Former American Idol season 5 fourth-place finisher Chris Daughtry stated that he would form a new band after turning down
Fuel's offer to make him their lead singer. On July 10, 2006 it was announced that Chris had signed with 19 Entertainment and RCA Records, which holds contracts with fellow American Idol finalists Kelly Clarkson, Bo Bice, Kellie Pickler and Katharine McPhee.
Chris is a singer-songwriter himself and has collaborated with several other songwriters, such as
Live's Ed Kowalczyk,
Fuel's Carl Bell, Brad Arnold of
3 Doors Down, Rob Thomas of
Matchbox 20, SR-71 singer Mitch Allan, Brent Smith of
Shinedown and Chad Kroeger of
Nickelback. Hit writers Dr. Luke and Max Martin also lent their expertise to the album. Session drummer Josh Freese played drums on all the tracks for the album.
Daughtry himself didn't have much of a hand in who was in his new band. Chris's label chose band mates for Daughtry: Jeremy Brady, 21, a guitarist and at this point no
longer in the band; Josh Steely, 36, as lead guitarist; Josh Paul, 29, as bassist who also played for
Suicidal Tendencies; Joey Barnes, 30, as drummer. Interestingly, two of the band members hail from North Carolina - Joey, whom Chris had known for some time, and Jeremy, who was introduced to him a month before the audition. Steely and Paul are both from California.
The first single from the album, "It's Not Over," debuted on the radio on December 6, 2006, after being delayed from a planned September release. The self-titled debut album, which was produced by Howard Benson, was released by 19 Entertainment and RCA Records on November 21, 2006. The song was an instant success, shooting up the Billboard Hot 100 reaching #4 and hitting the top 3 in several other charts. "It's Not Over" bears a somewhat strong resemblance to Fuel's hit song "Hemorrhage (In my Hands)" (the two songs share a similar key and chord progression, among other elements), which Chris Daughtry performed on American Idol on March 1, 2006.
Jeremy Brady's departure from Daughtry was announced on January 26, 2007.
The second single from the album, "Home" peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, after debuting at #83 weeks ahead of its official release to radio. The song was also the official "kick off" song on sixth season of American Idol, in which it was played after a contestant was voted off the show.
The album's third single, " What I Want", was released to Rock Radio on April 23, 2007. The song features Slash on lead guitars. It has peaked at number 6 on the Rock charts.
Their song "There and Back Again" is the official theme song for WWE Backlash 2007.
Their debut album was certified Triple Platinum on June 21, 2007.
The band's fourth single "Over You" was released July 24th. The band performed this single live on Good Morning America on June 1, 2007.
"Crashed", the album's fifth single, was released to Rock stations on September 10, 2007.
