Oof. That’s the only literal translation for the look on Chris Daughtry’s face at approximately 9:27 EST on May 10, 2006, as he stood on the dreaded sigil during the Final Four elimination episode of Fox’s hugely rated singing competition, “American Idol.” Host Ryan Seacrest had just informed him that, “Chris, you are going home tonight. The journey ends.” Daughtry puffed out his cheeks, bugged out his eyes, and raised his eyebrows, like someone had just sucker punched him right in the gut.
The crowd wailed in angry disbelief. His competition in the Bottom 2 that night, Katharine McPhee, dropped her jaw and did a double take, clearly expecting to take the fall. Judge Paula Abdul threw her head into her hands and frantically rubbed her eyes, as if trying to wake up from whatever chemical-induced nightmare she suddenly found herself in. Judge/record exec Simon Cowell pensively ran his finger over his lips, estimating the imaginary millions that had just disappeared from his bank account.
“Uhhh…I’m a little bit in shock,” Daughtry responded, after Seacrest prodded him for a reaction. Of course he was. We all were. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Chris Daughtry was supposed to win “Idol”’s fifth season. We had all agreed on that from the minute he entered our living rooms, singing “The Letter” in the Denver auditions. He had a great voice, a great look, a great story. He was The Chosen One.
But suddenly, the would-be pop culture king was dead; felled, appropriately enough, by Elvis night. After a promising start and near limitless adulation, a surprise elimination robbed him of his sure shot at a recording contract and left his chances at post-“Idol” success in serious doubt. Sure, a handful of “Idol” runners-up like Clay Aiken and Jennifer Hudson had managed to find a modicum of success (it would be another 10 months before Hudson would win her Oscar). But the odds were that Daughtry would slip back into obscurity like the Justin Guarinis, Diana DeGarmos, and Constantine Maroulises of the world.
One of these singers is not like the other ones, one of these singers just doesn’t belong: A pre-elimination Chris Daughtry (with his Season 5 competitors) used every available path to music stardom, also auditioning for “Rock Star: INXS” and turning down a post-“Idol” offer to sing with another rock band, Fuel. |
Fast forward to November 2006. The band DAUGHTRY, formed and fronted by its namesake, released its self-titled debut album on RCA Records. The disc sold 304,000 copies in its first week, coming in at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. A nationwide tour kicked off two months later, with most dates sold out, some within hours or even minutes of going on sale.
Such was the case with DAUGHTRY’s April 14 show at Starr Hill Music Hall, which is officially sold-out (but everybody knows you can almost always find a ticket if you really, really try). But this isn’t just another stop on Chris Daughtry’s cross-country road trip. Daughtry is a Fluvanna High School alum. Yes, Fluvanna, just one county over, and he credits the Charlottesville area as the place where he first started really playing out as a musician. “I still have tons of friends there, and know quite a bit of people,” he told C-VILLE from a recent tour stop in Lincoln, Nebraska. “So it really is kind of like a homecoming.”
Proving that they shared more than a great head of hair, headstrong judge/record exec Simon Cowell complimented Daughtry as an “AI” contestant that “refused to compromise." |
If you’re one of the 30 million or so viewers that tune into “Idol” every week, Daughtry’s return to Charlottesville is obviously a big deal. But even if you’re one of the hipster crowd, the intellectual elite, the bitter, jaded music fans who look at “Idol” and gag at its fakery, blatant consumerism, and appeal to the lowest common denominator (and you have a point there…), the Daughtry show should be on your radar too. Here’s a hard-working guy who toiled in obscurity for almost a decade. He saw this star-making machine, decided to get in on that action, played it smart, and used it to get exactly where he wanted to be. Frankly, this guy should be your hero.
No. 1 record, No. 1 singles, No. 1 videos—all “losers” should be so lucky.
“I’m going home, to the place where I belong”
While Chris Daughtry the man was born in North Carolina, Chris Daughtry the musician was born in Central Virginia. At least, that’s how Daughtry himself tells it. “That’s where I kind of developed who I am,” he tells C-VILLE.
Daughtry’s family moved to Palmyra in February 1994; his parents continue to live outside the town. He attended Fluvanna County High School, from which he graduated in 1998. He moved back to North Carolina in September 2000, and eventually settled in the McLeansville area, where he was making a living at a car shop when the “Idol” hoopla started in January 2006.
But he credits those six years spent in Central Virginia as crucial in his development as a musician. “I have great memories of the area; that’s when I got into music,” he says.
Anyone who knows Daughtry from “Idol” might have seen him play during his Virginia days and not even realized it; he had long, black hair instead of the shiny bald pate he now sports. His band at the time, Cadence, got its start at a New Year’s Eve battle of the bands at the Bomb Shelter, then a Grady Avenue bar, in either ’98 or ’99 (Daughtry wasn’t sure which). The group then played at Boudreau’s (later Wolfie’s, now Rivals) and the late, great Trax along with My Dog Lucy. Daughtry says Cadence also opened for Navel and Earth to Andy.
Andy Waldeck, who was Earth to Andy’s lead singer, is of course a Charlottesville music fixture, having also played in Egypt and X-Porn Stars and starring in several solo projects. He was also an inspiration to Daughtry, who remembers him fondly. “Andy put a lot of time into me when I was trying to get started,” Daughtry says now. “He would come out to practices and help us get our stuff tight. Stuff like that stands out to me, people who were busy enough as it is but still reached out.”
Waldeck definitely remembers Daughtry, and describes their friendship as having an “older brother/younger brother” dynamic. Waldeck recalls that he first met Daughtry and Cadence after an Earth to Andy show. “I think they all idolized the guys in Earth to Andy,” Waldeck says now. “They spoke very highly of us, always gave us great props. They just basically did a good job of shining us on—that’s the first way to get into a person’s heart. He obviously had good taste! That’s where it started.”
Waldeck says that Daughtry invited him to come see Cadence play at one of its earliest gigs at a Fluvanna High School battle of the bands. “I took a liking to them; they were a good band and super nice guys—just good guys,” Waldeck says. After that Cadence asked for Waldeck’s help in recording a demo, and Waldeck agreed to produce the project. It was recorded in a studio run out of the house of Stuart Gunter and Dave Munn, and that was Cadence’s—and Daughtry’s—first recording experience.
“We put a lot of energy into it, made it as muscular sounding as possible,” Waldeck says. “Those guys were really into Creed, Sevendust, and other heavy guitar bands. I think it opened up the door to them about how recordings are made and how to get good sounds.”
Waldeck says that he and Daughtry stayed in contact for a while after Daughtry left Charlottesville. They eventually fell out of touch until one day, after a year of not hearing from each other, Daughtry called him out of the blue to ask some questions about the music business. “It was about recordings, licensing, contracts—beginner career stuff,” he says. “He was in a band in North Carolina, doing well, making a go of it. I tried to help him as much as I could, always tried to give him some time.”
The next time Waldeck heard about Daughtry was through friends telling him about Daughtry’s “Idol” experience. Waldeck himself is not a fan of the show, but he kept up on Daughtry’s success through the newspaper and mutual friends. He hasn’t yet heard the DAUGHTRY record—although he is thanked in the liner notes, albeit as “Andy Waldek”—but says he’s heard good things.
“I’m fond of Chris, very much so, and really happy for him,” Waldeck says. “I know that he’s a really sincere guy, very talented, and deserves every good bit that happens to him.”
But he adds, “As a rule, I think those shows are ruining rock ‘n’ roll.”
“I was blown away, what can I say?”
Waldeck has a point. Since its debut “Idol” has been criticized as a glorified karaoke/popularity contest that, as Sheryl Crow recently put it, focuses on commercialism rather than artistry. (Pardon me while I go buy my Sheryl Crow Starbucks CD, read my Sheryl Crow issue of Self magazine, and buy my friend a Sheryl Crow Target gift card…) And it slingshots even the more musically experienced contestants into a phase of their career that they simply might not be ready for, robbing them of that critical coming-up-through-the-ranks experience. But you have to respect that even as the machine was absolutely using him, Chris Daughtry used it in return, to a degree that very few Idols before him could manage.
Chris Daughtry, shown here in his Fluvanna High School yearbook picture but not in his rockstar duds, credits his six years spent in Central Virginia as crucial in his development as a musician. |
Daughtry has said that he was inspired by Season 4’s long-haired rocker finalist Bo Bice, and figured that if Bice could make a dent in what had traditionally been a pop- and R&B-dominated show, maybe he could too. He had previously tried out for, and been rejected by, CBS’ “Rock Star: INXS” (a good thing for him; that show didn’t even pull in a fraction of “Idol”’s viewers). But it’s easy to see what “Idol”’s judges (and producers, and millions of viewers) liked about Daughtry. His rocker voice is expressive, has a surprisingly wide range, and fits nicely on the radio next to fellow gritty-voiced acts like Nickelback. He actually knows how to perform a song, not just sing it. And it doesn’t hurt that he’s a stone-cold fox; he rocks that shaved head, works the scruff, and fills out his tight shirts and jeans quite nicely. Throw in a human interest background—hard-working, blue collar husband and step-dad working a day job until he gets his big break—and you can practically hear the “cha-ching!” sounding in Simon Cowell’s flat-topped head.
And so the show started pimping Daughtry early and often; the clip of him flipping over his cowboy hat to reveal his golden ticket to Hollywood was featured in nearly every commercial leading up to Season 5’s first episode. He was one of the most recognizable characters of the season, and fit very nicely into one of the boxes that the producers like to put the contestants into (the country girl, the crooner, the rocker). He pulled out all the rock star moves—walking with the mic stand, singing with the shades on—and man, that audience lapped it right up. He quickly became an “AI” favorite, notching buzzed-about performances week after week by covering songs from Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive” and Live’s cover of Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line” (which caused a minor PR kerfluffle when Live fans groused that Daughtry didn’t credit the band appropriately). Cowell even referred to him as “the first artist ever on the show who’s refused to compromise.”
Well now, Simon, that’s not entirely true. To be on “Idol” at all is a compromise for even the most sugary of pop tarts. Sure, Daughtry found a way to hold on to his modern rock vibe even during seemingly incongruous theme nights, like the Stevie Wonder catalogue (he smartly chose the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ cover of “Higher Ground”) to the Great American Songbook (a lovely, grittier version of Louis Armstrong’s “What A Wonderful World”). But would a “rocker” sing those songs by choice? He had to play along within the confines of the show, and to his credit, he did it brilliantly. Guys could still feel comfortable rooting for him (yeah, he was singing Bryan Adams, but he was still gritty and wore a wallet chain! He’s still cool!). Girls could still swoon over him (he’s singing “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman”! Eee!). He endured all of “Idol”’s attendant cheesiness, like the often embarrassing group sings and the mandated Coke and Ford commercials. He even wore a bright pink polo shirt for one particularly cringe-inducing golf-themed spot.
One, two, three, flex! Chris Daughtry and the four hired guns that make up his band, DAUGHTRY, have nearly reached double platinum status behind the strength of a debut filled with hard rock and "hooky melodies." |
And it’s crap like that that should make Daughtry fans happy he didn’t win “AI.” Sure, it sucks that he lost. (He told Rolling Stone that one particular fan, Lisa Marie Presley, “was first to call me [after his elimination]—I had to hold the phone about a foot from my face because of all the f-bombs she was dropping. She was pissed!”) And as he’s said in interviews, you go that far into something, you have enough people tell you that you’re a shoo-in, you kind of expect it all to actually happen. But consider that had he won, Daughtry would have been almost completely at the mercy of 19 Entertainment, the management company that runs the show and handles all of its winners. And as previous winners like Kelly Clarkson can tell you, that’s not always a good thing. From Justin to Kelly, anyone?
“I’ve finally become what you wanted me to be”
With his fourth-place finish essentially ending the threat of From Chris to Katharine or something equally ghastly, Daughtry made some decisions about his future during the “American Idols Live” tour in the summer of 2006. Nineties rock band Fuel offered him the lead singer spot based on his universally praised cover of its signature song, “Hemorrhage,” during the “Idol” semi-finals. In June, Daughtry declined, explaining to the press that he wanted to do his own thing. A month later he signed with RCA and 19 Recordings (yep, part of the group that runs “Idol”—still using that machine the best he can), and set to work auditioning the band that would become DAUGHTRY. The final lineup includes Josh Steeley (guitar), Josh “JP” Paul (bass), Joey Barnes (drums), and Brian Craddock, formerly of My Dog Lucy, who replaced Jeremy Brady as a guitarist.
"I tried to help him as much as I could, always tried to give him some time," local musician Andy Waldeck says of Daughtry’s early band, Cadence. Waldeck’s protege has, undoubtedly, outsold his teacher since then. |
Throughout the “Idol” tour Daughtry worked with established rockers like Brent Smith of Shinedown and Mitch Allan of SR-71 to write songs for the debut album. And since it debuted on November 21, it has sold just shy of 2 million copies and hit the top of the charts on two separate occasions. The video for the album’s first single, “It’s Not Over,” has been a regular fixture atop VH-1’s “Top 20” video countdown, and the song is in heavy rotation on modern rock and adult contemporary radio stations.
Not too shabby, especially when you consider that “AI5”’s eventual winner, “soul” poseur Taylor Hicks, has yet to sell even 1 million copies of his disc.
Reviews for the album have been mixed, with some critics slamming a reliance on glossy production values and catchy melodies in lieu of something—anything—original. The Chicago Sun-Times opined that it “quickly reveals a serious lack of substance.” That’s not untrue; Daughtry is a decidedly mainstream effort, filled with hummable songs that stick in your head, but that don’t exactly offer any new insights into the human condition.
But that’s not necessarily what Daughtry, the man, is going for, anyway. As he recently explained to Rolling Stone, “As far as my songwriting, it was all about hooky melodies that people could sing along to. And some people have problems with songs people like.”
If Daughtry seems to shrug off the criticism, that’s probably because he can. Consider that in just 16 months the man has gone from auto parts salesman to topping the Billboard charts. A lot of the credit goes to the great “Idol” machine, but he’s working it, touring like crazy, carefully releasing singles (the second, “Home,” has just started getting radio play after being featured in “Idol”’s dismissal clips all season long), and appearing on talk shows like “Ellen” and “Live With Regis and Kelly.”
“It’s a little surreal to me,” he tells C-VILLE of the massive change in direction his life has undergone in just over a year. “I’ve obviously wanted to do this since I was 16. It’s just kind of surreal to me on this scale. I always hoped for it. To get that is like winning the lottery, it rarely happens. Tons of bands come and go that I thought were amazing, so it’s really cool that I’m able to do this.”
Daughtry is also aware of the dangers of the instant success that comes attendant with being reality show star; there’s another cast of hopefuls just waiting to take your place in, oh, seven months. “I hope to still be in the game five to 10 years from now, not just be a fly-by-night success,” he says. “I love to do this, and I’d love to be doing this 15 years from now. To still be able to put out music I love, that other people love, that people still want to hear. To still be able to play shows with my band sell out soccer stadiums.”
Asked to look back before the pre-“Idol” and DAUGHTRY madness and think about life as a struggling would-be rock star, Daughtry offers these tips to the kids now trying to make it big in the place where he first got his start: “It’s not easy. You’ve got to love what you do. There’s no formula to making it big, I found out,” he says. “I can’t say what to do to get you where you want to go, but I can tell you to take every opportunity that comes to you. Sometimes you got to walk through a bunch of doors to get to the right one. Trust me, I know.”
