Metal Anarchy

Chris Daughtry recently took to Instagram to blast fake AI stories suggesting he supports far-right figures and more. Now, the singer has further opened up about the issue during a new interview with Rolling Stone.

Daughtry said the following:

“People have been sending these to me for months. And at first I could laugh it off. Apparently, my wife was pregnant with twins again, and she’s had a full hysterectomy [laughs]. Apparently, I was visiting Dolly Parton in the hospital. She would be like, ‘Chris Daughtry — who’s that?’ You could shrug it off and say, ‘Well, that’s just nonsense.’ A lot of people that were sending it to me, including friends of mine. And I’m just like, ‘Come on, guys, why are you sending this to me? Instead of doing that, just report the page.’”

He also discussed one post that claimed he was performing at an alternate Super Bowl halftime show from Turning Point:

“Yeah, and donating millions to Turning Point, all that stuff. It’s ridiculous. And by the way, I think it’s incredible that Bad Bunny is doing the halftime show. That’s what representation looks like. Music should reflect the diversity and the beauty of the world we live in.

But it’s frustrating. You see these ‘quotes,’ so to speak, and headlines that are diametrically opposed to your own values, views, and beliefs. Unfortunately, there are people out here who believe this stuff, and that’s when you feel, ‘I gotta address this and deal with it.’ There are people who read these things and comment, ‘I will never listen to him again’ or ‘I’m getting rid of all his music!’ We realize that’s a small fraction of people, but unfortunately, we live in a world where false headlines can spread faster than the truth.”

He also commented on a fake Charlie Kirk tribute:

“I’ve evolved quite a bit as a human over the last 20 years. I don’t hold the same religious dogma I grew up with. I’m all about equal rights, inclusion, equal rights for LGBTQ, and minority communities. I certainly don’t stand with MAGA, Charlie Kirk, Turning Point or any other movement rooted in bigotry or intolerance or exclusivity. So when it starts lumping me into these groups that do not align with my values and the things I stand for and where my heart is, it affects me on a deep level. I don’t want anyone out there believing that. When it starts to step on or completely contradict things you stand for, that’s when it hurts the most.”

He also explained why he made the choice to bring attention to the issue of fake AI stories:

“I went against my manager’s wishes. He was like, ‘You don’t want to be feeding this machine or drawing more attention to it.’ And I was like, ‘Fuck that.’ I want everyone to know this is absolute bullshit, and I will shout it from the mountain tops. And that was why I recorded the video. It’s getting out of hand.”

He also added the following about his next move:

“I don’t pretend to know the ins and outs of how these things work, but I got to assume that these bots, or whatever these accounts are, are profiting on clicks. We had been reporting some of these pages ad nauseum, and nothing was being done about it, but I think one finally got taken down.

Hopefully, enough of us make enough noise to where this stuff is harder to survive out there and the pages get shut down, and this stuff will cease to exist. I don’t know. But at least I feel like a weight is off my shoulders putting that out there. We wrote this song ‘Artificial’ because we saw this stuff coming. We didn’t realize how bad it was going to get. I think there’s incredible uses for AI. This is definitely not one of them.”