We throw the term “butt rock” around all willy-nilly these days. But have we ever actually stopped to think of how it might impact the artist making music that gets associated with this classification? Well, in the case of one Mr. Chris Daughtry at least, he doesn’t really mind it.
During a September 2026 L.A. Times interview, Daughtry was asked about being labeled “butt rock,” and his response was deeply respectable. “It makes me laugh,” the former American Idol contestant confessed. “When we get ready to play ‘Over You,’ I say, ‘We’re about to play a classic divorced-dad rock banger.’ Call it what you want—at the end of the day, to me it’s just rock ’n’ roll.”
The interviewer went on to note how Nickelback “crushed with that crowd” when they played the predominantly country music festival Stagecoach a few years back. With a chuckle, Daughtry admitted that his band “haven’t” been asked to play the California fest.
Daughtry is not likely to go full country anytime soon
That does not mean, however, that he and his eponymous band are not familiar with their crossover appeal. “We played the Boots and Hearts festival in Canada with Hardy,” he recalled. “I was like, Why are we on this bill? Everyone was in cowboy hats and boots—it was clear it was a country-centric festival. And they loved us. I can see that we share similar audiences.”
While his band certainly has fans from the Southern music space, Daughtry confessed that he’s not been keen on going full country. “The conversation was brought up with old management around the second record,” he revealed. “I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.
The singer went on to explain, “I saw where they were coming from — how easy it would be to give in to that temptation. But it just didn’t feel authentic to me, even though I grew up with country music.”
Daughtry released a new record, ‘There and Back Again’, in July 2026
The most recent Daughtry release is There and Back Again, a collection of rerecorded hits from his career. During his chat with the L.A. Times, he offered a very direct and honest answer as to why he put out this project.
“I’m trying to get paid,” he said candidly. “It’s harder and harder to make money in this business, and owning masters is a big thing. Taylor Swift—it wasn’t new, but she certainly popularized it. What an undertaking she took on doing, what, six albums? We did seven tracks from the first record, and I was ready to blow my brains out.”
Lastly, he revealed that he and his band are currently in the process of working on a new album with his record label, Big Machine.
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