Ping
Chris will be a big star - very talented guy
I love this guy and can't wait to buy his first album. Any word yet if he has decided to sign with Fuel?
I have mixed feelings about this guy. Average talent, poor attitude. I saw him on Ellen and a few other shows and he seems to be quite full of himself. He couldn't believe he didn't advance in the competititon. Well, sorry, Chris, but millions of us didn't vote for you, If one thinks highly of himself that's fine, but it's generally considered polite to keep those thoughts to yourself.
I really was hoping he would sing KEANE'S..."Somewhere Only We Know." I think his voice would be perfect for that song! Do you know the song I'm speaking about? It's being used in the trailer for the new movie THE LAKE HOUSE with Sandra Bullock and Keannu Reaves.
I've watched Idol off and on. Second years I was really into, this is the first year I really came back. Josh Gracin was the only one I ever personally felt attached to. Chris is now the second, I'm anxious to hear his first CD.
Not that I didn't like a few others, I liked Clay, just wouldn't run out for their CD's. Of this year's crop I'm wishing Elliot and Bucky well. Bucky will probably get a deal, little uncertain about Elliot.
He's a talented guy for sure. Glad you had fun at the show you saw.
Here is the website of his band he sang with. You can also listen to some of the songs they have recorded and written with of course Chris as lead singer.
http://www.absentelement.com/
Chris Daughtry is McLeansville’s hometown hero
Allison Perkins, Staff Writer
(Tuesday, April 11, 2006 7:50 am)
McLeansville — On the quiet country road that cuts through downtown McLeansville, there are no stoplights, no glowing fast-food signs — certainly no evidence that Hollywood, with its blinding strobes, bubbling champagne and throbs of cheering fans, has ever come calling.
There is, however, a sign that this tiny town is on the verge of birthing the hottest hit in America.
"VOTE FOR CHRIS."
The Viewing Party
Every Tuesday, a crowd gathers at McLeansville Elementary School, 5315 Frieden Church Road, to watch Daughtry compete on a big-screen television. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free.
These signs are, in fact, everywhere: in front of McLeansville Elementary School, straddling the town line, decorating street corners, even in front of the local grocer, upstaging an ad for the upcoming annual fish fry. On one road, the signs outnumber the political banners posted for the sheriff's election.
It may be quiet. It may be country. But this is where rock lives, in the person of 26-year-old Chris Daughtry, one of the leading contestants on "American Idol."
Daughtry remains in the final eight slots of the hit show. Up for grabs is a $1 million recording contract, instant fame and a chance at becoming a superstar.
Daughtry grew up in Virginia but now lives in McLeansville. The folks in his adopted hometown couldn't be prouder.
"He's the talk of the town," says Tammy Wilmoth, who watches the show religiously each week with her son, Dakota, 10. "He's good, and he's from our hometown. We just like him."
The Wilmoths say they knew Daughtry was good before he made the show. The father of two performed at last year's fall festival for the local schools.
Generally, in this town of a little more than 1,000, folks tend to know each other. Some neighbors say they haven't met Daughtry, but that doesn't stop them from voting, whether they're age 7 or 71.
Behind the meat counter at McLeansville Country Market, the town's only grocery, 71-year-old butcher Harvey Biddy says he votes every week for the hard-core rocker.
"I got about half a dozen (votes) in last evening," Biddy says. "He's doing great. I think it'll wind up between him and Kellie."
Oh, and did we mention that just down the road a ways are the hometowns of not one, but two of his competitors? Bucky Covington of Rockingham and Kellie Pickler of Albemarle also are in the show's final eight.
The two country crooners have established their own fan base in the Triad. Shoppers at Target on Lawndale Avenue in Greensboro were seen sporting "Vote for Bucky" T-shirts. A minivan on Battleground Avenue bore a bumper sticker shaped like the blue "American Idol" logo with the words "Pick Pickler."
It's a dilemma. The home-state vote that in past seasons may have carried some contestants into the top spots is being split three ways.
But Daughtry's fans? Well, they aren't worried.
"Listen, he's going to win," says Lisa Clapp, vice president of the PTA at McLeansville Elementary School, which hosts a weekly "American Idol" viewing party.
"He's not from here originally, but we wanted him to know we support him," she says.
"We'll take him on as a local boy. He's definitely put us on the map.
"When people used to ask where I was from, they would say, 'Where?' Now, they say, 'Oh, that's where Chris Daughtry lives.' "
Friends of Daughtry and his wife, Deanna, say the good fortune couldn't have happened to a nicer couple.
"They're just special people. They're very giving, and I think it's their time," says Tracey Adams of Graham, who has known the couple since before their wedding. On that big day, Adams was Deanna's hairdresser.
She recalls how, during the wedding, Daughtry took time to tell Deanna's two children how much he loved them and how he was always going to be there for them.
"It was beautiful," Adams says.
Because Daughtry had to stop working to chase his Hollywood dream, his wife picked up a second job in addition to her full-time career as a massage therapist to make ends meet.
Friends such as Adams began selling "Vote for Chris" T-shirts to raise extra money to send Deanna and the kids to Hollywood to see him perform. Families of contestants must pay their own way to see the show.
The fund-raiser has been a hit. The group has already sold 1,000 shirts and is preparing to order more. And on Saturday, Daughtry's wife headed to Los Angeles to see her husband perform live on this week's show.
For those close to Daughtry, seeing him perform live onstage and for a television audience that usually numbers more than 30 million does not seem strange, Adams says.
"He's a natural at it," she says. "He's got such a strong voice, and he just loves it, and that comes across to everybody. It's just a given that that's where he should be."
Everyone who knows Daughtry, in fact, says the same thing.
"The boy has got talent," says Brad Anderson, service manager at Crown Honda in Greensboro, where Daughtry worked as a service adviser.
"We could never get him to sing here, though," he said. "We tried, but we could never get him."
And though they're all rooting for him, folks in this tiny town know that winning means losing.
With a recording contract in hand, they know Daughtry eventually will move away to the bright lights of fame and fortune. It's an ending that they are already, happily, coming to terms with.
"It's gonna be awesome, but if he wins, we'll probably lose him to Hollywood," Clapp says with a sigh. "We have fallen in love with their family."
Before Daughtry headed to California, Anderson says, they told him they would always have a job for him at Crown Honda.
"I don't think he's going to need it," Anderson says.
Contact Allison Perkins at 373-7157 or aperkins@news-record.com
I'm sure his talent could ride on the plane with him but his ego had to ride in the cargo hold.