“It takes a lot of time to accept who you are,” says Chris Daughtry. “You shave off the persona that you thought people expected, stop worrying about what anyone is going to think. You start to be comfortable with who you are onstage and off, and that all blends together. I think I finally know who I am as a person.”

As the frontman for the band bearing his name, Daughtry has become one of the most visible and consistent rock & roll torchbearers of the 21^st Century. Since rising to prominence on the fifth season of American Idol, he has released four albums, all of which reached the Billboard Top Ten and have combined sales over 8 million copies in the U.S.

Daughtry’s self-titled debut was the best-selling album of 2007, which contained four Top Twenty hit singles including the Grammy-nominated smash “It’s Not Over.” Leave This Town also reached Number One in 2009, while 2011’s Break the Spell was certified gold. His group’s most recent record, 2013’s Baptized, featured the platinum-selling “Waiting for Superman,” which the singer points to as a turning point in his songwriting.

“It was a nice hybrid of where we had been and where we’re going, and it opened my eyes a bit,” says Daughtry. “Everything was so serious and doom and gloom, and ‘You broke my heart,’ but we never saw ourselves as those people outside the music—onstage we were always joking around. That helped me wrap my head around the fact that we can be light-hearted and still be us. And that really changed the way I approach the songs in general.”

Daughtry and his band have been performing together for over a decade. “Like anything with a ten year relationship, you know more about each other than you do most of your family,” says Chris Daughtry. “It’s a love-hate thing—you get sick of being around them, but after two weeks at home you’re ready to get back out on the road and do it again. The fan base really keeps us alive. That’s the key ingredient to keeping a band together—that’s the gasoline, and without it you can’t run.”

One thing that has kept the fire burning for Daughtry has been the need to constantly challenge himself creatively. He has collaborated with artists from Timbaland to Vince Gill to Carlos Santana and took on the role of Judas Iscariot in the 2016 live television performance of The Passion, and even fulfilled a lifelong dream by drawing the cover of a Batman comic which was rated one of the top 25 covers of the year by BatmanNews.com.

This kind of ambition has also extended to the work of Daughtry the band. “We always try to push ourselves outside of the familiar parameters,” says the singer. “If it’s anything like we’ve done before, then it’s not good enough for the record.

“If you look at the groups doing it for twenty-plus years,” he continues, “they were always changing their style, testing the water, going off the rails from what people expected—Zeppelin, Elton, Prince, they never did the same record twice. So there’s always that effort to push yourself as an artist, but I never want to abandon that sense of melody and sense of something that people can grab onto, whether it conjures up memories or helps them through a tough time. That’s what I love about music, when it makes me feel something.”

As the band continues work on its fifth album (which Daughtry describes in its early stages as having a “bluesy, almost rootsy undertone to it”), they look to contemporaries like Maroon 5 and Train as examples of acts able to maintain their relevance while rock & roll faces an uphill struggle in the mass media. “Those guys are inspirational, showing that you can come back and have a strong presence, even if what you’re known for doing is having a hard time,” he says.

Ten years after launching with a massive splash, Chris Daughtry claims that he and the band have grown the most on stage, and that it’s altered his whole sense of his work. “When we first came out, I’d only known what I’d seen,” he says. “I didn’t know how to be vulnerable, with no pretense. Now it’s walk onstage and, especially in our acoustic shows, just be flat-out honest and open. It’s really helped me realize that’s actually what fans want—they want 100 percent honesty and feeling like they got to know you better.”

Josh Paul is best known as the lead bassist for GRAMMY Nominated band, Daughtry.

Hailing from Los Angeles, California, Paul has been with Daughtry since its inception. Before Daughtry, Paul was touring and doing records with different artists. He started playing bass with the pretty legendary skate punk rock band Suicidal Tendencies, and its funk side project, Infectious Grooves, when he was just 18 years old. This then led to different opportunities and projects, including work with a variety of artists, such as Everlast, Kelly Osbourne, The Veronica’s, Ashley Parker Angel and more, touring as bassist and/or musical director.

When he’s not performing with Daughtry, Paul can be found writing and producing music, as well as having some fun playing on other artists’ records. Paul also has a songwriting/production company with his partner, and Daughtry bandmate, Brian Craddock. In addition to that, when time permits, Paul has a side project of his own called Bobby Church, which has a soul/rock vibe. During Christmas time, he will also sometimes throw out an instrumental Holiday EP, just because.

Paul currently resides in Nashville with his four boys, whom he enjoys playing baseball with, all while trying to raise them as awesome as possible. Paul also enjoys doing work with children who may not have access to the arts, as well as volunteering with VH1 Save the Music Foundation, which ensures that music instruction is a core component to children’s education.  

Cut from the baseball team in high school, Brian Craddock begrudgingly accepted that his dream of major league glory was a long shot. Despite the setback, guitar practice soon replaced batting practice and he set his sights on a much more sensible vocation: musician. “If I’d known how much work goes into being a professional musician, I might have looked into med school; the hours would be better,” he says laughing.

Born in Charlottesville, Virginia the guitarist grew up amid the college town’s thriving music scene, best known for producing Dave Matthews. “People identify this town with roots rock because of his success, but there is an eclectic community of musicians living here who introduced me to every style of music.”

Craddock met many of those characters while selling guitars at one of the local music shops. Working there, he picked up licks from guitarists who stopped in to talk gear and jam with whoever was around. “That was my real education; jazzers showing me chromatic runs, country guys showing me chicken picking; something different every day,” he says. “For me, learning a new riff was like discovering another word in a musical language that has allowed me relate to people.”

Eager to learn more, Craddock spent two years studying flamenco guitar, fascinated by the music’s demanding precision and emotional intensity. “There’s a lot going on and you have to pay close attention because it get very tricky,” he says. “As much fun as that was, I had to give it up, because – believe it not – classical guitar recitals are not exactly a great place to meet girls.”

Switching to rock, Craddock found his musical niche but quickly discovered the difficulty in making it a living. “You hustle or fail. I was a graphic designer by day, gave guitar lessons in the afternoon, and then played or produced all night; it’s not glamorous. I missed the first years of my daughter’s life working round the clock, but I kept doing it because it’s what I love.”

In a fateful twist, the music store where Craddock worked growing up is also where he first met Chris Daughtry. “His band used to open up for mine,” Craddock says. “When I heard he was looking for a guitarist, I left him a message. He called me back that night – while I was making a chocolate cake – with a plane ticket to an audition the next day. I learned the entire album on the flight to L.A.”

After a disastrous first audition, Craddock came back the following day and nailed the performance. “People couldn’t believe it was the same guy. It was obviously meant to be,” Daughtry says.

Josh Steely was 10 when punk rock shook his world.

“A lot of people say the Beatles got them into music, but for me it was bands like the Circle Jerks, Black Flag and Suicidal Tendencies,” he says. “It was incredibly empowering to suddenly realize that I could play those same three or four chords and make up songs about what happened at school that day. In that instant, music was my obsession.”

It was also in his blood. Steely’s mother sang and his father played guitar and toured with superstars like Bob Seger and Jimmy Buffet. His parents also performed together as a successful nightclub duo. “I grew up on the road until we settled in San Diego when it was time for me to go to school,” he says. “They were both music lovers who listened to everything from Ravi Shankar and Alice Coltrane to yacht rock like Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald. There was always something different on the turntable at my house.”

Determined to carry on his family’s musical tradition, Steely spent most of high school holed up in the garage, practicing guitar. After graduation, he joined a band and toured for several years. “It made me realize that I really needed to start my own band,” he says with a laugh. “So I quit and spent the next 15 years fronting my own three piece, touring, writing songs and making records.”

When his second son was born in 2002, Steely says his fatherly responsibilities took precedence over his musical ambitions. “I never gave up on making it on my own terms, but I had a family to think about,” he says. “You do whatever it takes to make it work. For me, that meant splitting time between a straight job and music.”

After several years walking the straight and narrow, Steely received a call from a friend who was organizing auditions for Chris Daughtry’s band. He invited Steely to L.A. to audition for the lead guitar spot. “I’m one of the only guys in the band who watched Chris on American Idol; I was blown away,” he says. “My boss and I would watch on our lunch hour. It’s funny, because I remember telling him that I wished I could find a singer like Chris for my band.”

In L.A., Steely’s friend recruited him to stand in for Daughtry during the auditions, playing rhythm and singing. “I had a leg up on everyone when it came time for me to audition, because I’d seen what everyone else was doing,” he says.

“He looked like a surf bum who’d wandered in off the street until he picked up a guitar and blew me away,” Daughtry recalls. “So many of the guitarists who auditioned came in, put their boot up on the monitor and started shredding from the first note to the last. Josh was different. He respected the song. He only played what he needed to. He was the perfect fit.”

Elvio Fernandes is a Rochester, NY-based musician, songwriter and producer, best known for his work as a keyboardist, rhythm guitarist and vocalist for multi-platinum-selling artist Daughtry. Elvio’s writing credits include multiple Daughtry songs including the single “Witness” and “Crazy” from the band’s “Break The Spell” record.

Elvio has been performing live music for 20 years and has been fortunate enough to play for tens of thousands of people around the world. He has also composed and produced music for national and local television and radio advertising, working with companies such as Chevy and McDonald’s. In addition to his work with Daughtry, Elvio has worked with national recording artists such as Richard Marx, Brad Arnold of 3 Doors Down, Brian McKnight, Claude Kelly, Greg Howe, and American Idol finalist Ace Young whose Top 50-debut single “Scattered” was produced and co-written by Elvio.

Elvio is proud to be the founder of Camp ROC Star, located in Rochester, NY, which is about to launch their 7th year inspiring kids aged 10-17 to learn more about playing rock n roll. Camp ROC Star is a week-long day-camp that provides aspiring rock musicians with an unforgettable learning and performance experience that will improve their playing skills, increase their confidence, foster collaboration with others and inspire them to find the artist within themselves.