CHRIS DAUGHTRY

'Christopher Adam "Chris" 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 1 on the Billboard charts, edging out the . 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 non-runner-up or winner.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Absent Element

''American Idol''

Post-''Idol''

American Idol performances

Semi-finals

Finals

Discography

References

External links

Biography

Early life

Christopher Adam Daughtry was born in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. He was raised in Lasker, NC until he was 14. His parents, Pete and Sandra Daughtry, reside in Lake Monticello, Virginia in Palmyra, Virginia, where Daughtry was raised before he relocated to McLeansville outside of Greensboro, North Carolina. His brother, Kenneth, resides in Victoria, Virginia.^[1]
In his spare time, Daughtry is an artist, and he reads comic books avidly. At the age of 16, Daughtry started taking singing seriously as a professional musician and became a performer with other rock bands during his time in high school. It was while in high school that he appeared in two stage productions: ''The Wiz'' and ''Peter Pan''. His first public performance was singing "Achy Breaky Heart" at his grandfather's bar. He graduated from Fluvanna High School in 1998. Daughtry's first job was a service worker at a car dealership at Crown Honda, in Greensboro, North Carolina.
In 2005, Daughtry auditioned for the CBS singing contest, ''. He did not make the cut for the actual filming of the show.
Daughtry was a lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of his own rock bands in Burlington. The CD of Daughtry's ex-band, Absent Element, began to float the internet during the 2006 season of "American Idol."
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.^[2] 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.

Absent Element

Before Daughtry rose to fame on American Idol, he was the lead singer for alternative Christian rock band Absent Element. 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, which appears on the ''Daughtry'' CD.

''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.
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.^[3] On May 11, 2006, the day following his Idol departure, ''Extra'' also took up the scoop. At a welcome home party Chris Daughtry said he had declined the offer.^[4]
Daughtry was in the final four on May 10, 2006, and in a shocker was eliminated from the competition. He was in the bottom two with Katharine McPhee. After Ryan Seacrest announced Chris was going home that night, both Daughtry and McPhee were extremely shocked. Seacrest asked Daughtry if he was surprised. An obviously stunned Daughtry could only utter, "A little, yeah".
There has been some controversy regarding the accuracy of the vote count on the night Daughtry was eliminated. The vote-tallying website DialIdol predicted that Daughtry was the lowest vote-getter for the week.^[5]
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 5 finale on May 24, 2006 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, Daughtry performed the song "Mystery" with the band Live. After Daughtry's performance with Live, "Mystery" was as high as #80 on the ITunes top 100 songs. The downloadable song later appeared on Live's MySpace.com profile.
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."^[6] 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.
On American Idol, clips of every one of Daughtry's performances except for his ''a cappella'' performance during Hollywood Week were featured on the show. Daughtry sang "The Letter" for his first audition. 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. However, during his first performance in the top 24, Randy
and Simon made positive comments on his song choice. This was in reference to him choosing a Matchbox Twenty song in a previous round. It has been inferred that Chris sang a Matchbox Twenty song for the ''a cappella'' round.

Post-''Idol''

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.^[7]
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.^[8]
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.^[9]
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. This has been fixed in a later version.

American Idol performances

Semi-finals

★ February 22, 2006 - "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi

★
★ Randy Jackson praised his choice of song. Paula Abdul stated that he would "go all the way". Simon Cowell said: "For the first time tonight, now I'm hearing somebody with potential."

★ March 1, 2006 - "Hemorrhage (In My Hands)" by Fuel

★
★ The judges loved this performance. Cowell thought it was the best performance of the night, stating it was "in a different class". Jackson said that Daughtry could be on top of the charts right now. Abdul said Daughtry was amazing. After hearing him sing this song, the band who originally recorded it, Fuel, was at the time without a lead singer, and they offered him the position but he refused, saying "he'd still like to work with them somewhere down the road."

★ March 8, 2006 - "Broken" by Seether

★
★ Jackson and Abdul liked this performance, but Cowell found it boring, chiding Chris for his song choice. He advised Chris not to be too "insular"--an idea he would reiterate in following weeks.

Finals

★ March 14, 2006 - "Higher Ground" by Stevie Wonder

★
★ Theme: Stevie Wonder

★
★
★ Roundly praised by all three judges. Cowell opened his comments with, "Thank God for Chris". He said he could imagine Chris having a hit with his rendition of the song, and that Daughtry's blend of Stevie Wonder and the Red Hot Chili Peppers was the only "real world" performance making it the "best tonight, by a mile".

★ March 21, 2006 - "I Walk the Line" by Johnny Cash as performed by Live

★
★ Theme: 1950's

★
★
★ The judges strongly praised Daughtry's originality in presenting a version very different from Cash's original. However, many viewers felt that this performance was similar to a version done by the alternative band Live; no reference to Live was made during the broadcast. Many fans of Daughtry have speculated that he may have given credit to Live in portions of the pre-performance interview that were edited out. On the March 28 episode, in a discussion with Seacrest, Daughtry said that it was in fact Live's version.^[10]

★
★ :In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Chris said, "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.'' We've been talking a lot since. It's really cool for me, because that's the band that inspired me to get into music. Ed Kowalczyk is my favorite singer. It was really cool to get that kind of respect.

★ March 28, 2006 - "What If" by Creed

★
★ Theme: Songs of the 21st Century

★
★
★ Jackson liked the song choice, but thought the singing was sharp and it was not his best performance. Abdul loved it, and said "What if...what if...what if...I am your biggest fan?!". Cowell thought he went too far with the song and that "Creed wouldn't be caught dead on this show." Cowell also advised him that he should try something different from the constant rock archetype which he has performed in for most of the competition, calling it indulgent.

★ April 4, 2006 - "Making Memories of Us" by Keith Urban

★
★ Theme: Country

★
★
★ Jackson and Abdul liked Daughtry's austere performance and that he showed another musical side of himself. Cowell, however, thought it was a boring song choice, but still liked him showing another musical side.

★ April 11, 2006 - "Innuendo" by Queen

★
★ Theme: Queen

★
★
★ Jackson and Abdul, generally fans of Daughtry, both said the performance was great. Cowell did not like the song, and wished that Daughtry had chosen "One of the great Queen songs", but said that the performance was done well. He said it was a little bit indulgent again.

★ April 18, 2006 - "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong (Bottom 2)

★
★ Theme: Great American Songbook

★
★
★ All of the judges gave Daughtry's performance rave reviews; Cowell called it "great." Still, Daughtry found himself in the bottom two on elimination night.

★ April 25, 2006 - "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" by Bryan Adams (Top 2)

★
★ Theme: Greatest Love Songs

★
★
★ All three judges loved the performance. However, due to airtime constraints, the judges were only allowed a few seconds to speak. Daughtry was in the top two on elimination night.

★ May 2 2006 - "Renegade" by Styx and "I Dare You" by Shinedown

★
★ Theme: Song From The Contestant's Birth Year (Chris - 1979)

★
★
★ First song: All three judges gave this performance rave reviews. Cowell said it was a million times better than the first two performances of the night.

★
★ Theme: Billboard Top 10

★
★
★ Second song: The judges thought Daughtry's performance was "okay", but it was obvious to them after multiple practice sessions his voice was starting to give out.

★ May 9 2006 - "Suspicious Minds" by Elvis Presley and "A Little Less Conversation" by Elvis Presley (Eliminated)

★
★ Theme: Elvis Presley

★
★
★ Suspicious Minds: Paula said: "You forget how good that song is, until you hear Chris Daughtry sing it. See you in the finals." Simon gave positive feedback on the first song, and criticized his second song. Daughtry was in the bottom with Katharine McPhee, on May 10, 2006. When asked by Seacrest who would be leaving, Simon expressed that he believed that Katharine would be eliminated; however, Chris, to his surprise, was the one eliminated (McPhee was surprised as well, as it seemed she was braced and ready to leave).

★
★
★ A Little Less Conversation: In an interview with TV Week, Nigel Lythgoe commented, "Jon Peter Lewis did it on the series a while ago, and I thought JPL actually did it better, and I'm a Chris fan. But somehow, again, when it got to the end of the song, I thought, "we're getting into Chris's register." Before that I thought it was... average."^[11]

★ May 24 2006 - "Mystery" (duet with Live)

★
★ Theme: Finale

★
★
★ Although Daughtry was no longer in the competition, he performed a duet with Live and participated in the Top 12 group songs and the guys medley.

Discography

:''For album and singles information, see Daughtry (band).''

References

1. http://online.tvguide.com/newsearch/detail.abspx?id=280407&sourcetype=C&tvobjectid=280407 ''Online.tvguide.com''
2. http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060405/NEWSREC0112/604050321/1065/NEWSREC021102 ''News.record.com''
3. http://www.accesshollywood.com/news/7659307/detail.html ''Accesshollywood.com''
4. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13124105/ ''MSNBC.msn.com''
5. DialIdol predictions page http://www.dialidol.com/asp/predictions/Predictions.asp?week=4&sort=TD&type=score&season=5 DialIdol predictions page ''Dialidol.com''
6. http://realitytv.about.com/b/a/257673.htm ''Realitytv.about.com''
7. http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2006-07-10-daughtry_x.htm ''USAtoday.com''
8. http://www.bobandtheshowgram.com/cc-common/feeds/view.php?feed_id=392&feed=/feed-local.html&instance=1&article_id=68594 ''Bobandtheshowgram.com''
9. http://a.abcnews.com/Entertainment/FallConcert/wireStory?id=2287740 ''a.abcnews.com''
10. http://www.wesh.com/entertainment/8297496/detail.html ''Wesh.com''
11. http://www.tvweek.com/ ''TVweek.com''

External links

★ Official Website

★ Chris Daughtry at WikiMusicGuide

★ Chris Daughtry at the Internet Movie Database

★ Absent Element, Chris Daughtry's former band's official homepage

★ Home Performance Good Morning America Performance

★ Over You Performance on GMA