Elias explains how he created his character

“I was on the independent circuit. I had a character called, ‘Heavy Metal Jesus,’ it was very similar just in the fact that it was Rock & Roll based, and that I look like Jesus, so it wasn’t even me playing the guitar, it was all imitating for me, even though I had been playing the guitar since I was 15 years old, so when I went to NXT they said that I couldn’t do the Jesus thing, so I kind of started figuring out what I wanted to do. I loved the show Sons of Anarchy, and it just had a very modern, very edgy feel to it, so I thought, how can I tap into this kind of vibe in wrestling? I brought out the guitar and I always visualized myself sitting on the set of that television, so sitting there with my guitar totally fit with my character. I brought the character to Dusty Rhodes and he took a liking to it right off the bat, he was a big supporter of mine up until his passing. Of course Triple H put it on NXT TV and it kept going from there.”

source: E & C’s Pod of Awesomeness