Chris Daughtry
Chris Daughtry in Los Angeles on May 24, 2006.
Background information
Birth name	Christopher Adam Daughtry[1]
Born	(1979-12-26) December 26, 1979 (age 32) 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, Cadence
Notable instruments
Gibson ES-135, Gibson ES-325

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 contestant on the fifth season of American Idol, the competition that he was eliminated from 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 Slash, Sevendust, Theory of a Deadman, and Carlos Santana. He is known for his powerful vocal belting technique and wide vocal range.

Early life[link]

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.

Career[link]

Cadence[link]

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 such as Absent Element.

Absent Element[link]

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.

[edit] American Idol

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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. 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