Chris Daughtry has some words for rock fans who think they own the genre.
“I feel like the artists are probably more welcoming than some of the fans,” the Daughtry frontman said in an interview with Talkin’ Rock with Meltdown about the band’s reception in the rock world. “I think the fans can be a little gatekeeper.”
He added, “If they’re into this band and you’re on the same bill, it doesn’t quite align with how they… The bands that they’re into. They may have something to say but it’s never the bands. It’s never the other artists. It’s usually certain fan bases.”
In August 2023, Big Machine Records signed Daughtry. They released a new single, ‘Artificial’, on August 11. On February 9, 2024, ‘Artificial’ hit number one on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.
During an appearance on Jamey Jasta’s The Jasta Show last year, Chris talked about the song, explaining, “When we wrote ‘Artificial,’ it was just like, ‘Dude, this feels like the freshest sh*t we’ve ever written’ and I don’t know how people are going to react to this but I know this is my favorite thing I’ve ever done. So I say, we pump the brakes on the rest right now and we turn this in, get it mixed, mastered, and ready to go.”
The rocker continued, “I think they just couldn’t help but believe my excitement in it and I even called Scott Borchetta, the head of the label and I was like, ‘Look here’s my vision for the video. Here’s my vision for the song. I think we’re touching on something that no one’s talking about right now and this AI stuff is about to break loose in a big way and I feel like we need to be ahead of the curb on this.'”
“He was like, ‘Dude, I am full aware of all of that stuff. I read up on it all the time and I think you’re absolutely right. Let’s go. Let’s be loud about it.’ And then, I had to convince him to spend 100 grand on a video [laughs],” Daughtry further shared.
Later, the band released another single, ‘Pieces,’ on March 22, 2024. In June, Daughtry announced their next album would be split into two parts, with the first part coming in September. A new single, ‘Nervous,’ came out on June 28. On August 9, 2024, they released another single, ‘The Reckoning.’
