,” along with orchestrator Christopher Jahnke.

And the role of Teen Angel spoke to him as well. “It’s kind of like rock ’n’ roll heaven — all the rock stars coming down from heaven and [saying] ‘Do something that’s solid.’ I think there’s a hidden message: Education will set you free.”

Some of the appeal to the role wasn’t quite that elevated, though.

“I get to wear a rhinestone-studded Nudie suit every night. It’s not a bad gig at all!”

Grease runs tonight through Sunday at the Providence Performing Arts Center, 220 Weybosset St., Providence. Performances are tonight at 7 p.m., tomorrow and Thursday at 7:30, Friday at 8, Saturday at 2 and 8 and Sunday at 1 and 6:30. Tickets range from $41 to $68; call (401) 421-2997 or go to www.ppacri.org.

rmassimo@projo.com