Chris Daughtry: Revenge of the rocker

Daughtry will play the Illinois State Fair grandstand in Springfield Aug. 12.

Sunday, August 12, 2007 1:13 AM CDT

By Jon Bream
Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

It was Vince Lombardi, or Paula Abdul, or someone on ESPN’s “Sportscenter” who once said, “Winning isn’t everything.” It is Chris Daughtry who says over and over again, “I’m glad I didn’t win.”

He finished fourth on “American Idol” in 2006. But America has cast another ballot, and he has the No. 1 album of 2007. “Daughtry,” a collection of original but not original-sounding rock tunes, has sold more than 3 million copies and counting.

Take that, Taylor Hicks, Katharine McPhee and Elliot Yamin. They may have finished ahead of Daughtry in the “Idol” voting. But add up the sales of their three post-”Idol” CDs and multiply by two — and the number still doesn’t measure up to Daughtry’s sales figures.

He’s even outdistanced such big names as Tim McGraw, Linkin Park and Fergie. Daughtry has had two tunes on the radio — the rocking “It’s Not Over” and “Home,” a ballad that has earned Top 40 airplay.

Since “Daughtry” was released in late November, he and his band — simply known as Daughtry — have hit the road aggressively, appearing everywhere from stadiums and arenas to fairs and clubs.

With the quintet touring as openers for Nickelback, Daughtry, 27, called from the road.

Q. How’s the Nickelback tour going so far?

A. I feel like we got our butts handed to us from those guys in rock ‘n’ roll school. They’re just phenomenal live. They’ve got all the rock ‘n’ roll gimmicks: throwing beer out into the crowd, shooting T-shirts out with cannons — I got to do that on their stage; it was fun. All the pyro. Other than that, they’re so tight and dead-on. The dude’s voice (Chad Kroeger) never fails. It kind of (ticks) me off. Chad’s a great dude and he’s been super-great to us. We’re honored to come on tour with him.

Q. They may have the pyro and the gimmicks, but you’ve got the bestselling album of the year.

A. I’ll take that. That doesn’t suck.

Q. Since you’re so hot right now, do you think you should be headlining, not Nickelback?

A. No. They’ve got a bigger album. They’ve sold 5 million records on this album and we’ve sold 3.

Q. How does it feel to have the biggest-selling album of the year, so far?

A. It’s definitely an accomplishment that we never felt would happen. We thought the album would do OK. We felt, if it would sell a million, we’ll be happy. It kind of just kept going.

Q. Why do you think the album is so big? Is it the crossover with the fan base from “American Idol” and the airplay from rock radio?

A. I think it’s a combination of everything. Rock radio took us seriously and embraced us. We obviously had the “Idol” fans and then the crossover to hot (adult contemporary) and Top 40 and mainstream. It was kind of reaching out to new ears.

People relate to it because it’s pretty simple, everyday life stuff. We all come from a blue-collar background and I think the majority of America connects with that. We’ve worked our butts off all our life to get where we are. And people see that. We’re not just some band that got lucky. We’ve definitely put in our time in the clubs, playing for the workers or maybe 15 people at the most. It’s all definitely paid off.

Q. I think the emotional way you deliver songs has a lot to do with your success.

A. I’m in a different place onstage. I turn into something else. It’s kind of like an actor: You get into your character. I get into the songs. I’m really trying to dig deep in my soul and put everything I have into it.

Q. “Home” is a song you wrote before any of us heard your name. What inspired you to write that song?

A. I was at home, actually, sitting on my couch. I knew I was going to go away to do the show (“Idol”) and I’d never been away from my family for that long. (He has a wife and two kids.) I got into the mind-set of what that was going to be like. I picked up the guitar and wasn’t planning on writing anything and started humming along and wrote the thing in, like, 10 minutes.

I never really thought it was going to be anything. And it ended up being one of Clive’s (Davis, the head of the record label) favorite songs when I played him some songs in his office. And the rest is history.

Q. In the tradition of Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Danzig and Winger, you’ve decided to go with Daughtry and not Chris Daughtry. Why?

A. I’ve never been a solo artist; I’ve always been in bands. I’ve never wanted to be a solo artist. I probably could have come up with a clever name for a band but I guess the fact is I had name recognition from the show, so (we) call the band my last name.

(c) 2007, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.