08/08/2006

Associated Press

Shaved-headed "American Idol" rocker Chris Daughtry has left his tiny hometown of McLeansville for a bigger town and home.

Daughtry, who finished fourth in this year's televised singing contest, and his wife paid $690,000 for a four-bedroom, 3,782-square-foot home with a pool and putting green on a little more than an acre of land. The home is in Oak Ridge, a town of about 4,000 north of Greensboro. NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick lives nearby.

McLeansville, also in Guilford County, has one barbershop, one grocery store and no gas stations.

"If you look at the houses here, and the type of people here, they're very upscale business people, and they're going to go about their daily life," said Steve Spalding, who works in the summer child care program at Oak Ridge Elementary.

While many observers billed the coarse-voiced Daughtry as the favorite to win "Idol," he was voted off the show a few weeks before its finale.

Since then, RCA Records announced Daughtry had signed to work with music mogul Clive Davis on a record. Daughtry also has been writing new songs and collaborating with rockers including Ed Kowalczyk of Live and Carl Bell of Fuel. Daughtry turned down an offer to join Fuel full-time as the band's lead singer.

___

Information from: News & Record, http://www.news-record.com