Chris Daughtry

This article is about the musician. For the Survivor: Vanuatu winner, see Chris Daugherty.

Chris Daughtry
Birth name	Christopher Adam Daughtry[1]
Born	December 26, 1979 (1979-12-26) (age 31) Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina
Origin	Lasker, North Carolina, U.S.
Genres	Alternative metal, alternative rock, hard rock, pop rock, post-grunge
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	1999–present
Labels	RCA
Associated acts	Daughtry, Absent Element

Christopher Adam "Chris" Daughtry (born December 26, 1979) is an American musician best known as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for the rock band Daughtry and as the fourth-place finalist on the fifth season of American Idol, from which he was eliminated on May 10, 2006. After his elimination from Idol, he was given a record deal by RCA Records and formed a band called Daughtry. Their self-titled debut album became the fastest selling debut rock album in history^[2], selling more than one million copies after just five weeks of release. The album was recorded before the band was officially formed, making Chris Daughtry the only official member present on the album. This led some to believe mistakenly that the band Daughtry is Chris Daughtry's solo project.

In its ninth week of release, Daughtry reached number one on the Billboard charts. Chris Daughtry is now the third most successful American Idol contestant in terms of record sales, behind only Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, who both won their respective seasons. At the 50th Grammy Awards, the band was nominated for Best Rock Song for the single "It's Not Over".

Since the band's first album, Chris Daughtry has collaborated with several artists, including Sevendust, Theory of a Deadman, and Carlos Santana. He is known for his powerful vocal belting technique and wide vocal range.

Early life

Chris Daughtry was born in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina and raised in Lasker until he was 14. His parents, Pete and Sandra Daughtry, reside in Palmyra, Virginia, where Daughtry grew up before he relocated to McLeansville, North Carolina, outside of Greensboro. His brother, Kenneth, lives in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina.^[3]

At age 16, Daughtry started taking singing seriously as a musician. He took guitar lessons from blues rock guitarist Matt Jagger at Stacy's Music store in Charlottesville and sought advice from Andy Waldeck (frontman for Earth to Andy) who is credited first on his debut album. He performed with rock bands during his time in high school at local venues, opening for his future band mate Brian Craddock's band My Dog Lucy and Matt Jagger. During high school, he appeared in two stage productions: The Wiz and Peter Pan. For his first official performance, he sang "Achy Breaky Heart" by Billy Ray Cyrus at his grandfather's bar. Daughtry graduated from Fluvanna High School in 1998.

Career

Cadence

Daughtry's high school band went by the name of Cadence. He sang lead vocals and played rhythm guitar. They produced one album, All Eyes on You (1999), a rare piece that can sometimes be found on eBay.^[4] Daughtry later sang lead vocals and played rhythm guitar for rock bands in Burlington.^a[›] The alternative metal band Absent Element consisted of Daughtry on lead vocals and guitar, Mark Perry on lead guitar, Scott Crawford on drums, and Ryan Andrews on bass. Absent Element released Uprooted in 2005. This CD contains the songs "Conviction" and "Breakdown", which the band Daughtry would later combine and re-record as the song "Breakdown" for their self-titled debut album.

Absent Element

Daughtry sang lead vocals and played rhythm guitar for rock bands in Burlington.^a[›] The band Absent Element consisted of Daughtry on lead vocals and guitar, Mark Perry on lead guitar, Scott Crawford on drums and Ryan Andrews on bass. Absent Element released Uprooted in 2005. This CD contains the songs "Conviction" and "Breakdown", which Daughtry would later combine and re-record as the song "Breakdown" for the Daughtry CD.

In 2005, Chris Daughtry auditioned for the CBS singing contest Rock Star: INXS. He did not make the cut for the actual filming of the show.^[5] Former Daughtry drummer Joey Barnes was at the same audition and made the cut only to drop out of the running due to disagreements regarding the contract.

American Idol

Daughtry auditioned for American Idol in Denver, Colorado, with The Box Tops' "The Letter"; he was portrayed as a young rocker with Southern and hard rock influences. He passed the audition by a split decision: approved by Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson, disapproved by Simon Cowell. Simon felt that Daughtry at that time was too robotic. After being given a Golden Ticket to Hollywood, he performed "The First Cut Is the Deepest", and sang "Emotion" during his trio performance with Ace Young and Bobby Bullard. The song for Daughtry's a cappella performance remained unknown until American Idol Rewind aired Season 5 Hollywood week, when it was shown that he sang Elton John's 'Your Song'.

Daughtry eventually made it to the Top 24. On March 1, 2006, Daughtry's "raw" performance of Fuel's "Hemorrhage (In My Hands)" received critical acclaim by all three judges. On March 3, 2006, Jackson stated in an interview that Daughtry had been offered the opportunity to become Fuel's new lead singer, as the band was at the time without a lead singer. At a welcome home party, Daughtry said he had declined the offer,^[6] but, he said, "he'd still like to work with them somewhere down the road."^[7] Daughtry's March 21 performance caused controversy when the apparently original rendition of Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line" garnered much praise from the judges. However, viewers noted that the rendition was very similar to a version by Live; however, there was no mention of that in Daughtry's pre-performance interview. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Daughtry defended himself, saying "It wasn't my doing. You say a lot of things in the [pretaped] interview, and when editing gets involved, things get cut out for time constraints. I did mention in my interview that I'm doing a different version from a band I totally respect. The lead singer of Live, Ed Kowalczyk, called me to say, 'Man, don't listen to that.'...It was really cool to get that kind of respect."^[8] On August 2, 2008 at the Tom's River Fest in Tom's River NJ, Daughtry, Kowalczyk, and Live performed Live's rendition of "I Walk the Line" together.^[9]

Chris Daughtry was in the final four on May 10, 2006, and found himself in the bottom two with Katharine McPhee. When asked by Seacrest who should be leaving, Cowell expressed that he believed that McPhee should be eliminated. Ryan Seacrest then announced that Daughtry was eliminated. Seacrest asked him if he was surprised. An obviously stunned Daughtry could only utter, "A little, yeah." The media grabbed hold of the surprise elimination and (practically an Idol tradition at this point) there was some controversy regarding the accuracy of the vote count on the night Daughtry was eliminated. The vote-tallying website DialIdol, however, predicted that Daughtry was the lowest vote-getter for the week.^[10] In an interview after his elimination, Daughtry said that he thought he got voted off because his fans were "overconfident" that he would be safe, so they did not call and vote. Later, he stated the best piece of advice he ever received was, "Don't believe your own hype," a possible nod toward his surprise American Idol elimination.^[11]

During the Season Five finale on May 24, 2006, at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, Daughtry performed the song "Mystery" with the band Live. After the show, "Mystery" suddenly went as high as #80 on the iTunes top 100 songs. Live's version of the song was later available for download on the band's MySpace.com profile with Chris Daughtry performing backup vocals.

Performance review

Week	Theme	Song	Artist	Status
Audition	Free Choice	"The Letter"	The Boxtops	Advanced
Hollywood	Group Performance	"Emotion" with Ace Young and Bobby Bullard	Samantha Sang	Advanced
Semifinals Top 24	Free Choice	"Wanted Dead or Alive"	Bon Jovi	Safe
Semifinals Top 20	Free Choice	"Hemorrhage (In My Hands)"	Fuel	Safe
Semifinals Top 16	Free Choice	"Broken"	Seether feat. Amy Lee	Safe
Top 12	Songs of Stevie Wonder	"Higher Ground"	Stevie Wonder	Safe
Top 11	Hits of the 1950s	"I Walk the Line"	Johnny Cash	Safe
Top 10	21st Century Hits	"What If"	Creed	Safe
Top 9	Country Music	"Making Memories of Us"	Keith Urban	Safe
Top 8	Music of Queen	"Innuendo"	Queen	Safe
Top 7	The Great American Songbook	"What a Wonderful World"	Louis Armstrong	Bottom 2
Top 6	Greatest Love Songs	"Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?"	Bryan Adams	Safe
Top 5	Year They Were Born Billboard Top 10	"Renegade" "I Dare You"	Styx Shinedown	Safe
Top 4	Songs of Elvis	"Suspicious Minds" "A Little Less Conversation"	Elvis Presley	Eliminated

Post-Idol events

After leaving American Idol, Daughtry traveled the talk show circuit, which has become commonplace for non-winners as American Idol progressed through the years. He made appearances on The Tonight Show, Total Request Live, and The Today Show. He also appeared on Live with Regis and Kelly and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, in which he performed "Wanted Dead or Alive". In a later episode of the show in which Ellen interviewed former presidents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush, who were collaborating on the Bush-Clinton Katrina fund, she even jokingly asked if anything could be done about Chris Daughtry's elimination. Chris Daughtry was asked to audition as the lead vocalist for Fuel and, though incredibly flattered, he declined the offer in order to form his own band.

Daughtry

For the week of June 10, 2006, Chris Daughtry's cover of "Wanted Dead or Alive" charted at #43 on the Billboard Hot 100, being named the Hot Shot Debut of the week. On July 10, 2006, it was announced that Daughtry had signed with 19 Entertainment and RCA Records and began working on an album that was to be released in November. It was also announced that, like season 4 rocker Constantine Maroulis, he would be forming his own band. His band was formed under the name Daughtry, after the singer's last name.^[12] The band currently consists of Chris Daughtry, guitarists Josh Steely and Brian Craddock (the latter replaced former guitarist Jeremy Brady in 2007), bassist Josh Paul (formerly of Suicidal Tendencies), and drummer Robin Diaz (who replaced former drummer Joey Barnes in 2010). Daughtry's debut album was released on November 21, 2006. Chris Daughtry reportedly told US Weekly that the band's album "would not be... pop." The first single off Daughtry, "It's Not Over", was released November 21, 2006. The album reached number one in Billboard Charts with his debut album. He joins Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, and Ruben Studdard as the only contestants to reach number one in Billboard 200.^{[citation needed]} The album featured Velvet Revolver and former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash, who performed the guitar solo on the eventual single "What I Want".

Beginning on March 14, 2007, on every episode of American Idol's sixth season's results show, Daughtry's song "Home" is played every time a participant is knocked out of the competition, as each of the losing contestants is asked to look at their own journeys. Additionally, on the final competition on May 22, 2007, Daughtry performed the song live at the end of the show. It also became the song for the eliminating home team for the 2007 NBA Playoffs. In March, Daughtry performed during the Final Four round of the 2007 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament.^[13] On May 27, Daughtry performed at the 2007 Indianapolis 500.^[14]

On September 19, 2007 on ABC, Viva Las Vegas premiered, which was a tribute to Elvis Presley's career in Las Vegas. Daughtry performed an acoustic version of "Suspicious Minds". On November 18, 2007, the band was the winner of multiple awards at the "2007 American Music Awards" (ABC Television). The winning categories were: 1) Pop or Rock: Favorite Album - Daughtry; 2) Adult Contemporary Music: Favorite Artist; 3) Favorite Breakthrough Artist. On December 6, 2007, the band was nominated for four 50th Annual Grammy Awards: Best Rock Album for Daughtry, Best Rock Song for "It's Not Over", Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal for "Home", and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for "It's Not Over".

On May 6, 2009, Daughtry performed "No Surprise", the debut single for their forthcoming album, on American Idol.^[15] Chris Daughtry wrote the song with Nickelback vocalist Chad Kroeger.^[15] The album on which "No Surprise" appears, Daughtry's second album titled Leave This Town, was released on July 14, 2009. Chris Daughtry made history with its release by becoming the first American Idol alumnus to have two consecutive #1 albums. Leave This Town is the only Daughtry album that they wrote and recorded as a band, as their self-titled album was recorded before the band was officially formed and featured only Chris Daughtry as an official member.

On July 2, 2009, Daughtry performed an acoustic cover of Lady Gaga's Poker Face and has received over 25 million views on YouTube.

Daughtry kicked off a tour with Lifehouse and Cavo on August 2, 2009 in Orlando, Florida. The final show of the tour was in Tempe, Arizona on October 13, 2009. The band played a show in Chris Daughtry's hometown of Greensboro, North Carolina on November 12, 2009.

On December 31, 2010, Daughtry tweeted that the band will be working on a new album soon.^[16] On March 7, 2011, he tweeted that the album sounds nothing like the previous two and will feature a song titled "Spaceship."^[17] There will be another song on the record called "Rescue Me", which the band has performed on stage in New Jersey. The album will be released on November 21, 2011, according to Daughtry's Twitter.

Daughtry has written and recorded a song for the soundtrack to the video game Batman: Arkham City. On September 5, 2011, Daughtry tweeted that the song "Drown In You" is exclusive to the soundtrack and will not be featured on his upcoming album.

On September 15, 2011, Daughtry posted a new song "Renegade" on his official website. His newest single "Crawling Back to You" was posted on the website and released on September 19, 2011.

On September 27, 2011, Daughtry announced that the new album will be titled Break the Spell.

Collaborations

In 2008, Chris Daughtry provided vocals on a Sevendust track entitled "The Past" on their album Chapter VII: Hope & Sorrow. He had previously stated he had become friends with the members of the band. Alter Bridge members Myles Kennedy and Mark Tremonti appear on the same album. In the same year, Chris Daughtry also provides vocals on the Theory of a Deadman song "By the Way", which is featured on their third album Scars and Souvenirs. Still in 2008, he appeared on the song "Slow Down" on the album Revelation by Christian rock band Third Day. In 2009, the band Daughtry collaborated with Timbaland collaborated on Timbaland's song "Long Way Down" from the album Shock Value II. During this time, Chris Daughtry has also co-written three songs with band Day of Fire for their 2010 album "Losing All", including the track "Hello Heartache".^[18]

In 2010, he and Jason Wade performed a duet on Lifehouse's fifth studio album Smoke & Mirrors on the song "Had Enough". Chris Daughtry also co-wrote the song "Send Me All Your Angels" for American Idol season 8 winner Kris Allen's debut album. He later performed lead vocals on the cover Def Leppard's song "Photograph" with Carlos Santana on Santana's album called Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time. It was released on September 21, 2010 with a performance on the Dancing with the Stars results show that day.

Personal life

In a segment on the 2006 season of American Idol (before singing "Broken" by Seether), Chris Daughtry revealed that he is balding and made the decision to shave his head completely in order to retain an aesthetically pleasing appearance. He has been married to Deanna Daughtry since November 11, 2000. He has four children: a stepdaughter, Hannah, born September 7, 1996 from his wife's previous marriage, a son, Griffin, born June 30, 1998 and twins, Adalynn Rose and Noah James, born November 17, 2010.^[19][20] In a December 2007 interview with Gibson Lifestyle, Chris Daughtry said, "I used to call [my wife] and just quickly throw in the towel. But I’ve found that the less I say and the more I actually listen to her, and just be there without actually being there, is the best thing I can do. As a man, I always feel like I need to say something. Sometimes I have to stop myself because all I want to do is call and tell her about how much awesome stuff is going on in my life, and, you know, her day is sucking hard. I could write a book on it, I’m serious.”^[21] Chris Daughtry and fellow Idol contestant Ace Young have been friends since they met at the show's Denver auditions, and even periodically shared an apartment as finalists. Young said they clicked because they shared similar upbringings and were both "big on family".^[22] Ryan Seacrest had also dubbed them "the Ben Affleck and Matt Damon of the season" when the two were placed in the "bottom 2" together upon Young's elimination. In the final episode of the season, a clip of them in a "Best Male Bonding" segment was also shown.

Chris Daughtry lives in Oak Ridge, North Carolina.

Influences

Chris Daughtry's musical influences include Creed, Bush, Live, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Journey, Bon Jovi, and Fuel.^[5][23][24] He states that he grew up on rock and hard rock music.

Discography

Cadence

• All Eyes on You (1999)

Absent Element

• Uprooted (2005)

Daughtry

• Daughtry (2006)
• Leave This Town (2009)
• Break The Spell (2011)

Other works

Year	Artist	Album	Track(s)	Position
2008	Sevendust	Chapter VII: Hope & Sorrow	"The Past"	Lead vocals
	Theory of a Deadman	Scars and Souvenirs	"By the Way"	Backing vocals
	Third Day	Revelation	"Slow Down"	Backing vocals
2009	Timbaland	Shock Value II	"Long Way Down"	Lead vocals
	Kris Allen	Kris Allen	"Send Me All Your Angels"	Songwriting
	Allison Iraheta	Just Like You	"Don't Wanna Be Wrong"	Songwriting
2010	Day of Fire	Losing All	"Hello Heartache" "When I See You" "Airplane"	Songwriting
	Lifehouse	Smoke & Mirrors	"Had Enough"	Backing vocals
	Carlos Santana	Guitar Heaven	"Photograph"	Lead vocals
2011	Kelly Clarkson	TBD	"One More Yesterday"	Lead vocals
	Drake Bell	Losing You	"You're Not Thinking"	Producer

Notes

^ a: The CD of Daughtry's former band, Absent Element, began to float around the internet during the 2006 season of American Idol.

References

1. ^ Macias, Chris (August 19, 2007). "Rock on!; A guide to the rest of the music-packed week". Sacramento Bee (California). pp. TK22. 
2. ^ [1]
3. ^ http://online.tvguide.com/newsearch/detail.abspx?id=280407&sourcetype=C&tvobjectid=280407 Online.tvguide.com
4. ^ Ho, Rodney (April 25, 2006). "American Idol: 25 days to final: Who's who on eBay", The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, p. E1.
5. ^ ^{a b} Scaggs, Austin (April 5, 2007), "Chris Daughtry". Rolling Stone. (1023):30
6. ^ http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13124105/ MSNBC.msn.com
7. ^ http://www.accesshollywood.com/news/7659307/detail.html Accesshollywood.com
8. ^ http://www.wesh.com/entertainment/8297496/detail.html http://www.wesh.com/entertainment/8297496/detail.html Wesh.com
9. ^ http://www.daughtryofficial.com/us/event/2008/08/03
10. ^ DialIdol predictions page http://www.dialidol.com/asp/predictions/Predictions.asp?week=4&sort=TD&type=score&season=5 DialIdol predictions page Dialidol.com
11. ^ Armstrong, Josh (August 19, 2009). "Daughtry to Leave This Town". KnowTheArtist.com. http://knowtheartist.com/music/daughtry-to-leave-this-town/. Retrieved March 30, 2011. 
12. ^ http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2006-07-10-daughtry_x.htm USAtoday.com
13. ^ [2]^{[dead link]}
14. ^ "Rock Sensation Daughtry to Perform on Indy 500 Race Day | IndyCar Series". Auto Racing Daily. 2007-05-24. http://www.autoracingdaily.com/news/indycar-series/rock_sensation_daughtry_to_perform_on_indy_500_race_day/. Retrieved 2010-06-01. 
15. ^ ^{a b} "Lyrics to No Surprise". http://www.daughtryofficial.com/blog/lyrics-no-surprise-interpret-it-how-you. 
16. ^ http://twitter.com/CHRIS_Daughtry/status/21084201008766977
17. ^ http://twitter.com/CHRIS_Daughtry/status/44893660512399360
18. ^ [3] Online.tvguide.com
19. ^ [4]
20. ^ Biography for Chris Daughtry at the Internet Movie Database
21. ^ http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/Backstage%20with%20Chris%20Daughtry/ http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/
22. ^ http://realitytv.about.com/b/a/257673.htm Realitytv.about.com
23. ^ Daughtry Biography AMG
24. ^ Daughtry at Rolling Stone

External links

• Official website
• Daughtry live set at Spanking New Sessions
• Chris Daughtry at the Internet Movie Database
• Daughtry Interview with Gibson Guitar by Ellen Mallernee
• The Chris Daughtry Fanlisting

Persondata
Name	Daughtry, Chris
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	December 26, 1979
Place of birth	Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina
Date of death
Place of death