It’s Beethoven meets the Blue Collar Comedy tour. At least that’s the notion that comes to mind when talking to Matt Lord, creator of “3 Redneck Tenors,” a blend of classical music, pop and slapstick that will drop in on the Temple Theatre on Friday.

Lord – who sings tenor and will also play Billy Joe – gave us some ideas of what to expect from him, baritone John Wilkerson, tenor Alex Bumpas and bass Dinny McGuire.

The less enlightened may say that rednecks and classical music do not go together. What would you say to them?

Then they weren’t at Juilliard when I was there, because there were, like, four of us there, and all four of us are still singin’. (Laughs.) You know, it’s not just a classical show. We do everything from ‘You Light up My Life’ in drag and Debby Boone and all of that, and “Staying Alive” by the Bee Gees. We also then do “Nessun Dorma” and “La Danza” from Rossini and some other things.

I tried to put together a show that would be financially viable and have the same type of voices, and then take it one step further and make it accessible to everybody, even if you hate classical music.

We did Bass Hall here in Ft. Worth, Texas, which is their big symphony hall. I think we had about 1,800 people, and about 900 of them had never been in the hall before. And so it’s bringing in a newer audience and kind of the NASCAR audience.

Do you get crossover from the whole Blue Collar Comedy tour set?

It’s huge! Oh, yeah, absolutely. That’s our bread and butter. And the nice thing is, people find it extremely accessible.

The show was written for a little benefit for a school here in Grapevine, Texas, years ago – about 31/2 , 4 years ago. And it was never meant to go on tour. It was meant to be a one-off benefit concert, because I had just actually made my Metropolitan Opera debut.

These agents saw it and wanted to put it in 35 cities, so I had to make a decision, you know. What do I wanna do? And it’s the most fun I’ve ever had, so it was kind of an easy decision.

I only really had a basic outline, and at the time it was just kind of a variety show without any kind of plot line or anything.

It’s not an audience participation show, but our audiences tend to participate an awful lot. (Laughs) They start to feel at home within, like, 10 minutes of the show. I’ve had people just start talking to me. I’m in character and I’m on stage … and people just start talking to me from the audience to where I have to actually stop and address them in the audience. It happens all the time.

Take me back to when you first got heckled.

It’s weird! I’d love to say it’s heckling, but they actually think they’re making the show better, which is great. The show starts off with a pre-recorded message: ‘Don’t open any beer in the theater because it makes us upset. We want one.’ And we kind of break that fourth wall right off the bat.

Is it something you encourage, like “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”?

Encourage is the wrong word. But we don’t discourage it. People are just having a good time, and it’s always done in good fun.

Since we break that fourth wall and we start talking to the audience, they just feel like they’re helping. Or they really do believe we’re real, which happens; they believe the characters of Billy Joe, Billy Ray and Billy Billee, that we’re real people.

Break down your character and the story line. I see you do a couple of different shows that you tour around with.

The original show … starts with the death of Billy Ray. He dies in a wood chipping accident, and he’s replaced by a baritone. … His name is Billy Billee. He was named after his ma’s pa, Billy Floyd, and his pa’s pa, Billee Dwayne, and they came up with the imaginative name, Billy Billee.

The Colonel hears us singin’, and decides he’s gonna make us stars and he’s gonna get really rich. And so what he does is he spends the whole time in search of a perfect venue for us to become famous in.

If you wanted to really describe the characters, they’re really kind of based on the Three Stooges. You’ve got Billy Joe who would be Moe – kind of the smart one, if that’s what you want to say. And then little Billy Bob is Curly. He’s just funny and he’s young and he does a lot of physical comedy. Then you have Larry, the quiet one. The baritone is just a little more quiet, and not the fastest float in the parade.

You’ve gotta get a Shemp character.

I guess the Colonel would be. I wouldn’t (describe) him as Shemp, but he’s more like Zeppo from the Marx Brothers.

Ernest Jasmin: 253-274-7389