Daughtry talks about life, tour

On Friday night, students and the general public alike nearly filled all available seats in Coleman Coliseum to hear triple-platinum band DAUGHTRY, headliner of the 2007 Homecoming concert.

But lead singer and "American Idol" alumnus Chris Daughtry, in a pre-concert interview with The Crimson White, reveals that none of the success has gone to his head.

"Who am I? I'm just a normal dude that got lucky, I guess," said Daughtry on Friday night, just before he was to perform at Coleman.

"I've been doing this for eleven years, playing the same bars over and over for the same people, and I finally got my break," Daughtry said, referring to his appearance as a finalist on "American Idol."

Throughout the interview, Daughtry continued to emanate that same sort of humble attitude, though he admitted that his musical ability and perseverance played a part in his rise to fame.

"I decided [if] people aren't coming out to see me, you know, from record labels, I might as well go get seen," he said, pointing out that had he not auditioned for "American Idol," he would likely still be an unknown playing in bars.

Being from North Carolina, it would be only natural for Daughtry to be included in the football-obsessed masses that make up a significant portion of the population of the region. But somehow, Daughtry said, that never happened.

"It's weird," he said. "My whole family is into sports, football, basketball, baseball, and actually it's something I never really got into. I don't really know why. I just never really got sucked into sports."

Daughtry was quick to say that even though he is not actively interested in sports, he also does not actively dislike them.

"Being at games, I always enjoy them," he said. "It's always a lot more fun being there than, for me, watching it on TV."

Daughtry said when he was growing up, rather than being involved in sports, he would draw.

"I was always drawing," he said. "I was a nerd. I was reading comic books. I thought that's what I was going to do, like be a comic artist."

Daughtry said he later became interested in acting when he entered high school, but that soon gave way to an interest in music when he was 16, and a friend pushed him into singing for his band.

Daughtry said learning to play guitar when he was in high school gave him a common interest with his father, who also played guitar.

"I think he tried to teach me when I was eight or nine years old, and I gave up really quick," he said. "As a teenager, once I started learning how to play, we always jammed out together, so that was kind of like my little outlet with my dad.

"He was a big hunter, and I never hunted, so that was like our bonding time. And now he's living his dream through me."

Daughtry said he enjoyed touring overseas, because the band isn't as popular in other countries as they are here, and that means they have more time to relax. He cited a recent tour in Australia as a particularly good example.

"I got to spend time at the zoo and go to the aquarium and check out all the cool stuff in the area," he said. "My trip to the zoo was the [most enjoyable] part, because I got to see kangaroos and koala bears and got to hand-feed them."

Daughtry said even though he enjoys playing in front of huge crowds now that he and DAUGHTRY have broken out, there is a downside when compared to playing in small bars as he did in the past.

"I think sometimes the difference can be lack of intimacy," he said. "[In] the smaller rooms, it's easier to see everybody's faces, and you feel like you can draw everybody in.

"We did arenas with Nickelback this year, and there's so many sections you can't even see. Even though they're packed, you can't see them. So it feels like you're cheating them out of a good show. They walk away happy, but you feel like you have a big disconnect between you and half the audience."

After Daughtry brought up Nickelback, the topic of DAUGHTRY being musically compared to them and other similar-sounding bands came up, but Daughtry was not fazed by the comparisons.

"Whatever I write just comes out of me. I don't write to sound like a certain band," Daughtry said. "It's definitely somewhat of the same formula, which is why it's compared. I don't mind being compared to successful bands."

Daughtry continued by saying he thought it would take the release of another album or two before the band truly solidified "the DAUGHTRY sound."

He also said Nickelback was a band he loved touring with because they treated his band well and were just fun people in general. He gave an example of Nickelback shenanigans that took place during the last show they played together.

"They just came up on stage in the middle of our set," he said, "and just pied us, and, you know, trashed the stage, and we still had like three songs left.

"It was cool, because we felt like that was their way of saying thanks."