'American Idol' contestant Chris Daughtry (Christopher Adam Daughtry), born in in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina on December 26th 1979, issued his debut album in November 2006. Although given the title DAUGHTRY, Chris Daughtry was keen to stress this was a band unit. The musicians comprise guitarists Jeremy Brady and Josh Steely, bass player Josh Paul and drummer Joey Barnes.

Previously, Chris Daughtry was occupied in a service department at a Greensboro car dealership. Fronting Rock bands in Burlington, including ABSENT ELEMENT, led to an application in 2005 for an audition for the CBS television contest 'Rock Star: INXS', although he did not make the cut for the filming of the show. Auditiong for 'American Idol', he only passed the audition from a split decision: approved by judges Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson, but disapproved by Simon Cowell. The singer made it through to the final weeks of the show, scoring fourth overall. After he was voted out, FUEL made a public offer for him to become their new frontman as replacement for Brett Scallions. Daughtry, despite having performed FUEL's 'Hemorrhage (In My Hands)' on the show, turned the offer down. Daughtry's next choice of song would be SEETHER's 'Broken'.

Throughout the finals Daughtry sang STEVIE WONDER's 'Higher Ground', JOHNNY CASH's 'I Walk The Line', CREED's 'What If', KEITH URBAN's 'Making Memories Of Us', QUEEN's 'Innuendo', BRYAN ADAMS 'Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?', LOUIS ARMSTRONG's 'What A Wonderful World', STYX's 'Renegade', SHINEDOWN's 'I Dare You' and ELVIS PRESLEY's 'Suspicious Minds'. On the 'American Idol' season 5 finale held on May 24th 2006 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, Daughtry made a return to perform the song 'Mystery' with LIVE.

The 'American Idol Season Five: Encores' compilation album featured Daughtry's version of BON JOVI's 'Wanted Dead Or Alive', a song he also performed live on 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show'. On June 8th Daughtry put in a cameo appearance, alongside comedian Jimmy Fallon, on the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, performing a parody of DANIEL POWTER's 'Bad Day'. In July it was announced the vocalist had signed with 19 Entertainment, a subsidiary of RCA Records.

Howard Benson was chosen as producer for the project. Collaborating on the songwriting front would be NICKELBACK's Chad Kroeger, LIVE's Ed Kowalczyk, FUEL's Carl Bell, 3 DOORS DOWN's Brad Arnold, MATCHBOX TWENTY's Rob Thomas, SR-71's Mitch Allan and SHINEDOWN's Brent Smith. After a Raleigh homecoming parade on Hillsborough Street, DAUGHTRY undertook its debut live show at the Reynolds Coliseum on November 3rd 2006.

The eponymous album, impressively landing at number 2 on the US Billboard charts, was preceded by a single, 'It's Not Over' featured in a commercial for the FOX series 'Prison Break', which reached number 6 on the US charts. Within five weeks of release 'Daughtry' had sold over a million copies, outselling the 'American Idol' winner Taylor Hicks. Although the record dropped to number 5, in January 2007 it rose again to hit the top spot, selling over 65,000 albums that week. This made 'Daughtry' the first Rock album in twenty years, after BON JOVI's 1988 opus 'New Jersey', to gain a number one position after debuting below number one and the fastest selling debut rock album in Soundscan history. A nationwide headline tour kicked off on January 28th at the House Of Blues in Anaheim, California.