Daughtry at Red Rock

Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2007 | 6:56 a.m.

Who: Daughtry

When: 8 p.m. Thursday

Where: Red Rock Resort

Tickets: $52.50; 797-7777

"There's no slowing down ... We're going to go till the end of the year. We've been writing on the bus."

Chris Daughtry, on his band's success and its busy schedule

You don't have win "American Idol" to be a winner.

Chris Daughtry, a pop rocker from North Carolina, placed fourth in the nationally televised talent contest last year, but his debut album "Daughtry" reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts soon after being released in November.

Daughtry will perform at the Red Rock Resort on Thursday .

He recently spoke to the Sun from Sioux Falls, S.D., where he was performing at a fair.

1. On the 'American Idol' experience

It definitely worked out for me. I didn't really expect it to do as well as it's doing right now. It's kind of a surprise, nevertheless we are grateful for where we are right now. I've been wanting to do this ever since I was 16. About 11 years now I've been pursuing this, playing in bands, playing in bars, trying to get my name out there. The whole "American Idol" thing was just my only other option because I wasn't getting anywhere doing what I was doing. So I figured try out for that and see what happens and here we are.

2. On inspirations

One of the bands that really got me interested in doing music is a band called Live. And then I got into Stone Temple Pilots and Soundgarden. A lot of the '90s music inspired me, then I went back and listened to Elton John, Led Zeppelin and stuff like that. To me it's all about people that sing, singers, good singers. Phil Collins. Seal. Rod Stewart even. That's the stuff that I dig.

3. On a roll

There's no slowing down. We don't slow down. We're going to go till the end of the year. We've been writing on the bus. At some point we're going to have to sit down and really think about the next record and start being pro-active on the writing process. We've written seven or eight songs so far, but we don't really have time to work together as a band all the time because everybody's doing their own thing. Hopefully, when this slows down, we'll be able to take a couple of months and just hang out together and write a record.

4. On Vegas

We played some small things there, corporate stuff. We haven't done a full blown show yet. Red Rock will be our first.

5. On the future

I certainly want to do this as long as I can. I don't have any other aspirations other than making music right now. If something else interesting comes up I'll look at it, but I'm pretty content doing the music.