Daughtry earns four Grammy nominations

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'American Idol' finalist Chris Daughtry (second from left) and his band will play a show at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center this weekend.

When it came to music, Chris Daughtry could never seem to win.

In 2005, he auditioned for the NBC series "Rock Star: INXS" and didn't make the cut. A year later, he traveled to Denver to audition for the fifth season of "American Idol" and, as everyone knows by now, the North Carolina native finished fourth on the popular TV show.

He subsequently signed a record deal, and it's safe to say, the soon-to-be 28-year-old (he'll celebrate his birthday the day after Christmas), is finally winning (if you will).

Well, winning is a relative term, but if a nomination is truly just as good as winning, then Daughtry is a quadruple winner already.

Last week he earned four Grammy nominations and Howard Benson, who produced his debut effort, was tabbed with nomination for "Producer of the Year, Non-Classical."

Not bad for a guy who didn't even start singing — let alone performing or even thinking about writing music — until he was 17 years old.

"The week I got voted off ("American Idol"), Clive (Clive Davis, record producer and music industry executive) wanted to have a meeting with me," Daughtry said recently in an online interview. "Whether I won or not, he wanted me. We had a meeting. He basically put the ball in my court.

"When I told him I was a writer, he was excited. He wanted to hear it ... I played him my songs, and he loved it, so he gave me a lot of control over the album."

The album he's referring to is the singularly titled, "Daughtry."

It's the first rock band (along with Daughtry, the band also includes members Josh Paul, Joey Barnes, Brian Craddock and Josh Steely) to hit the top spot on the "Billboard" albums chart (in its ninth week of release) after making its debut below the No. 1 spot since Bon Jovi managed the feat with "New Jersey" in 1988.

The album sold 300,000 units in its first week and topped its first million in sales in just five weeks time, making Daughtry the fourth most successful selling "American Idol" alum behind Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson and Clay Aiken.

Now that he and his comrades finally have the critical acclaim to match their commercial success, it's likely Daughtry, married to his wife Deanna since 2000 and the father of two adopted children, Hannah, 9, and Griffin, 7, won't be going home any time soon. "When we got married, I took on the two kids as my own," Daughtry explained.

"So, you know, she was saying that she was scared that I was sacrificing my doing that, and that she was just really excited that I'm still getting to live it — even though I took on the married life and the family early, that I'm still able to live my dream."

The dream, however, has very much become a reality. Made up of arena-tempered anthems coupled with hand-crafted gems, "Daughtry," the album, is an emotional diary of sorts for Daughtry, the artist, and that album has become the fastest-selling "rock" debut in the history of SoundScan. Just as quickly as America fell in love with him as an "Idol" performer, Daughtry is continuing to win over crowds with his bluesy swagger and rugged voice, just to name a few of his hard-won attributes. "Daughtry clearly connects with the audience," read one recent review that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, "and it would seem to be only the beginning."

Keith Ryan Cartwright is a Nashville-based freelance entertainment journalist.