Chris Daughtry Biography
Summary
"Christopher Adam Daughtry" (born December 26 1979) is an American rock guitarist, singer and songwriter who is the lead vocalist of Daughtry, a band he formed in 2006. He is also known as the fourth-place finalist on the highly publicized fifth season of "American Idol", eliminated from the competition on May 10 2006.
After his fallout from "Idol", his band's self-titled debut album sold more than 1 million copies after just 5 weeks of release, becoming the fastest selling debut rock album of all time. In its ninth week of release, the album reached number one on the Billboard charts, edging out the "Dreamgirls" soundtrack. Daughtry is the fourth most successful American Idol contestant in history, behind Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, and Clay Aiken, as well as the most successful person who was not in the finale. Chris also happens to be the second most successful idol contestant outside the United States behind only Kelly Clarkson.
Early life
Christopher Adam Daughtry was born in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. He was raised in Lasker, North Carolina until he was 14. His parents, Pete and Sandra Daughtry, reside in Lake Monticello, Virginia in Palmyra, Virginia, where Daughtry grew up before he relocated to McLeansville outside of Greensboro, North Carolina. His brother, Kenneth, resides in Victoria, Virginia.
In his spare time, Daughtry is an artist, and he reads comic books avidly. At age 16, Daughtry started taking singing seriously as a professional musician. He performed with rock bands during his time in high school. Musical influences include 1990s bands like Bush, Live, Alice in Chains, and Stone Temple Pilots. During high school he appeared in two stage productions: "The Wiz" and "Peter Pan". For his first official performance he sang 'Achy Breaky Heart' at his grandfather's bar. Daughtry graduated from Fluvanna High School in 1998. His first job was a service worker at a car dealership at Crown Honda, in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Career
Cadence
Daughtry high school band went by the name of Cadence. He sang lead vocals and played rhythm guitar. They produced one album; a very rare piece that can sometimes be found on ebay.
Absent Element
Daughtry sang lead vocals and played rhythm guitar for rock bands in Burlington. 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' & 'Breakdown', which Daughtry combined and re-recorded as the song 'Breakdown' for the "Daughtry" CD.
In 2005, Daughtry auditioned for the CBS singing contest, "Rock Star: INXS". He did not make the cut for the actual filming of the show. Current drummer Joey Barnes was at the same audition and made the cut only to drop out of the running due to involvement in a band.
"American Idol"
Daughtry auditioned for "American Idol" in Denver, Colorado with The Boxtops' '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 Chris at that time was too robotic. After being given a Golden Ticket to Hollywood, he performed 'The First Cut Is the Deepest', and sang 'Emotions' during his duo performance with Ace Young. The song for Daughtry's "a cappella" performance remains unknown.
Daughtry eventually made it out of the Hollywood Round and into 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 Chris Daughtry said he had declined the offer, but, he said, 'he'd still like to work with them somewhere down the road.' 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 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.'
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 would be leaving, Cowell expressed that he believed that Katharine would be eliminated. Ryan Seacrest then announced that Daughtry was eliminated. Seacrest asked Daughtry 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. 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.
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. Daughtry's version of the song was later available for download on Live's MySpace.com profile.
"Performance review"
Post-"Idol"
On November 18,2007, Winner '2007 American Music Awards' (ABC Television) Categories: 1) Pop or Rock: Favorite Album- Daughtry Daughtry; 2) Adult Contemporary Music: Favorite Artist; 3) Favorite Breakthrough Artist.
After leaving "American Idol", Daughtry traveled the talk show circuit, post-season promotion which has become increasingly 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'—his track on the "American Idol Season Five: Encores" CD. 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 Daughtry's elimination.
Daughtry has proved quite successful since Idol. For the week of June 10, 2006, 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 June 7, 2006, a duet version of 'Mystery', the song Daughtry performed with Live on the "American Idol" finale, was released via Live's official website. Daughtry is featured on guest vocals.
On June 8, 2006, Daughtry made a cameo appearance on the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, where he performed a parody of Daniel Powter's 'Bad Day'—the elimination song for the fifth season of "Idol"—with comedian Jimmy Fallon.
On June 16,2006 Daughtry made a cameo appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" in the 'Father's Day Gift Ideas' segment. In this segment he played a father who took out the trash to a talking garbage can.
TMZ.com featured a video of Daughtry singing Stone Temple Pilots' 'Plush' with a busker on the night of the "American Idol" finale.
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.
Daughtry's debut album was released on November 21, 2006. He reportedly told "US Weekly" that his album 'would not be... pop.'
The first single off "Daughtry", 'It's Not Over', was released November 21, 2006.
Chris Daughtry reached number one in Billboard Charts with his debut album. He joins Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, and Clay Aiken as the only contestants to reach number one in Billboard 200.
WDCG 105.1's Bob and the Showgram interviewed Daughtry and was the first radio station to play tracks from his new album on October 26, 2006. The North Carolina State University Alumni Association and Student Homecoming Committee hosted Daughtry's homecoming solo concert with the new band. The concert was in Raleigh on November 3, 2006 at Reynolds Coliseum, after a Homecoming Parade on Hillsborough Street and a Wolfpack Pep Rally at Reynolds Coliseum.
On January 21, 2007, he performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the NFL's NFC Conference Championship game in Chicago, IL. He currently lives in Oak Ridge, NC which is right outside of Greensboro, NC.
On January 22, 2007, Daughtry and his band were among the first guests on "The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet". On the very first show, he talked about his success on "Idol", of how his bands' self-titled debut album went platinum in a few weeks, and he also played acoustic guitar on the #1 song, "It's Not Over".
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 are asked to look at their own journeys. Additionally, on the final competition on May 22, 2007, he and his band performed this song live at the end of the show. It also became the song for the eliminating home team for the 2007 NBA Playoffs.
The song 'Crashed' was featured in a Bionicle short movie by Lego to promote their 2007 Bionicle summer sets, however the band was not credited for the music for some time. It was only later that Lego released two versions, with the United States version being Crashed.
On September 19 on ABC, Viva Las Vegas premiered which was a tribute to Elvis Presley's career in Las Vegas - Chris performed an accoustic version of Suspicious Minds.
He will be opening up for Bon Jovi on their Lost Highway Tour.
Personal life
In a segment on the 2006 season of "American Idol", 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 one step-daughter from his wife's previous marriage, and one adopted son. His daughter, Hannah Price, was born in July 1997, and his son, Griffin Daughtry, was born in January 1999.
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.' 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 on Young's elimination. In the final episode of the season, a clip of them in a 'Best Male Bonding' segment was also shown. Devoted fan alliances of the friendship between Daughtry and Young, referred to as 'Chrisace' or 'Chrace,' have materialized on the Internet.
External links
" (daughtryofficial.com) , the official website of the band Daughtry"
("Daughtry live set at Spanking New Sessions")
(AbsentElement.com) , Chris Daughtry's former band's official homepage
(Home Performance) Good Morning America Performance
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Chris Daughtry.
