March 8, 2021 • 42 mins
You may know Daughtry from American Idol or his extensive music career, but Wells is here to reveal some stories you’ve NEVER heard before!
Find out how car maintenance helped fuel his music journey and discover how he transformed a loss on American Idol into one of the most successful artists to appear on the show!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Are we good? Back in the home studio? Things are
sounding crisp sibiments. Check one, check one. I like that
I just had some cheese and a Noma breast smells spot.
But I don't care because no one else is in here.
The one silver lining this pandemic is that I've been
able to eat cheese without the worry that people will
judge me for cheese breath. Let's normalized cheese breath, right,
(00:23):
all right? Started? This is a Wells cast with Wells
atoms and I heart radio podcast. Put a peops out
there in the podcast world. Hope everyone's having a wonderful day.
I feel like I feel like vaccines for me right
(00:44):
around the corner. I feel like I'm about to get
that shot. And then guess what, your boy's gonna go
black out of the bar. I don't know, it's gonna
be a while from now. But I was over at
my buddy's house a couple of nights ago, who's a
phenomenal musician, and we were talking about it, and like,
you know, early in my career, I went to like
three or four shows a week when I was doing radio,
(01:05):
which is kind of part of the deal. Like you know,
you wanted to have your finger on the pulse. So
what was happening in Nashville? And you know it was
also one of the perks is that I was a
tony something kid and I got free tickets to everything
because I would talk about the show, you know, before
and after on the radio. And there was a time
in my life in which I mean I loved it,
But there was a time in life I was like,
oh my god, I got in another show. I can't
(01:26):
I can't die. And now what I would give to
see live music. I would go see terrible bands just
to be like, I'm back in a bar drinking a beer.
I go see like a children's musician. I go to
Raffi right now at Hotel Cafe and just get blindly
drunk and love every second of it. I just missed
(01:48):
live music so freaking much. It's ridiculous. Speaking of on
the show today, we've got someone who is actually putting
on a live show, which is hard to do these days.
So you have to do with zoom and all this
crazy stuff. Technology. Gee, you need some high speed internet.
Elon must probably needs to be involved sending down some internet.
I don't know how it works, but I know that
he's got an awesome live show coming up and listen.
(02:10):
I know, I think I believe we are about through this,
Like you can't go have fun anymore time, but till then.
My guest today has a really cool idea of how
to actually experience some live music. Can you get blacked
out drunk on your couch and still see the live music?
Yeah you can. He's figured it out. He's doing a
live show from Nashville, my old stopping grounds coming up
(02:31):
on March twelveth. We'll tell you all about it a bit,
but for someone do the whole thing where I like,
I get you ready for it. This guy one of
the most successful American Idol non winners in the history
of the show. Yeah he is. He was on season five.
That's going way back right. He's a multi platinum Grammy
nominated musician. Before going on American Idol, he was a
(02:52):
service advisor at a car dealership in North Carolina. What
gotta hear about that? But he's not just a musician.
Is an actor as well. He's been on CSI New York.
He played Judas in a musical TV movie. What he
was on The Mass Singer got second place and He's
one of the most beloved people to come out of
(03:13):
American Idol. His record sales speak for themselves. On the
Wells Cast today we have the one, the only Chris Daughtry. Guys,
this is a show you do not want to miss.
I promise you stick around. Yeah. Back on the Wells Cast.
(03:37):
They're excited to have I believe, one of the most
popular American Idol people ever on the show. But he's
done the thing that a lot of reality people struggle with,
which is take that fifteen minutes and really build it
into this amazing career. Chris Daughtry, thank you so much
for being on the show. Been a big fan of
(03:58):
yours for a while. And I guess I didn't realize
that you were a Nashville guy. I used to live there.
I was a radio host in Nashville for years. First
of all, thank you, thank you so much. But we
we moved here about I guess in Gelotopy five years.
So it still feels kind of new to us, to
be honest, because we're we have so many kids, were
(04:18):
always home. We don't really get a chance to to
be out in it. Um. We live slightly outside of downtown,
so we're not in in all the craziness. But it's cool.
It's it's uh. It kind of reminds me of where
I grew up in North Carolina, um as far as
the landscape of it all real quick, because you're a
(04:39):
Nashville guy and I was a Nashville guy. What's your
go to hot chicken? I haven't eaten chicken in two years,
three almost three years. I kind of stay away from
the meat man, all right, smart move, not because of
the vegetarian thing, but because of the diarrhea that comes
the next day. So could call on that. Yeah, there,
(05:02):
there's there. There was that as well. Yeah, yeah, I
saw that you're doing dough Free live from Nashville. It's
going to be a virtual show on March twelve people
Combiny tickets at gigs dot Live. I was looking at
your Instagram and you were kind of showcasing what it's
gonna be like, and it's so dope, dude. But it
(05:24):
also is like a little Hunger Game Z to me.
It's so Hunger Games. It's so like it. I was
in there and I'm like, holy sh we're really in
the future here. Like one year ago, if you would
have told me we're gonna be doing a show in
front of screens and you're gonna be talking to the fans,
and they're gonna be talking to you, but they're gonna
be in their living room may or may not be
(05:45):
wearing pants. We would have just thought it was the
craziest ship we've ever heard ever, and you know, here
we are and it's super bizarre. We did a we
did a live stream tour just me and my guitar
player back in the fall, and that was even weirder
because it was just in front of a camera but
we didn't see anyone, so there was no It was
(06:06):
like crickets after every song, and we just had to
finally like say, you know what, screw this, We're gonna
have fun, me and you and then if they they
see that that they're going to have a good time too,
because we realized that we were really dependent on the
audience reaction for us to like have a good time,
like this is back ass words. It should be we're
(06:27):
having a good time, therefore you're enjoying the show. Not
you're enjoying the show. So I'm going to be better
at it. This whole year has been a learning curve
for everybody trying to figure out how to do your
job differently. Um, and that was certainly a a weird one,
but this this feels like it's at least a little
more connected where we get to see faces. I don't
even know if they're gonna be watching the show. It
might just be pre recorded faces just to make us
(06:51):
feel better. I was talking about it leading up to
calling you, and I miss going to see live music
so much. And the weird stuff too, of like the
chats that you have outside with like the chain smoker
that you haven't seen in a while in between sets,
and like the blacking out and like forgetting to close
your bark. Like there's like a lot of like little
(07:12):
intricacies of like the live show that it was, this event,
and it sucks that we've been robbed of it for
this past year. And it's cool that you guys have
figured out a way to somewhat bring it back to
what we remember. And it's so funny too, because I think,
as a person in the audience, you forget how the
energy is looped between the audience and the artist, because
(07:37):
the artist gives the fans energy and then they fans
give it back to you. And it's like you're on
this cyclical loop of energy together. Yeah, and you're hearing
them sing the songs sometimes louder than you are, and
and that's like an unbelievable feeling. And if we do
that now, it's going to cut out the feed m
(08:00):
it's every all the sounds gonna drop and we're gonna
lose our place. Um It's it's a weird. And I
saw like the Flaming Lips were doing like bubbles where
everybody was, even the crowd was in bubbles. Did you
see that? I'm like, how is how does that work?
Like how do you prevent someone from like completely blacking
out from from exhaustion and heat? And it's just a weird,
(08:22):
weird living in the jets ands like we're there, Yeah,
especially because the Flaming Lips fans are already out there
and weird, you know, like the band, the band, the
singer has always done the bubble thing, right, like that's
a thing for him. I don't know, I don't know
if I could ever do that. The mass singer was
like the closest thing I came to, like singing in
(08:42):
a bubble, and that was I almost passed out every
every episode, So no thanks on that. I think we'll
stick with the screens until we can get back in
in front of people. I haven't seen my band and
over a year other than the two people, the two
band members that live in Nashville. Like it's it's been
like a weird time loop. I don't know about you,
and it feels like someone just turned the dial and
(09:03):
here we are. We're in and we're still not in
front of people, and I don't know when it's gonna change.
I don't know. I think that you figure out, like
at least a good something for everyone to go do
and again March twelve. You can be a part of this.
Dot Frey Live from Nashville. Grab tickets at gigs dot live.
(09:23):
Are there like tears, like like are some people getting
to like ask questions or be more interactive or like
how does this work? I don't know how they're selecting it.
I don't want to say the wrong thing, but I
don't know how they're selecting the fans. But they're however
many fit on those screens that they'll they'll be selected.
I don't know if it's the first so many people
they bought tickets, or how they're doing it. That's out
(09:44):
of my hands. But they'll be fans. What I'm saying
is they'll be fans. And I think at the end
of the show, certain fans I don't I think it
might be a tear where they buy into the I
don't know if they're part of the fan club or what.
I should know more about this as I'm saying this,
I should know more. That's what I'm realized. But yeah,
(10:04):
there's gonna be a Q and A and um, yeah,
it's it's cool and and in some ways like this
is uh, probably a little more interactive than you know
if they were to see us on stage somewhere, because
there is no Q and A. There's no like in
the middle of a song, you know, talking to you
know so and so sometimes there is I guess if
(10:24):
they're they're interrupting the set, But which has happened. It's
a trade off, right, Like you get to experience it differently.
You get to be in your own home. You don't
have anybody spilling beer on you, um, unless you just
have that drunk uncle over and he's just lost it
and he's out of control, or brother doesn't have to
be uncle, or sometimes mom sometimes mom just had too much.
(10:47):
I don't know, it's a really cool thing. I think
that this is the best because I've I've talked to
a lot of people who have been doing the live
shows and the small live showcases and stuff, and I
think this is the best execute did the thing that
I've seen so far. And if you're just like wondering
if this is something you want to go do, go
to Chris's instagram at Daughtry and it's like the like
(11:11):
the third thing you put three posts to go is
a really cool like showcase of what the stage looks like,
what the backdrop looks like, and then like what the
fans will be looking like looking back at you guys.
I don't know if you remember when the NBA was
in the playoffs or whatnot, everyone's kind of stuck in
Orlando and they had put TV screens where the seats
(11:31):
were and everyone was just sitting there watching it. It's
kind of like that. So it's a really cool thing,
complete disease free. Yeah atmosphere, let's drunk moms next to you,
and then who knows what's going to happen. I saw
you got some new music out and the new song
that you've got out is World on Fire, which I
was reading about it and that was kind of like
(11:53):
a nod to the Australia fires. Yeah, when we originally
wrote it, Um Scott and Marty much producers. When we
were writing that song, it started out as um, you know,
we were just kind of on Instagram looking at you know,
the fires that were taking place, and the George Floyd
thing hadn't happened yet, but there was certainly no shortage
of police brutality going on even then. I can't remember
(12:15):
who it was. I don't know if it was Mod
Aubrey or Brianna Taylor. It was just like one bad
thing after another. And I remember were us just saying, man,
the damn world's on fire, and we're like, that's what
we gotta, right, And we were going through. Scott had
this this folder and I don't know, kind I swear
on this, I don't know, Yeah, alright, perfect, he had
(12:37):
this folder and we were He said, I got a
few like riff starts here and there, just let's listen
to it and see if anything like inspires us. And
I saw this folder and said, threshes, I was like,
let's play that one. And it was. It was the
opening riff, literally the opening of of what you know
as the song now, and I was like, that is
what we need to work on, and it just kind
(12:59):
of start it right in itself. We were just talking
about everything that was was wrong with the world. And
then fast forward to because this was in January, fast
forward to like two months later, We're all scratching our
heads like how did we know? Like holy sh it,
like the sickness is rising, like there was no sickness
(13:19):
going on, and um, you know, twenty dead in a
cop car, bleeding like all this stuff. We were like,
oh my god, it was like we had a crystal
ball or something. And uh, I didn't want people to
think we were just writing about so we kind of
held off. We didn't we didn't release it right away
because I didn't want it to sound like, hey, look
at what we wrote, this is what's happening right now.
(13:42):
But it felt very aproposed for the first single. For sure,
I know that there's a new record on the way.
I wonder this not just for you, but like for
every musician that I've interviewed, The stuff that comes out
after this year has got me the most sad bastard dark,
like deepest Ryan Adams lyrics ever. That is how It's
(14:05):
gonna come. It's absolutely the deepest ship I've ever written
in my career. It's the most introspective that I've ever written.
For sure, It's definitely got, I don't want to give
too much away, but it's also probably in some ways
the most hopeful. There hasn't been a shortage of things
to write about, and this year has been I think
(14:26):
transformative for so many people and and forced us to
really look at ourselves and and face our own baggage
and bullets. And I think this record has been extremely
therapeutic for me. I just finished vocals on it last week.
We're getting the band on it like it's the record
is actually happening. But I feel like at this point,
(14:46):
if we release it would be like throwing a ball
out to just the open field and just falling to wherever.
And we're like, we can't go out and tour on it.
We're trying to figure out when it's coming out. I
don't know yet, but we are going to be releasing
a new single very soon, so I can say that
um And we just put up a limited edition vinyl
(15:06):
World on fire and Side B is the next single
that we have yet to tell anyone the title of,
but I'm super pumped on it. Be shooting a video
on it, uh this weekend actually, So yeah, there's a
lot of a lot of stuff going on, but hopefully
we can actually get out there and support it at
the same time, you know, I talked to a lot
of musicians and they're putting stuff out and I'm like,
(15:28):
this is tough because it's expensive to put out music
and when you can't recoup by selling merch and touring
behind something, then if I was a businessman in the
music industry, I'd be like, you just got to hold
off until people can go to festival. So I applaud
you for like sticking around waiting for it. It's that
double edged sword, like you know, we're all running out
(15:48):
of new things to listen to, so we're like, we
feel bad for the fans, yet we're like, but we gotta,
you know, pay our bills too, and holding onto it
might not be Um, I don't know. It's like we
hold onto it and you're doing nothing. You at least
release it and something's happening. So um, yeah, it's it's
a tricky, tricky thing to navigate. You did a mass
(16:11):
sing or you the Rottweilder. I've had a bunch of
people from Massinger, m mass Dancer on the show, and
my thing is this is it smells so bad in there?
Or do they for breeze it before and afterwards? Oh
it's the worst, It's awful. Um did you ever did
you ever play any sports in high school? So like
(16:32):
it's like locker room smell, So did you ever play football?
You ever smelled the pads? And it like day one,
it was like this has been used by day. By
day like seven, it's like, oh my god, I don't
even know if they made for breeze when I was
in high school. But so it just it just kept
(16:52):
getting worse. But that's how it was. It was like
day one. I'm like, oh, but it was a little
different because it wasn't like used football gear. It was
new to me. So everything in it was my fault,
Like I caused every smell in this thing. By like
third episode, I'm like, this is this is getting tough
(17:15):
to deal with. They would try, they would for breathe it,
they would sit it out in the sun, probably let
it air bait. I don't know it was. It was right.
Luckily they did their best. They did their best to
try to air it out and make it a little
more livable. That was a lot of information about smell.
By the last question about about mass Singer, I heard
that you chose the rottweiler for a reason. Yeah. So
(17:38):
when they approached me to do the show, they had
like three or four different costume options, and I was like,
I'm gonna have to just go with the rottweiler because
I have a connection to a rottweiler. I got bit
by one when I was like fourteen or fifteen. My
mom watched this This blind lady took care of her
a few days a week, helping out stuff around the house,
(18:01):
and she had this rottweiler and she was like, Oh, Chris,
this is the sweetest dog ever. Don't don't be afraid.
You can come over here in Petter. The very second
I reached my hand out, this dog jumped up and
snapped my leg and it scared the living ship out
of me, ripped through my jeans, barely scratched the skin.
I'm not gonna try trying not to be too dramatic.
(18:22):
Barely scratched the skin, but it scarred my soul for life.
It was terrifying. This dog's head was like the size
of my head on the show. It was. It could
have ripped my leg off if it wanted to. I
don't know if it was scared that I was getting
too close to its owner and and didn't trust me.
I don't know. Maybe it was the nineties geens. I
(18:43):
don't know. Maybe it didn't like baggy jeans. I don't
I don't really know the motive. But it bit me,
and it scared me, and I never touched that dog again,
and I don't think I've pet a Rottweiler since. So
it was me embracing and facing my fears, much like
Swayne became a game batman because it was terrified about
(19:04):
I like that. Okay, I'm running out of time with you,
but I want to kind of flip over to like
my portion of the show. I don't know if anyone
told you, but this is an Origin Stories podcast, so
I like to find out where people came from and
how the hell they got here. You down, all right, quick, brighton,
we come back. Chris Daughtry tells us where he came
(19:24):
from and why the fun he is on this show?
Stick around all right back in the Wales cast have
Christofrey on the show. He's gonna be doing a live
show from Nashville, which you can virtually be a part of.
(19:45):
It's coming up on March twelve, by your tickets over
at gigs dot Live. I want to know you know,
obviously there's been a whole lot of information about you
pre American Idol. So where did you come from? Man?
In a small, small, small town called Laska, North Carolina.
I don't think it was on the map until after
(20:06):
I was on an American Idol, to be honest, I
think it was a town of like nine people one stoplight. No,
I think it was a hundred people actually, but it
was like one street. I was around music all my life,
but never really um never really showed an interest. I
was always into art, Batman, I was. I wanted to
be a comic book artist actually, way before I ever
(20:31):
picked up a guitar, even though my dad played guitar,
My granddad played guitar. It was around music, but never
showed any interest other than like singing along with the radio.
Didn't really give the nineties hit and I started getting into.
My brothers started turning me onto like, you know, Metallica
Black album and this band called Live, this Throwing Copper album.
(20:53):
He was like, oh, you gotta listen to this, and
I remember kind of blowing it off at first, and
bands like Sound Garden and Stone Temple Pilots I got
really heavy into them. But there was this album called
Throwing Copper that I kind of kept going back to
and listening to. And the more I listened, the more
I became obsessed. The more I listened to more, I
wanted to sing like this guy. I got really obsessed
(21:13):
with that koalchich from Live and in his voice and
his songwriting, and I wanted to learn how to play guitar.
I had a friend in high school who played, and
he was I remember him playing like um in class.
One day he had his guitar. We were kind of
sucking around, we didn't have anything to do, and he
started playing I think Fell on Black Days or something
(21:35):
like that, and I was like, Oh, that's the shift
I'm into. My death played country music. Wasn't really into that,
so it didn't really appeal to me to ever pick
up a guitar, and so I was like, oh, you
gotta show me some chords. One day, he kind of
showed me a few chords and surprisingly picked it up
relatively quickly and started kind of learning the songs that
I was into. I remember singing in front of him
(21:57):
one day kind of like sheepishly, and he was like,
why aren't you doing this? Man? You sound like Tracy Chapman,
and I love Tracy Chapman. I was like, oh, cool, man.
I think it was just my you know, singing with
hesitant had had the had the tone, but I didn't
really know what I was doing. And he had a band,
like a cover band that he was one of like
(22:19):
six members, and I was like, he was like, dude,
you need to come sing a couple of songs with us.
One night we played this like open mic night at
like cafe something. And by the way, fast forward, I'm
not in North Carolina anymore. I mean this is ninety four,
ninety six probably, I'm in Virginia near Charlottesville, Virginia, where
(22:40):
my parents moved to for job, a different job, and
I moved there in ninety four started getting into music,
Like I said, early nineties. So now we're like ninety
six and I'm learning how to play guitar and I'm
singing at open mic night. I think it was even
like a Dave Matthews song or something. And I think
we even threw in a little live and something that
(23:03):
that catered to my voice a little bit more. And
I kind of started just writing my own thing. I
was doing a few weekends with them here and there,
and then I was like, I think I want to
start my own band. I had my buddy that lived
with me. He was learning how to play bass the
same time I was learning how to play guitar. A
friend of mine in class said he could play drums.
(23:26):
So we're like, okay, we barely know how to play
our instruments. Let's let's let's learn together here and we
uh used my buddies garage. That told me I sounded
like Tracy Chapman because I didn't have a garage. I
lived in a double wide trailer and nowhere to practice
and calls noise. So um. My friend Robert Nesbitt was
gracious enough his family, rather, it was gracious enough to
(23:48):
let us uh suck really bad in his garage. We
were playing nothing but live covers, Secret Somebody album top
to bottom. It's like it's only live. This is what
we're doing. It was self indulgent on my part. It
was like, I'm the singer, this is what we're playing.
And then I started writing really bad songs. We would
(24:09):
perform those, we would refine them over time, and they
were listenable, didn't have a whole lot of depth lyrically.
We did a full on demo around and we were
in a band called Cadence, and we started getting in
the circuit. We started playing the Charlottesville circuit, opening up
for bands that were we're more well known than us,
(24:30):
and Charlottesville, Virginia at the time was hopping with original music.
Nobody was playing covers, so it was perfect for us
because we we were we were like, we got our
we were writing new new stuff. We're writing our own stuff.
We didn't want to play covers out in public. We
wanted we wanted to get signed. I didn't know how
to do that, but we're that's what we were gonna do.
So we started opening up for well known bands in
(24:51):
the area and we we got on opening for this
band called My Dog Lucy, which fast forward to now
the guitar player from that band as an Now the
guitar player for Daughtry Brian Craddick. We opened for this
band called Earth to Andy, who was really blowing up
in the area. They had just got signed to Giant Records.
They had toured with you know, Stone Timple Pilots and
(25:13):
opened for Aerosmith and we were like, oh, ship, we're next.
And we started playing for crowds, like I think the
most people we ever drew was like three people, but
it wasn't our crowd. It was somebody else's that we
were opening for. But we took it as hours. We
got on like the Late Night Nine. It was a
radio station in Charlesville, College station, local station that would
(25:35):
that would interview bands like midnight, and we were like, oh,
we made it. Were they're playing our stuff, but it's
at midnight when nobody's listening. And then it just felt
like we were spending wheels. Fast forward years later, I
moved to North Carolina. When I met my wife, we
broke up. Me and the band broke up because it
became too too much for me to go back and forth.
(25:55):
The band practice playing you know, for nobody, and then
started another band and that didn't really do anything, and
then I went on American Idol and the rest is history.
So I feel like I'm I'm pretty sure I missed
a lot of in between stuff, but it was a
whole lot of spinning wheels in that in that amount
of time was like ten years of playing for the
guest list. I heard that there was a competition show
(26:19):
that was before American Idol called rock Starring Excess. Yes, yes,
so I did that. I went an auditioned for rock
Star in Excess. I was living in North Carolina, went
to Charlotte to this little club and had like a
one on one audition with the producer and I did
um Desire from YouTube and and never tear us apart
(26:41):
from an Excess, brought my guitar played. It was in
a club, like full on, like open mic night at
a club, did the whole interview, and I was pumped.
I was like, Oh, this is the moment. There's a
rock show. This is it. And months go by, I
hear nothing, I hear nothing, and I finally I'm like
reaching out to one of the producers. I'm like, hey,
(27:03):
like what's happening. And they told me they let me
down easy. They were like, we actually think it wouldn't
be good for your career to be on this show.
Maybe not in those words, but it was something like,
we think this would hurt you more than it would
help you. And I just thought they were being nice.
All right, well that's a nice way of saying you know,
you're not good enough or whatever. You know. I was green.
(27:27):
I didn't know what to think. I was like, all right, well,
no big deal. There was a moment like it's over.
But then I was watching the latest season of American
Island at the time, and I remember seeing it wasn't
just a bunch of pop singers anymore, Like bobis was
on their constant team Marulas and it was a year
carry Underwood one and I remember thinking like, I mean,
(27:51):
maybe they're more interested in being diverse now and and
maybe something maybe there is room for someone like myself.
And went in audition. Well, I was supposed audition in Memphis.
I'm living in North Carolina at the time. I was
gonna go audition in Memphis. That was going to be
the closest audition the Hurricane Katrina hits. They canceled that
(28:12):
audition because the FedEx Forum where they were holding auditions
was used for for, you know, people that lost their homes,
you know, people were having they were using them, using
it to house thousands of people. And the next audition
would have been in Denver, Colorado, and I'm like, that's
a long ways away. We're broke, We're like, that's a
(28:34):
that's an expensive flight. And my job raised money for
me to fly to Denver, Colorado to go audition, and
I flew out there. I had never been. I don't
think i'd ever at this point, never traveled away from
my family. And I'm out there by myself at Broncos Stadium,
five thirty in the morning, in line thousands of people. Right.
(28:56):
We we go, we take a ticket and we get
seated in Eco Stadium. It's like nine thousand people. They
call you up by I think, I think, I don't know.
Let's say ten people at a time, and you're there's
like ten different producers, and there's a line at each producer,
and they call one person up at the same time
(29:18):
from that line. So it's like ten people singing at
the same time. I think we're spaced out a good
Let's say ten ft apart, and so you can hear
the person next to you singing and the person to
your left, and you got the producer in front of you,
and they're like giving you like ten maybe thirty seconds,
depends on it changes from singer to singer. And I
(29:39):
remember it's my turn, and I'm like, I just gotta
be loud as I gotta be louder than everybody else.
And I went up and I saying I put a
spell on you CCRs version, and I just went up
and I walked up and I just went on you,
and everybody like stopped and looked, and I was like, uh,
(30:00):
I don't know if this is a good thing, but
I just got everybody's attention, and the guy was like,
you're in and I was like, okay, cool. I didn't
realize the process at this point. So that was round
number one. Then I gotta go audition the next day.
I gotta go do a bunch of paperwork. Then I
gotta go audition the next day for what I think
is going to be the judges. Nope, it's the executive producers.
(30:22):
And I did the same song and they were just like,
it's a little too raspy for my taste. Maybe when
you audition for the judges, do something a little little uh,
I don't know, a little a little more recognizable, like
the letter from Joe Cocker. I was like, oh, so
it is. Oh does this mean that I get to
do this again? Oh? Yeah, yeah, I know you made it.
(30:43):
I was like, what once again? Auditions were thrown off
because of the Katrina thing. So would have been the
next day auditioning for paul Irandi and Simon. I had
to fly back home and come back I think a
week or two later to audition. So a week or
two later, me and my wife fly back out and
I do the audition for Paula, Simon, Randy and we
(31:04):
all saw how that went. But right afterwards, like I
walk outside and I see Simon because he gave me
some ship in the audition, but I kind of felt
like I kind of like I felt personally like he's
he's like testing me, like like kind of keeping me
on my toes. So I saw him getting ready get
in his car, and I walked up to him and
I was like, I'll prove you wrong in Hollywood and
(31:25):
he shook my hand. He was like, you do that, Chris.
I was like, oh snappy, remember my name. And uh
So we fly home. Me and my wife are celebrating.
We're super stoked. They add a new audition location to
replace Memphis because I got canceled, and it's in my backyard.
It's in Greensboro, North Carolina, And I'm like, are you
(31:47):
kidding me? But at this point I had already made it.
So it was perfect because the producers were like, hey,
since we're gonna be literally like fifteen minutes from your house,
this is a perfect time to do like some backstory
b roll and I'm like, oh snap. So it was
perfect because now I don't have to to wonder if
(32:08):
I'm gonna make it to Hollywood. And and now they're
filming extra stuff on me, which usually when I see this,
that means this person is gonna go far. So I'm
thinking all the thoughts start flooding it. I'm like, okay,
this is all a good thing. And they're like filming
my kids. They're like filming me playing air hockey with
my kids, and um walking around packing my bags like
(32:31):
I'm going it was crazy. Um, And this was all
like coming from plane to twenty people at brew Balls
in Burlington, North Carolina. Yes, that is a real place.
I'm not kidding. Brew Balls sounds like a disease, but
it was it was a place that allowed me to play,
and I'm very grateful for brew Balls and Blue Gator
(32:52):
to the guest list, to like, all of a sudden,
I'm about to go potentially be away from my family
for months. And that's when I wrote Home, before I
even left to go. Um. I wrote that before I
had even experienced what it was like to be away.
I wrote that song so um it was it was
an interesting um. I mean, it was running gun. I
(33:15):
had never experienced anything like that in my life. And
I'm singing every day. Up We're up at like sitting
on the lot for hours doing nothing, and then we'd
be up to like midnight rehearsing. This was all in
Hollywood week and I was just blown away that I
was able to keep my voice that long. It was rigorous,
(33:35):
it was. It was definitely the most work I had
ever done in music up to that point, because you know,
band practices a bunch of dudes that don't know what
they're doing, and we're just like, yeah, that sounds great,
that's gonna be a hit, and you know, twenty people here,
you know, But it was. It was crazy. It was
(33:56):
fast and furious, and all those years of playing in
ours to note, you know, to hardly anyone there, and
and that that feeling of not not verbal rejection, but
that feeling of like, you know, I'll take the twenty people.
It's it's somebody. It prepared me a great deal for
(34:16):
you know. The actual verbal rejection of that was just okay.
I did the groundwork, for sure, And a lot of
people don't realize that that I spent that many years
playing and begging bars to like, let us let our
band play, or come play for twenty minutes, or let
me bring my guitar and play for a hundred bucks
(34:37):
for three hours of covers, you know, like that was
all the homework leading up to that. For sure, that
story is not a unique one on this show, which
is overnight success generally takes decades. Absolutely, I want to
be respectful of your time. So lets you go your
shirt saying Nashville. Is that a Nashville show? Yeah, it's
actually And I didn't sweet shirt man. I didn't do
(34:59):
this because I didn't think you did it. It felt
very organic, or else you would have taken your jacket
off and winter Hey projects six one five? Have you
ever heard of it? Exactly? I still don't have a
six one five area code. I'm still rocking the three
three six North Carolina. Well, I'm out in l A
now and I'm the only one that's got a Nashville number,
(35:19):
and I'm I'm sticking with it. Well, I never changed
it when I lived in l A. Well, hey man,
I'm running out of time with use. I want to
be respectful of your time, but I feel like we
could talk about this for hours. However, yea forever days,
even before I let you go, you have time for
some rapid fire questions. Rapid fire Let's do it. Here
we go. Rapid fire questions with Chris Dad Street Number one?
(35:41):
What's always in your fridge? Always in my fridge? Almond milk?
One thing on your bucket list? Bucket list? Um to
be in an action movie? What animals do you wish
you could talk to? Goats? Well? Why goats? I grew
up with goats. Uh, I've always had this this affinity
(36:02):
and and like I feel like I do have a
weird zin connection with goats whenever I see them. That's
the best answer you've gotten to that one so far.
Would you rather be rich and sad or poor and happy?
Poor and happy? Always physical trait you notice about someone
you are attracted to? But how would you describe your
high school self? Um? Let's physical, let's and eyes. Let's
(36:28):
go with eyes too. Yum oh did you go back
to button? Non non physical? Soul said? What was your
next question? Sorry, I'm cutting all that out. You're just
getting butts and that's that you're just getting What did
I say? How would you describe your high school self?
Probably overconfident? Who's your childhood hero? Jean Claude Van Damn,
(36:53):
celebrity crush Kate Beck and Sale? Did you have a
poster hanging in your bedroom? Mall? Did I? Or do you? I? Both?
I literally thought you said? Do you? Um? Yes, I had?
I had Lion Heart Jean Claude Van dam poster in
my bedroom And do you now yes? No, that would
(37:17):
be hilarious. Honey, this is going anywhere. This is the
one thing to staying first councer. Everyone to the first
one I went to. I don't really. It was like
a buzz fest, like a bunch of bands, but it
wasn't like it was. It wasn't anything memorable. My first
memorable concert was live throwing Copper No no secret, somebody
(37:38):
Uh I didn't get I wanted to see Throng Copper,
but it was it was secret somebody that was the
tour I actually funny story. I won tickets to that
show by calling the station and begging them if I
if they let me sing a live song, if I
could sing like ed kawal Chick, could I get tickets.
There wasn't a contest. They weren't having it, but they
(37:59):
were like, this is gonna be good. And I picked
up my guitar and I played turned my Head and
they were like, hold on just a second, and they
put me on hold. And next thing I know, I
had tickets. And then they played it on the radio
and my brother was high five and me I got
us all tickets. It was great. What was the first
record set or c you bought to legit? To quit
from hammer? And last one? When you win a Grammy?
(38:22):
Who you think? First? My wife for her eternal patients
and for allowing you to have Geen Claude van Dam's picture.
Everyone go buy some tickets to Dantry Live in Nashville,
March twelve at gigs dot Live. Follow Chris Daughtry. It
(38:44):
just it's just at Daughtry right well, so my personal
is at Chris Daughtry, and then the band that does
all the official news is at Daughtry either one. You're
gonna get the link at some point. Very cool. World
on Fire is available now on streaming and Spotify and
all that kind of stuff. The new record is gonna
be coming out sometime soon. Is there anything time? Is
(39:06):
there anything that I didn't ask you about that you
want to talk about? A promote before I let you go? No, um,
World on Fires the current single, new ones coming out soon,
and keep your eyes peeled on our website and Instagram
for there's gonna be a lot coming real soon, fast
and furious, so keep your eyes open. Very cool man, Hey,
thanks for taking the time. Hey, thank you man, so
(39:29):
good to talk to you. Yeah, this was fun. Everyone
go at your tickets right now to Dentry Live in
Nashville again March twelve. Dude, thanks so much, bro, you rock.
Thank you man. Better He was awesome. Honestly, I think
I asked four questions and he gave us forty five
minutes of just him talk and that that's amazing. Those
are the best interviews where you sit back and you say,
all right, you take it. He might be a guy
(39:50):
that we need to bring back on because I need
to hear more of the story. Like I want to
hear more about right before American Idol. I wanted to
find out more about like his wife. He had like
a normal job and then went on American Idol. I
want to know, like what her perception of all this was,
because he went from just being a guy to being famous. Yeah,
we need to get him back on. That was really fun.
Super nice guy too. I love good interviews. Dude, this
(40:13):
is annoying probably for a lot of you to hear,
but I love he is. Yes, he's a musician and
he's very talented, but he's also a reality TV star
where you want to believe it or not. And I
love interviewing reality TV stars because guess what they get
how production works, and they give you what you need.
I don't know if that makes any sense, but if
you go back and you listen to any like the
really good reality TV people we've had on we have,
(40:35):
like Vine on or even the first episode he did
with Derek Dean and Jared, those guys give good interviews
because they had to do that. You know, you had
to sit in front of a camera, and you gotta
give a good interview guys. Cool, alright, go rate review
five stars A lot kind of stuff. It helps. Don't
forget to follow the Instagram. It's a at Wells cast podcast.
(40:56):
All the information about new shows are over there. Don't
forget to follow me at Wells Adams hands. Yeah, very soon, guys,
we're gonna be able to go to a show together.
I'm gonna buy you guys a beer. We're gonna watch
whoever's on stage. We're gonna blackout in an uber and
it's gonna be wonderful and I can't wait for it.
(41:16):
I honestly cannot freakinglute for the Subscribe to Welldcast on
Radio Coople podcasts or anywhere you get your podcasts. It's
the Internet. Let's see you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no worries.
(41:39):
I hardly ever used Skype, so I'm always it's like
every time is the first time. I feel like that's
a song title right there. I think we got to
use that. I think Foreigner did it? Didn't it? You're right?
Damn it? Am I in frame? Good? I can't tell
if it's the Yeah, okay cool? But also like this
is just a podcast. I don't like release the bit
(42:00):
you so oh excellent, awesome. I'm glad that you came
to this shirtless. That was nice of you made. Yeah,
I know. Alright, So where are you in Nashville? Yeah?
Back in, back here in Nashville. I haven't left Nashville
and so long. I don't know what traveling is like anymore.
(42:20):
All right, you ready to do this thing? Let's do it.
Are we good? Back in the home studio? Things are
sounding crisp sibiments. Check one, check one. I like that
I just had some cheese and a Noma breast smells spot.
But I don't care because no one else is in here.
The one silver lining this pandemic is that I've been
able to eat cheese without the worry that people will
judge me for cheese breath. Let's normalized cheese breath, right,
(00:23):
all right? Started? This is a Wells cast with Wells
atoms and I heart radio podcast. Put a peops out
there in the podcast world. Hope everyone's having a wonderful day.
I feel like I feel like vaccines for me right
(00:44):
around the corner. I feel like I'm about to get
that shot. And then guess what, your boy's gonna go
black out of the bar. I don't know, it's gonna
be a while from now. But I was over at
my buddy's house a couple of nights ago, who's a
phenomenal musician, and we were talking about it, and like,
you know, early in my career, I went to like
three or four shows a week when I was doing radio,
(01:05):
which is kind of part of the deal. Like you know,
you wanted to have your finger on the pulse. So
what was happening in Nashville? And you know it was
also one of the perks is that I was a
tony something kid and I got free tickets to everything
because I would talk about the show, you know, before
and after on the radio. And there was a time
in my life in which I mean I loved it,
But there was a time in life I was like,
oh my god, I got in another show. I can't
(01:26):
I can't die. And now what I would give to
see live music. I would go see terrible bands just
to be like, I'm back in a bar drinking a beer.
I go see like a children's musician. I go to
Raffi right now at Hotel Cafe and just get blindly
drunk and love every second of it. I just missed
(01:48):
live music so freaking much. It's ridiculous. Speaking of on
the show today, we've got someone who is actually putting
on a live show, which is hard to do these days.
So you have to do with zoom and all this
crazy stuff. Technology. Gee, you need some high speed internet.
Elon must probably needs to be involved sending down some internet.
I don't know how it works, but I know that
he's got an awesome live show coming up and listen.
(02:10):
I know, I think I believe we are about through this,
Like you can't go have fun anymore time, but till then.
My guest today has a really cool idea of how
to actually experience some live music. Can you get blacked
out drunk on your couch and still see the live music?
Yeah you can. He's figured it out. He's doing a
live show from Nashville, my old stopping grounds coming up
(02:31):
on March twelveth. We'll tell you all about it a bit,
but for someone do the whole thing where I like,
I get you ready for it. This guy one of
the most successful American Idol non winners in the history
of the show. Yeah he is. He was on season five.
That's going way back right. He's a multi platinum Grammy
nominated musician. Before going on American Idol, he was a
(02:52):
service advisor at a car dealership in North Carolina. What
gotta hear about that? But he's not just a musician.
Is an actor as well. He's been on CSI New York.
He played Judas in a musical TV movie. What he
was on The Mass Singer got second place and He's
one of the most beloved people to come out of
(03:13):
American Idol. His record sales speak for themselves. On the
Wells Cast today we have the one, the only Chris Daughtry. Guys,
this is a show you do not want to miss.
I promise you stick around. Yeah. Back on the Wells Cast.
(03:37):
They're excited to have I believe, one of the most
popular American Idol people ever on the show. But he's
done the thing that a lot of reality people struggle with,
which is take that fifteen minutes and really build it
into this amazing career. Chris Daughtry, thank you so much
for being on the show. Been a big fan of
(03:58):
yours for a while. And I guess I didn't realize
that you were a Nashville guy. I used to live there.
I was a radio host in Nashville for years. First
of all, thank you, thank you so much. But we
we moved here about I guess in Gelotopy five years.
So it still feels kind of new to us, to
be honest, because we're we have so many kids, were
(04:18):
always home. We don't really get a chance to to
be out in it. Um. We live slightly outside of downtown,
so we're not in in all the craziness. But it's cool.
It's it's uh. It kind of reminds me of where
I grew up in North Carolina, um as far as
the landscape of it all real quick, because you're a
(04:39):
Nashville guy and I was a Nashville guy. What's your
go to hot chicken? I haven't eaten chicken in two years,
three almost three years. I kind of stay away from
the meat man, all right, smart move, not because of
the vegetarian thing, but because of the diarrhea that comes
the next day. So could call on that. Yeah, there,
(05:02):
there's there. There was that as well. Yeah, yeah, I
saw that you're doing dough Free live from Nashville. It's
going to be a virtual show on March twelve people
Combiny tickets at gigs dot Live. I was looking at
your Instagram and you were kind of showcasing what it's
gonna be like, and it's so dope, dude. But it
(05:24):
also is like a little Hunger Game Z to me.
It's so Hunger Games. It's so like it. I was
in there and I'm like, holy sh we're really in
the future here. Like one year ago, if you would
have told me we're gonna be doing a show in
front of screens and you're gonna be talking to the fans,
and they're gonna be talking to you, but they're gonna
be in their living room may or may not be
(05:45):
wearing pants. We would have just thought it was the
craziest ship we've ever heard ever, and you know, here
we are and it's super bizarre. We did a we
did a live stream tour just me and my guitar
player back in the fall, and that was even weirder
because it was just in front of a camera but
we didn't see anyone, so there was no It was
(06:06):
like crickets after every song, and we just had to
finally like say, you know what, screw this, We're gonna
have fun, me and you and then if they they
see that that they're going to have a good time too,
because we realized that we were really dependent on the
audience reaction for us to like have a good time,
like this is back ass words. It should be we're
(06:27):
having a good time, therefore you're enjoying the show. Not
you're enjoying the show. So I'm going to be better
at it. This whole year has been a learning curve
for everybody trying to figure out how to do your
job differently. Um, and that was certainly a a weird one,
but this this feels like it's at least a little
more connected where we get to see faces. I don't
even know if they're gonna be watching the show. It
might just be pre recorded faces just to make us
(06:51):
feel better. I was talking about it leading up to
calling you, and I miss going to see live music
so much. And the weird stuff too, of like the
chats that you have outside with like the chain smoker
that you haven't seen in a while in between sets,
and like the blacking out and like forgetting to close
your bark. Like there's like a lot of like little
(07:12):
intricacies of like the live show that it was, this event,
and it sucks that we've been robbed of it for
this past year. And it's cool that you guys have
figured out a way to somewhat bring it back to
what we remember. And it's so funny too, because I think,
as a person in the audience, you forget how the
energy is looped between the audience and the artist, because
(07:37):
the artist gives the fans energy and then they fans
give it back to you. And it's like you're on
this cyclical loop of energy together. Yeah, and you're hearing
them sing the songs sometimes louder than you are, and
and that's like an unbelievable feeling. And if we do
that now, it's going to cut out the feed m
(08:00):
it's every all the sounds gonna drop and we're gonna
lose our place. Um It's it's a weird. And I
saw like the Flaming Lips were doing like bubbles where
everybody was, even the crowd was in bubbles. Did you
see that? I'm like, how is how does that work?
Like how do you prevent someone from like completely blacking
out from from exhaustion and heat? And it's just a weird,
(08:22):
weird living in the jets ands like we're there, Yeah,
especially because the Flaming Lips fans are already out there
and weird, you know, like the band, the band, the
singer has always done the bubble thing, right, like that's
a thing for him. I don't know, I don't know
if I could ever do that. The mass singer was
like the closest thing I came to, like singing in
(08:42):
a bubble, and that was I almost passed out every
every episode, So no thanks on that. I think we'll
stick with the screens until we can get back in
in front of people. I haven't seen my band and
over a year other than the two people, the two
band members that live in Nashville. Like it's it's been
like a weird time loop. I don't know about you,
and it feels like someone just turned the dial and
(09:03):
here we are. We're in and we're still not in
front of people, and I don't know when it's gonna change.
I don't know. I think that you figure out, like
at least a good something for everyone to go do
and again March twelve. You can be a part of this.
Dot Frey Live from Nashville. Grab tickets at gigs dot live.
(09:23):
Are there like tears, like like are some people getting
to like ask questions or be more interactive or like
how does this work? I don't know how they're selecting it.
I don't want to say the wrong thing, but I
don't know how they're selecting the fans. But they're however
many fit on those screens that they'll they'll be selected.
I don't know if it's the first so many people
they bought tickets, or how they're doing it. That's out
(09:44):
of my hands. But they'll be fans. What I'm saying
is they'll be fans. And I think at the end
of the show, certain fans I don't I think it
might be a tear where they buy into the I
don't know if they're part of the fan club or what.
I should know more about this as I'm saying this,
I should know more. That's what I'm realized. But yeah,
(10:04):
there's gonna be a Q and A and um, yeah,
it's it's cool and and in some ways like this
is uh, probably a little more interactive than you know
if they were to see us on stage somewhere, because
there is no Q and A. There's no like in
the middle of a song, you know, talking to you
know so and so sometimes there is I guess if
(10:24):
they're they're interrupting the set, But which has happened. It's
a trade off, right, Like you get to experience it differently.
You get to be in your own home. You don't
have anybody spilling beer on you, um, unless you just
have that drunk uncle over and he's just lost it
and he's out of control, or brother doesn't have to
be uncle, or sometimes mom sometimes mom just had too much.
(10:47):
I don't know, it's a really cool thing. I think
that this is the best because I've I've talked to
a lot of people who have been doing the live
shows and the small live showcases and stuff, and I
think this is the best execute did the thing that
I've seen so far. And if you're just like wondering
if this is something you want to go do, go
to Chris's instagram at Daughtry and it's like the like
(11:11):
the third thing you put three posts to go is
a really cool like showcase of what the stage looks like,
what the backdrop looks like, and then like what the
fans will be looking like looking back at you guys.
I don't know if you remember when the NBA was
in the playoffs or whatnot, everyone's kind of stuck in
Orlando and they had put TV screens where the seats
(11:31):
were and everyone was just sitting there watching it. It's
kind of like that. So it's a really cool thing,
complete disease free. Yeah atmosphere, let's drunk moms next to you,
and then who knows what's going to happen. I saw
you got some new music out and the new song
that you've got out is World on Fire, which I
was reading about it and that was kind of like
(11:53):
a nod to the Australia fires. Yeah, when we originally
wrote it, Um Scott and Marty much producers. When we
were writing that song, it started out as um, you know,
we were just kind of on Instagram looking at you know,
the fires that were taking place, and the George Floyd
thing hadn't happened yet, but there was certainly no shortage
of police brutality going on even then. I can't remember
(12:15):
who it was. I don't know if it was Mod
Aubrey or Brianna Taylor. It was just like one bad
thing after another. And I remember were us just saying, man,
the damn world's on fire, and we're like, that's what
we gotta, right, And we were going through. Scott had
this this folder and I don't know, kind I swear
on this, I don't know, Yeah, alright, perfect, he had
(12:37):
this folder and we were He said, I got a
few like riff starts here and there, just let's listen
to it and see if anything like inspires us. And
I saw this folder and said, threshes, I was like,
let's play that one. And it was. It was the
opening riff, literally the opening of of what you know
as the song now, and I was like, that is
what we need to work on, and it just kind
(12:59):
of start it right in itself. We were just talking
about everything that was was wrong with the world. And
then fast forward to because this was in January, fast
forward to like two months later, We're all scratching our
heads like how did we know? Like holy sh it,
like the sickness is rising, like there was no sickness
(13:19):
going on, and um, you know, twenty dead in a
cop car, bleeding like all this stuff. We were like,
oh my god, it was like we had a crystal
ball or something. And uh, I didn't want people to
think we were just writing about so we kind of
held off. We didn't we didn't release it right away
because I didn't want it to sound like, hey, look
at what we wrote, this is what's happening right now.
(13:42):
But it felt very aproposed for the first single. For sure,
I know that there's a new record on the way.
I wonder this not just for you, but like for
every musician that I've interviewed, The stuff that comes out
after this year has got me the most sad bastard dark,
like deepest Ryan Adams lyrics ever. That is how It's
(14:05):
gonna come. It's absolutely the deepest ship I've ever written
in my career. It's the most introspective that I've ever written.
For sure, It's definitely got, I don't want to give
too much away, but it's also probably in some ways
the most hopeful. There hasn't been a shortage of things
to write about, and this year has been I think
(14:26):
transformative for so many people and and forced us to
really look at ourselves and and face our own baggage
and bullets. And I think this record has been extremely
therapeutic for me. I just finished vocals on it last week.
We're getting the band on it like it's the record
is actually happening. But I feel like at this point,
(14:46):
if we release it would be like throwing a ball
out to just the open field and just falling to wherever.
And we're like, we can't go out and tour on it.
We're trying to figure out when it's coming out. I
don't know yet, but we are going to be releasing
a new single very soon, so I can say that
um And we just put up a limited edition vinyl
(15:06):
World on fire and Side B is the next single
that we have yet to tell anyone the title of,
but I'm super pumped on it. Be shooting a video
on it, uh this weekend actually, So yeah, there's a
lot of a lot of stuff going on, but hopefully
we can actually get out there and support it at
the same time, you know, I talked to a lot
of musicians and they're putting stuff out and I'm like,
(15:28):
this is tough because it's expensive to put out music
and when you can't recoup by selling merch and touring
behind something, then if I was a businessman in the
music industry, I'd be like, you just got to hold
off until people can go to festival. So I applaud
you for like sticking around waiting for it. It's that
double edged sword, like you know, we're all running out
(15:48):
of new things to listen to, so we're like, we
feel bad for the fans, yet we're like, but we gotta,
you know, pay our bills too, and holding onto it
might not be Um, I don't know. It's like we
hold onto it and you're doing nothing. You at least
release it and something's happening. So um, yeah, it's it's
a tricky, tricky thing to navigate. You did a mass
(16:11):
sing or you the Rottweilder. I've had a bunch of
people from Massinger, m mass Dancer on the show, and
my thing is this is it smells so bad in there?
Or do they for breeze it before and afterwards? Oh
it's the worst, It's awful. Um did you ever did
you ever play any sports in high school? So like
(16:32):
it's like locker room smell, So did you ever play football?
You ever smelled the pads? And it like day one,
it was like this has been used by day. By
day like seven, it's like, oh my god, I don't
even know if they made for breeze when I was
in high school. But so it just it just kept
(16:52):
getting worse. But that's how it was. It was like
day one. I'm like, oh, but it was a little
different because it wasn't like used football gear. It was
new to me. So everything in it was my fault,
Like I caused every smell in this thing. By like
third episode, I'm like, this is this is getting tough
(17:15):
to deal with. They would try, they would for breathe it,
they would sit it out in the sun, probably let
it air bait. I don't know it was. It was right.
Luckily they did their best. They did their best to
try to air it out and make it a little
more livable. That was a lot of information about smell.
By the last question about about mass Singer, I heard
that you chose the rottweiler for a reason. Yeah. So
(17:38):
when they approached me to do the show, they had
like three or four different costume options, and I was like,
I'm gonna have to just go with the rottweiler because
I have a connection to a rottweiler. I got bit
by one when I was like fourteen or fifteen. My
mom watched this This blind lady took care of her
a few days a week, helping out stuff around the house,
(18:01):
and she had this rottweiler and she was like, Oh, Chris,
this is the sweetest dog ever. Don't don't be afraid.
You can come over here in Petter. The very second
I reached my hand out, this dog jumped up and
snapped my leg and it scared the living ship out
of me, ripped through my jeans, barely scratched the skin.
I'm not gonna try trying not to be too dramatic.
(18:22):
Barely scratched the skin, but it scarred my soul for life.
It was terrifying. This dog's head was like the size
of my head on the show. It was. It could
have ripped my leg off if it wanted to. I
don't know if it was scared that I was getting
too close to its owner and and didn't trust me.
I don't know. Maybe it was the nineties geens. I
(18:43):
don't know. Maybe it didn't like baggy jeans. I don't
I don't really know the motive. But it bit me,
and it scared me, and I never touched that dog again,
and I don't think I've pet a Rottweiler since. So
it was me embracing and facing my fears, much like
Swayne became a game batman because it was terrified about
(19:04):
I like that. Okay, I'm running out of time with you,
but I want to kind of flip over to like
my portion of the show. I don't know if anyone
told you, but this is an Origin Stories podcast, so
I like to find out where people came from and
how the hell they got here. You down, all right, quick, brighton,
we come back. Chris Daughtry tells us where he came
(19:24):
from and why the fun he is on this show?
Stick around all right back in the Wales cast have
Christofrey on the show. He's gonna be doing a live
show from Nashville, which you can virtually be a part of.
(19:45):
It's coming up on March twelve, by your tickets over
at gigs dot Live. I want to know you know,
obviously there's been a whole lot of information about you
pre American Idol. So where did you come from? Man?
In a small, small, small town called Laska, North Carolina.
I don't think it was on the map until after
(20:06):
I was on an American Idol, to be honest, I
think it was a town of like nine people one stoplight. No,
I think it was a hundred people actually, but it
was like one street. I was around music all my life,
but never really um never really showed an interest. I
was always into art, Batman, I was. I wanted to
be a comic book artist actually, way before I ever
(20:31):
picked up a guitar, even though my dad played guitar,
My granddad played guitar. It was around music, but never
showed any interest other than like singing along with the radio.
Didn't really give the nineties hit and I started getting into.
My brothers started turning me onto like, you know, Metallica
Black album and this band called Live, this Throwing Copper album.
(20:53):
He was like, oh, you gotta listen to this, and
I remember kind of blowing it off at first, and
bands like Sound Garden and Stone Temple Pilots I got
really heavy into them. But there was this album called
Throwing Copper that I kind of kept going back to
and listening to. And the more I listened, the more
I became obsessed. The more I listened to more, I
wanted to sing like this guy. I got really obsessed
(21:13):
with that koalchich from Live and in his voice and
his songwriting, and I wanted to learn how to play guitar.
I had a friend in high school who played, and
he was I remember him playing like um in class.
One day he had his guitar. We were kind of
sucking around, we didn't have anything to do, and he
started playing I think Fell on Black Days or something
(21:35):
like that, and I was like, Oh, that's the shift
I'm into. My death played country music. Wasn't really into that,
so it didn't really appeal to me to ever pick
up a guitar, and so I was like, oh, you
gotta show me some chords. One day, he kind of
showed me a few chords and surprisingly picked it up
relatively quickly and started kind of learning the songs that
I was into. I remember singing in front of him
(21:57):
one day kind of like sheepishly, and he was like,
why aren't you doing this? Man? You sound like Tracy Chapman,
and I love Tracy Chapman. I was like, oh, cool, man.
I think it was just my you know, singing with
hesitant had had the had the tone, but I didn't
really know what I was doing. And he had a band,
like a cover band that he was one of like
(22:19):
six members, and I was like, he was like, dude,
you need to come sing a couple of songs with us.
One night we played this like open mic night at
like cafe something. And by the way, fast forward, I'm
not in North Carolina anymore. I mean this is ninety four,
ninety six probably, I'm in Virginia near Charlottesville, Virginia, where
(22:40):
my parents moved to for job, a different job, and
I moved there in ninety four started getting into music,
Like I said, early nineties. So now we're like ninety
six and I'm learning how to play guitar and I'm
singing at open mic night. I think it was even
like a Dave Matthews song or something. And I think
we even threw in a little live and something that
(23:03):
that catered to my voice a little bit more. And
I kind of started just writing my own thing. I
was doing a few weekends with them here and there,
and then I was like, I think I want to
start my own band. I had my buddy that lived
with me. He was learning how to play bass the
same time I was learning how to play guitar. A
friend of mine in class said he could play drums.
(23:26):
So we're like, okay, we barely know how to play
our instruments. Let's let's let's learn together here and we
uh used my buddies garage. That told me I sounded
like Tracy Chapman because I didn't have a garage. I
lived in a double wide trailer and nowhere to practice
and calls noise. So um. My friend Robert Nesbitt was
gracious enough his family, rather, it was gracious enough to
(23:48):
let us uh suck really bad in his garage. We
were playing nothing but live covers, Secret Somebody album top
to bottom. It's like it's only live. This is what
we're doing. It was self indulgent on my part. It
was like, I'm the singer, this is what we're playing.
And then I started writing really bad songs. We would
(24:09):
perform those, we would refine them over time, and they
were listenable, didn't have a whole lot of depth lyrically.
We did a full on demo around and we were
in a band called Cadence, and we started getting in
the circuit. We started playing the Charlottesville circuit, opening up
for bands that were we're more well known than us,
(24:30):
and Charlottesville, Virginia at the time was hopping with original music.
Nobody was playing covers, so it was perfect for us
because we we were we were like, we got our
we were writing new new stuff. We're writing our own stuff.
We didn't want to play covers out in public. We
wanted we wanted to get signed. I didn't know how
to do that, but we're that's what we were gonna do.
So we started opening up for well known bands in
(24:51):
the area and we we got on opening for this
band called My Dog Lucy, which fast forward to now
the guitar player from that band as an Now the
guitar player for Daughtry Brian Craddick. We opened for this
band called Earth to Andy, who was really blowing up
in the area. They had just got signed to Giant Records.
They had toured with you know, Stone Timple Pilots and
(25:13):
opened for Aerosmith and we were like, oh, ship, we're next.
And we started playing for crowds, like I think the
most people we ever drew was like three people, but
it wasn't our crowd. It was somebody else's that we
were opening for. But we took it as hours. We
got on like the Late Night Nine. It was a
radio station in Charlesville, College station, local station that would
(25:35):
that would interview bands like midnight, and we were like, oh,
we made it. Were they're playing our stuff, but it's
at midnight when nobody's listening. And then it just felt
like we were spending wheels. Fast forward years later, I
moved to North Carolina. When I met my wife, we
broke up. Me and the band broke up because it
became too too much for me to go back and forth.
(25:55):
The band practice playing you know, for nobody, and then
started another band and that didn't really do anything, and
then I went on American Idol and the rest is history.
So I feel like I'm I'm pretty sure I missed
a lot of in between stuff, but it was a
whole lot of spinning wheels in that in that amount
of time was like ten years of playing for the
guest list. I heard that there was a competition show
(26:19):
that was before American Idol called rock Starring Excess. Yes, yes,
so I did that. I went an auditioned for rock
Star in Excess. I was living in North Carolina, went
to Charlotte to this little club and had like a
one on one audition with the producer and I did
um Desire from YouTube and and never tear us apart
(26:41):
from an Excess, brought my guitar played. It was in
a club, like full on, like open mic night at
a club, did the whole interview, and I was pumped.
I was like, Oh, this is the moment. There's a
rock show. This is it. And months go by, I
hear nothing, I hear nothing, and I finally I'm like
reaching out to one of the producers. I'm like, hey,
(27:03):
like what's happening. And they told me they let me
down easy. They were like, we actually think it wouldn't
be good for your career to be on this show.
Maybe not in those words, but it was something like,
we think this would hurt you more than it would
help you. And I just thought they were being nice.
All right, well that's a nice way of saying you know,
you're not good enough or whatever. You know. I was green.
(27:27):
I didn't know what to think. I was like, all right, well,
no big deal. There was a moment like it's over.
But then I was watching the latest season of American
Island at the time, and I remember seeing it wasn't
just a bunch of pop singers anymore, Like bobis was
on their constant team Marulas and it was a year
carry Underwood one and I remember thinking like, I mean,
(27:51):
maybe they're more interested in being diverse now and and
maybe something maybe there is room for someone like myself.
And went in audition. Well, I was supposed audition in Memphis.
I'm living in North Carolina at the time. I was
gonna go audition in Memphis. That was going to be
the closest audition the Hurricane Katrina hits. They canceled that
(28:12):
audition because the FedEx Forum where they were holding auditions
was used for for, you know, people that lost their homes,
you know, people were having they were using them, using
it to house thousands of people. And the next audition
would have been in Denver, Colorado, and I'm like, that's
a long ways away. We're broke, We're like, that's a
(28:34):
that's an expensive flight. And my job raised money for
me to fly to Denver, Colorado to go audition, and
I flew out there. I had never been. I don't
think i'd ever at this point, never traveled away from
my family. And I'm out there by myself at Broncos Stadium,
five thirty in the morning, in line thousands of people. Right.
(28:56):
We we go, we take a ticket and we get
seated in Eco Stadium. It's like nine thousand people. They
call you up by I think, I think, I don't know.
Let's say ten people at a time, and you're there's
like ten different producers, and there's a line at each producer,
and they call one person up at the same time
(29:18):
from that line. So it's like ten people singing at
the same time. I think we're spaced out a good
Let's say ten ft apart, and so you can hear
the person next to you singing and the person to
your left, and you got the producer in front of you,
and they're like giving you like ten maybe thirty seconds,
depends on it changes from singer to singer. And I
(29:39):
remember it's my turn, and I'm like, I just gotta
be loud as I gotta be louder than everybody else.
And I went up and I saying I put a
spell on you CCRs version, and I just went up
and I walked up and I just went on you,
and everybody like stopped and looked, and I was like, uh,
(30:00):
I don't know if this is a good thing, but
I just got everybody's attention, and the guy was like,
you're in and I was like, okay, cool. I didn't
realize the process at this point. So that was round
number one. Then I gotta go audition the next day.
I gotta go do a bunch of paperwork. Then I
gotta go audition the next day for what I think
is going to be the judges. Nope, it's the executive producers.
(30:22):
And I did the same song and they were just like,
it's a little too raspy for my taste. Maybe when
you audition for the judges, do something a little little uh,
I don't know, a little a little more recognizable, like
the letter from Joe Cocker. I was like, oh, so
it is. Oh does this mean that I get to
do this again? Oh? Yeah, yeah, I know you made it.
(30:43):
I was like, what once again? Auditions were thrown off
because of the Katrina thing. So would have been the
next day auditioning for paul Irandi and Simon. I had
to fly back home and come back I think a
week or two later to audition. So a week or
two later, me and my wife fly back out and
I do the audition for Paula, Simon, Randy and we
(31:04):
all saw how that went. But right afterwards, like I
walk outside and I see Simon because he gave me
some ship in the audition, but I kind of felt
like I kind of like I felt personally like he's
he's like testing me, like like kind of keeping me
on my toes. So I saw him getting ready get
in his car, and I walked up to him and
I was like, I'll prove you wrong in Hollywood and
(31:25):
he shook my hand. He was like, you do that, Chris.
I was like, oh snappy, remember my name. And uh
So we fly home. Me and my wife are celebrating.
We're super stoked. They add a new audition location to
replace Memphis because I got canceled, and it's in my backyard.
It's in Greensboro, North Carolina, And I'm like, are you
(31:47):
kidding me? But at this point I had already made it.
So it was perfect because the producers were like, hey,
since we're gonna be literally like fifteen minutes from your house,
this is a perfect time to do like some backstory
b roll and I'm like, oh snap. So it was
perfect because now I don't have to to wonder if
(32:08):
I'm gonna make it to Hollywood. And and now they're
filming extra stuff on me, which usually when I see this,
that means this person is gonna go far. So I'm
thinking all the thoughts start flooding it. I'm like, okay,
this is all a good thing. And they're like filming
my kids. They're like filming me playing air hockey with
my kids, and um walking around packing my bags like
(32:31):
I'm going it was crazy. Um, And this was all
like coming from plane to twenty people at brew Balls
in Burlington, North Carolina. Yes, that is a real place.
I'm not kidding. Brew Balls sounds like a disease, but
it was it was a place that allowed me to play,
and I'm very grateful for brew Balls and Blue Gator
(32:52):
to the guest list, to like, all of a sudden,
I'm about to go potentially be away from my family
for months. And that's when I wrote Home, before I
even left to go. Um. I wrote that before I
had even experienced what it was like to be away.
I wrote that song so um it was it was
an interesting um. I mean, it was running gun. I
(33:15):
had never experienced anything like that in my life. And
I'm singing every day. Up We're up at like sitting
on the lot for hours doing nothing, and then we'd
be up to like midnight rehearsing. This was all in
Hollywood week and I was just blown away that I
was able to keep my voice that long. It was rigorous,
(33:35):
it was. It was definitely the most work I had
ever done in music up to that point, because you know,
band practices a bunch of dudes that don't know what
they're doing, and we're just like, yeah, that sounds great,
that's gonna be a hit, and you know, twenty people here,
you know, But it was. It was crazy. It was
(33:56):
fast and furious, and all those years of playing in
ours to note, you know, to hardly anyone there, and
and that that feeling of not not verbal rejection, but
that feeling of like, you know, I'll take the twenty people.
It's it's somebody. It prepared me a great deal for
(34:16):
you know. The actual verbal rejection of that was just okay.
I did the groundwork, for sure, And a lot of
people don't realize that that I spent that many years
playing and begging bars to like, let us let our
band play, or come play for twenty minutes, or let
me bring my guitar and play for a hundred bucks
(34:37):
for three hours of covers, you know, like that was
all the homework leading up to that. For sure, that
story is not a unique one on this show, which
is overnight success generally takes decades. Absolutely, I want to
be respectful of your time. So lets you go your
shirt saying Nashville. Is that a Nashville show? Yeah, it's
actually And I didn't sweet shirt man. I didn't do
(34:59):
this because I didn't think you did it. It felt
very organic, or else you would have taken your jacket
off and winter Hey projects six one five? Have you
ever heard of it? Exactly? I still don't have a
six one five area code. I'm still rocking the three
three six North Carolina. Well, I'm out in l A
now and I'm the only one that's got a Nashville number,
(35:19):
and I'm I'm sticking with it. Well, I never changed
it when I lived in l A. Well, hey man,
I'm running out of time with use. I want to
be respectful of your time, but I feel like we
could talk about this for hours. However, yea forever days,
even before I let you go, you have time for
some rapid fire questions. Rapid fire Let's do it. Here
we go. Rapid fire questions with Chris Dad Street Number one?
(35:41):
What's always in your fridge? Always in my fridge? Almond milk?
One thing on your bucket list? Bucket list? Um to
be in an action movie? What animals do you wish
you could talk to? Goats? Well? Why goats? I grew
up with goats. Uh, I've always had this this affinity
(36:02):
and and like I feel like I do have a
weird zin connection with goats whenever I see them. That's
the best answer you've gotten to that one so far.
Would you rather be rich and sad or poor and happy?
Poor and happy? Always physical trait you notice about someone
you are attracted to? But how would you describe your
high school self? Um? Let's physical, let's and eyes. Let's
(36:28):
go with eyes too. Yum oh did you go back
to button? Non non physical? Soul said? What was your
next question? Sorry, I'm cutting all that out. You're just
getting butts and that's that you're just getting What did
I say? How would you describe your high school self?
Probably overconfident? Who's your childhood hero? Jean Claude Van Damn,
(36:53):
celebrity crush Kate Beck and Sale? Did you have a
poster hanging in your bedroom? Mall? Did I? Or do you? I? Both?
I literally thought you said? Do you? Um? Yes, I had?
I had Lion Heart Jean Claude Van dam poster in
my bedroom And do you now yes? No, that would
(37:17):
be hilarious. Honey, this is going anywhere. This is the
one thing to staying first councer. Everyone to the first
one I went to. I don't really. It was like
a buzz fest, like a bunch of bands, but it
wasn't like it was. It wasn't anything memorable. My first
memorable concert was live throwing Copper No no secret, somebody
(37:38):
Uh I didn't get I wanted to see Throng Copper,
but it was it was secret somebody that was the
tour I actually funny story. I won tickets to that
show by calling the station and begging them if I
if they let me sing a live song, if I
could sing like ed kawal Chick, could I get tickets.
There wasn't a contest. They weren't having it, but they
(37:59):
were like, this is gonna be good. And I picked
up my guitar and I played turned my Head and
they were like, hold on just a second, and they
put me on hold. And next thing I know, I
had tickets. And then they played it on the radio
and my brother was high five and me I got
us all tickets. It was great. What was the first
record set or c you bought to legit? To quit
from hammer? And last one? When you win a Grammy?
(38:22):
Who you think? First? My wife for her eternal patients
and for allowing you to have Geen Claude van Dam's picture.
Everyone go buy some tickets to Dantry Live in Nashville,
March twelve at gigs dot Live. Follow Chris Daughtry. It
(38:44):
just it's just at Daughtry right well, so my personal
is at Chris Daughtry, and then the band that does
all the official news is at Daughtry either one. You're
gonna get the link at some point. Very cool. World
on Fire is available now on streaming and Spotify and
all that kind of stuff. The new record is gonna
be coming out sometime soon. Is there anything time? Is
(39:06):
there anything that I didn't ask you about that you
want to talk about? A promote before I let you go? No, um,
World on Fires the current single, new ones coming out soon,
and keep your eyes peeled on our website and Instagram
for there's gonna be a lot coming real soon, fast
and furious, so keep your eyes open. Very cool man, Hey,
thanks for taking the time. Hey, thank you man, so
(39:29):
good to talk to you. Yeah, this was fun. Everyone
go at your tickets right now to Dentry Live in
Nashville again March twelve. Dude, thanks so much, bro, you rock.
Thank you man. Better He was awesome. Honestly, I think
I asked four questions and he gave us forty five
minutes of just him talk and that that's amazing. Those
are the best interviews where you sit back and you say,
all right, you take it. He might be a guy
(39:50):
that we need to bring back on because I need
to hear more of the story. Like I want to
hear more about right before American Idol. I wanted to
find out more about like his wife. He had like
a normal job and then went on American Idol. I
want to know, like what her perception of all this was,
because he went from just being a guy to being famous. Yeah,
we need to get him back on. That was really fun.
Super nice guy too. I love good interviews. Dude, this
(40:13):
is annoying probably for a lot of you to hear,
but I love he is. Yes, he's a musician and
he's very talented, but he's also a reality TV star
where you want to believe it or not. And I
love interviewing reality TV stars because guess what they get
how production works, and they give you what you need.
I don't know if that makes any sense, but if
you go back and you listen to any like the
really good reality TV people we've had on we have,
(40:35):
like Vine on or even the first episode he did
with Derek Dean and Jared, those guys give good interviews
because they had to do that. You know, you had
to sit in front of a camera, and you gotta
give a good interview guys. Cool, alright, go rate review
five stars A lot kind of stuff. It helps. Don't
forget to follow the Instagram. It's a at Wells cast podcast.
(40:56):
All the information about new shows are over there. Don't
forget to follow me at Wells Adams hands. Yeah, very soon, guys,
we're gonna be able to go to a show together.
I'm gonna buy you guys a beer. We're gonna watch
whoever's on stage. We're gonna blackout in an uber and
it's gonna be wonderful and I can't wait for it.
(41:16):
I honestly cannot freakinglute for the Subscribe to Welldcast on
Radio Coople podcasts or anywhere you get your podcasts. It's
the Internet. Let's see you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no worries.
(41:39):
I hardly ever used Skype, so I'm always it's like
every time is the first time. I feel like that's
a song title right there. I think we got to
use that. I think Foreigner did it? Didn't it? You're right?
Damn it? Am I in frame? Good? I can't tell
if it's the Yeah, okay cool? But also like this
is just a podcast. I don't like release the bit
(42:00):
you so oh excellent, awesome. I'm glad that you came
to this shirtless. That was nice of you made. Yeah,
I know. Alright, So where are you in Nashville? Yeah?
Back in, back here in Nashville. I haven't left Nashville
and so long. I don't know what traveling is like anymore.
(42:20):
All right, you ready to do this thing? Let's do it.
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