Two years ago, Daughtry released “Artificial,” a single that took full-throated aim at AI culture: “Plug into the new you/Don’t resist ’cause it’s no use, it’s no use/It’s digital warfare/The death of who we are is right here.” Little did the band, especially frontman Chris Daughtry, know how relevant that song would be two years later — which Daughtry made clear on social media last week.
For months, social media sites, Facebook in particular, have been deluged with fake AI photos and memes of rock stars supposedly visiting each other in hospitals, embarking on tours that don’t exist, and paying tribute to deceased celebrities onstage. At least one major artist hired a company to scour the internet for such posts and have them taken down.
Not wanting to draw more attention to the trend, artists themselves have largely refrained from comment— until now. In September, Micky Dolenz alerted his fans to “AI-generated nonsense” in a video. Last week, Bonnie Raitt posted a lengthy statement that listed all the fraudulent information making the social media rounds: “Bonnie is not doing a ‘farewell tour or releasing a ‘farewell album,’” nor, she wrote, is she playing a Christmas show at Rockefeller Center in New York or appearing at Turning Point USA’s “All-American Half-Time Show.” In a sign of how wild this disinformation can be, Raitt also had to clarify that her brother “was not a victim of the tragic UPS plane crash in Louisville on November 4, 2025” and “is not in a Twitter spat with White House Press Secretary Karoline Levitt.”
Late last week, Chris Daughtry became the latest and most vocal musician to call attention to the fakes. In a video posted on his socials, a clearly anguished Daughtry declared “enough is enough” about “fake bullshit news.” Displaying examples of some of those fake posts — in which he supposedly had a fight with his wife, visited a country legend in the hospital, trashed newly elected New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, and announced tours with Bon Jovi and a hip-hop crew — Daughtry urged fans to not repost or respond to any of them. Daughtry tells Rolling Stone why he decided to go very public with this issue.
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When did you first become aware of these types of posts?
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.”
In one of them, you were also supposedly part of a hip-hop supergroup.
Yeah, we’re doing a “last tour,” with Eminem, Dr. Dre, and Rihanna. And by the way, that would be an amazing tour! Although I guarantee that that fan base wouldn’t want anything to do with us. But maybe I’m wrong. It could be a nice, nice little amalgamation of different styles that could be fun.
In another example, you were shown on a fake poster fo the alternate Super Bowl halftime show organized by Turning Point USA.
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.
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Along with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and others, you were also one of several musicians who was depicted supposedly paying “tribute” to Charlie Kirk.
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.
What made you decide to film and post that video on your socials?
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.
Have you received any feedback about your video post from friends or fans?
Oh, tons. “I knew it! I knew it!” There are a few who truly believed those things and said, “Thanks for clearing that up.”
Was there any fake meme that at least made you chuckle?
Yeah, the one where my wife gave me a black eye. That was the one that I use the screenshot for the cover of the video, because it was just so ridiculous. I love that one because, first of all, it doesn’t even look like me. Look at it!
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So what’s you and your team’s next step?
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.
