Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Here. It's Walt Rock ninety fivefive. I am backstage at Rivers Casino.
I'm hanging with Chris Daughtry. Dudes. Hey, good God, meet
to finally meet you as well.Yeah, dude, so here we are.
It is August eleven, twenty twentythree. You just dropped a brand
(00:23):
new song today, artificial. Itspeaks to me because I love these kind
of dark, brooding but yet epicsongs, and this nails all of those.
Yeah, tell me what it's about. It's about just the idea of
It's kind of like the terminator,you know, the idea of of you
(00:43):
create these things and it ends updeleting you eventually, or the fear of
you know, artificial intelligence in general. Just it's that whole thing where you
know, it becomes conscious and thenand you're obsolete, or at least the
fear of that happening. So wewere kind of in the studio talking about
(01:06):
how, you know, everybody's usingchat, GPT and all these different apps
to you know, write songs,and we actually did a little test run,
like write a song about just tosee what the lyrics would be.
And we're like, this is sorudimentary and like basic there's no emotion time
now there's no there's no emotion,there's no cool like you know, colorful,
(01:30):
you know, metaphors or anything likethat. And we kind of our
producer had had had dinner with somefriends of his that happened to be AI
coders, and he was like,dude, according to my friends, it's
gonna get way worse. And wejust started like going down the rabbit hole
(01:51):
and we're like, we need towrite a song about it. And he
had this riff already and it justsounded so doom and like I feel it
reminded me of the Imperial March,you know, in a way I'm down
down, and I was like,oh, this is so awesome. And
we just got really excited. Andwe had already written like four or five
(02:15):
tunes at this point for the newrecord, and all of that took a
back seat and we're like, thisis the first single, Like this has
to be. It hits on somany topics. I mean, like I
read about AI stuff all the timeon the range. Yeah, like man,
this if you don't get it,this is scary. Yeah, yeah,
you know it really is. There'sa line in the song that I
love plug into your new soul.Yeah, dude, that's that's frightening.
(02:38):
Yeah, it is frightening. Ilove the the kind of tongue in cheek.
It's like, it's here, whatdo you what can you do about
it? But at the same time, at what costs? You know?
Yeah, so you do the bestthat you can, I guess, yeah,
to regulate it. And as youwe've all seen the movies. Yeah,
(02:58):
but we used to joke in thestudio when we were doing demos and
be like, oh, just havesomebody else sing it and put the Chris
Daughtry plug in on it or whateveras a joke, not thinking that that
was ever going to be possible.And now you know, you're seeing all
the like Johnny Cash doing Barbie Girl. It's like he James Hetfield singing something
ridiculous the other day, and it'sjust like, this is crazy, and
it's it's uh that that's terrifying.And I think when you really get serious
(03:23):
about that, it's like, waita minute, that's fun and funny,
it's a novelty, but it's alsoscary because someone could put anything out right
and you had nothing to do withit, and you're gonna have a hard
time proving it and there's no disclare. Yeah exactly. Yeah, So I
think I think the it kind ofturned into like this fear of what this
(03:44):
means for the arts and creative fieldsin general. Well, you are one
of the first to actually sing aboutit that I've heard of, and it
is such an important topic. SoI love that. Thank you. It
is great. Thank you. Sois this going to be part of a
bigger picture? Is there an albumcoming? The album is still being worked
on. I just felt like thissong was we were too excited to sit
on it any longer. But therecord is still being worked on. It
(04:06):
probably won't be ready until sometime nextyear. Okay, yeah, it takes
time. But we just shot thevideo for it recently and that's coming out
next week. And I can't waitfor people to see it. Yeah,
I can't. It's the song isgreat. I've listened to it several times
today and can't wait to get iton the radio. You have a new
(04:28):
label, that's YEA. So howis what does that do to you?
To you and and the process ofeverything? Does it add inject in excitement?
It does? And you know Idid the last record independently, which
was exciting in and of itself becauseit was the first and and yes,
and I was about to say andwe found out really quickly how much work
(04:51):
is involved with everything, things thatyou just never really think about because you're
so used to being on a recordlabel. But I loved the artistic freedom
behind it. I loved no onetelling me what I should be writing or
or maybe, you know, maybego for this kind of sound because that's
(05:14):
gonna work on radio better. Itwas me and my team in the studio
and we just went. And thatwas the The takeaway from that experience was
like, Ah, this is whatit feels like to be fully you know,
open to create what you want tocreate without any parameters. And when
(05:38):
Big Machine approached me, it wasvery important to me that that was still
the case, Like if you backthis vision, great and I'm in and
and they did, so that wasthat was the Uh, that was the
you know what attracted me to Well, we know that they were they love
(05:59):
rock and they've been killing it.By the way. Yeah, it is
a great team. You This comeson the heels of an amazing single that
you just released, the cover ofJourneys Separate Ways. Uh, tell me
how that came about well we uh, and that was their first time working
with us Okay machine, so thatwas kind of what prompted the furthering of
our relationships. So h we hadin mind we wanted to do a cover.
(06:26):
Me and the guys were talking onthe last tour, were like,
we want like a cool, likedefinitive cover, kind of like you know,
when Disturbed came out with you know, the Sound of Silence it it
kind of became their song and theywere known for it, and we didn't
really have a cover that that thatreally I mean, we would play a
lot live, but we didn't havea recorded cover that that people would really
(06:46):
associate with Daughtry. And and firstwe were like, you know, we
wanted something eighties. We wanted somethinglike synth based, that something we could
turn into something heavy and and weuh first kicked around, half jokingly but
half like this could work. Itwas final countdown and all I could think
And at first I was like,Oh, this is cool, And then
I was like, it's gonna bereally hard to get the cheese off of
(07:09):
that one, because all I couldthink of is us doing like a karate
montage, right I could pick youever seen Uh was it? Was it
that song on hot Rod? Didyou ever see hot Rod? I never
saw it, Andy Sandberg, Ohno, I know, Oh my god.
(07:32):
But I feel like there's this montagewhere he's training and that song's playing,
and all I could picture was that, and so we kind of put
it on the back burner and fastforward to a few months later, tours
over. I'm at home watching StrangerThings with my wife. It's the finale
and I don't want to spoil itfor anybody who hasn't seen it yet,
but it's a big, big endingscene and uh this uh separate Ways was
(07:58):
used, and the way it wasused was like chopped up, so eerie
and cinematic, and I had lookedat my wife. I was like,
this is what we need to cover. This is the song. And so
I called the guys up and wekind of talked about a timeline of when
we could do it, and thenScott, our producer, was like,
what do you think about doing itas a duet? And I hadn't really
(08:18):
thought about that and I was like, well, I guess lyrically it kind
of works. Sure, it's gotto be Lizzie and yes, my call
because Lizzie and I had been talkingabout doing something for years since we toured
together back in twenty thirteen, andthen we did something during the pandemic for
We did an acoustic live stream andI knew she lived in Nashville. I
was like, Hey, you wantto come out and do a couple of
(08:39):
songs. It'd be kind of fun. And we did a couple covers.
I think we did the chain fromFleetwood mac Man in the Box and then
we did a Hailstorm song as well, and we were like, we still
got to do something. We stillgot to do something, and we kept
kind of going back and forth andnot text her. I was like,
(09:01):
I think I got it. Ithink I got the one, and she
was like, hell yeah, I'mall in that's my go to karaoke song.
Let's do this. And so luckilyI was able to we were able
to be in the studio at thesame time. And that's increasing. I
gotta tell you. There is maybesix seven years ago my band was trying
to think of a cover song todo and somebody brought that up, and
(09:24):
I actually started to program some stuffand I'm like, this is hard.
This isn't a hard right to doit and have it not sound like journey
can put your own spin on it. I think you achieved it. Well,
thank you, and so having tried, I know that that is well.
It's terrifying when you're wanting to tacklesomeone like Steve Perry because you're just
(09:48):
subjecting your It's like you're asking toget raked over the coals, you know.
So I was very pleased to seethat the response was leaning moral on
the positive side than than the whatdo you think and you're what do you
think you're doing? Nobody touches StevePerry, but and that is a for
(10:09):
the record, that is one ofthe most difficult vocals in that key.
Yeah, obviously we're not doing itin that key. I don't have the
range that he has. But it'sit's ridiculous, Like I listened to his
records and I'm just like, uh, yeah, I have a pair of
balls to go. I'm going totackle Steve Perry's yeah vocals. So,
yeah, thank you, I stillhave him, I think. So.
(10:31):
In your career, you've accomplished somany accolades, so many achievements, Grammy
nominations, American Music Awards, allof this stuff. What is the most.
What's the one that you're most proudof, What's the one that means
the most of the accolades? Well, I think the fact that we're still
able to do this right now,and you know, at the level we're
(10:54):
doing it is is uh something thatI'm very grateful for. This is such
a fleeting industry, So the factthat we still have such a solid fan
base that is stuck with us isyou know, you know, I try
not to take that for granted,right, but uh, I mean,
(11:16):
it doesn't suck to have, youknow, three Grammy nominations, but you
know, come on, let's let'slet's have a win in there somewhere.
There still times we gotta get Yeah, do you feel like you had any
additional challenges having come up the wayyou did with American Idol? Yeah,
I mean I think I think therewas certainly, you know, trepidation on
(11:41):
a lot of people's part. Imean, I get it. I was
I was as well. I didn'twant to go on the show because I
didn't think that that's what you doin the rock world, you know,
would would my heroes do this?You know? I asked myself that question
and over and over again. Butat the same time, I had to
(12:01):
look at a couple of things.I was playing clubs for you know,
almost ten years at that time,spinning wheels. I didn't we didn't have
the access that that you know youhave now with the Internet where you're able
to get your music out there.I felt like it was it was my
(12:24):
time was kind of escaping me,even though it was only twenty twenty five
at the time when I auditioned andI was kind of looking for any way
to get my voice heard so thatI could just get more gigs. Like
that was as forward thinking as Iwas, Like, maybe I can get
(12:46):
on a show, get kicked offa week or two end, but people
kind of know who I am,and then I don't have to beg the
club owner exactly. Like it's gonnakind of open the door up for more
gigs. That was it, andit I was like, how bad can
that be? If I get moregigs, I'm able to do this and
you know, tour regionally, youknow whatever, and and pay my bills,
(13:07):
then then I'll be stoked about thatand so to be quite better than
that, and so sure, Ithink in the beginning, people were like,
is this dude for real. AndI was very fortunate enough to have
people like seven Dust and uh,you know, popa Roach, these bands
(13:31):
that we we ended up doing showswith, embrace Us, Nickelback, took
us out on tour, bon Jovi, and and to have that validation where
you're looking side stage and Vinnie Paulis over there, you know, rocking
out to your set and the guysand seven Dust, who are like family
to me, that was like enoughfor me, Like, Okay, these
(13:52):
guys think we're cool. That's goodenough for me. And I think I
think that word kind of spread throughoutyou know, rock radio, and well
I can tell you from from beingyou know, a rock guy and then
watching you perform, was you know, in your corner going for it like
this is the guy I want towin. But then you know, even
afterwards, I'm like the fact thathe is making this actually work. You
(14:16):
know, maybe better that you didn'tactually win, because so much better,
you know, because who knows whatwould have come with that. Yeah,
but it was it was a winfor rock. You were a win for
all. Thank you, Thank youvery much. And then you went back
to them to do the mass singer. Yeah, my wife and I started
watching season three, so we missedthe route wilder, but we have to
go back. It was so muchfun that that might have been one of
(14:37):
the most liberating experiences of my career. And nobody knew who I was.
I didn't have to win anything.It wasn't like I need this right,
you know, it was just nobodyhas clue. I can go out there
and dance and do these songs thatnobody would ever expect me to do.
And it was a lot of fun, but it was extremely difficult. Really.
Yes, I have so much respectfrom mascots and they're not singing,
(15:01):
you know, but trying to singit felt like trying to sing in like
a hot paperbag, you know.It's a it's incredible. We watch every
season and we're kind of hooked onit, so it's it's fascinating. David
Draymond said the other day last weekthat he was might be interested in being
a chair on the Voice. Wow, I could see that he liked to
do a rock season. Yeah,would you be in on that? Oh?
(15:24):
Absolutely? I love David by theway. We were just talking the
other day and and he's he's we'vewe've discussed potentially doing something together at some
point as well. But yeah,I would totally do something like that.
That would be really cool. Iwould love to see a rock although it's
probably I don't know. Do weget another bald guy and just even out
(15:45):
the even out the ball panel geted Kowaltchik from Live, David Draymond and
me. Yeah do it. Threerecords that define you, define me,
Live Throwing Copper U, sound Guardand super Unknown, Alison Shane's Dirt or
Tool AAMA, that's a yeah,that's fourth, that's a fourth little bonus
(16:07):
round. I get you. Ispring that on you. Yeah, dude,
I am so thrilled with the newsingle and looking forward to hearing the
new record so much. What's whatare the plans for the rest of the
year. You're doing the acoustic tour, the acoustic tour, and then we're
back to making the record. Soyeah, all right, well, best
of luck, can't wait to hearit. Thank you and have a good
show to night. Thank you man, I appreciate you. Thanks Chris,