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