Evan, a native of Monticello, Georgia, said in a September 27, 2008 interview "I grew up in Monticello, Georgia, and I was a football player at UGA, and that's the first time I saw Les Mis — twenty years ago here at the Fox. It just made me go, I want to do this for a living. I was just a business major, I had wanted to go to law school, but this show lit the fire... I ended up auditioning at a Les Mis open call 'a la American Idol' two years later. I waited ten hours to sing sixteen bars of Stars. He walked out with the proverbial gold ticket. 'I thought it was going to be instant stardom and cash, not knowing any better."