Chris Sligh

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Chris Sligh

Background information
Birth name Charles Christopher Sligh
Born April 13, 1978 (1978-04-13) (age 29)[1]
Origin Greenville, South Carolina
Genre(s) Rock, Alternative
Occupation(s) Singer
Years active 2007—present (band)
2007 (solo)
Associated
acts		 Half Past Forever

Charles Christopher Sligh (born April 13, 1978) was a finalist on the sixth season of American Idol. He was eliminated from the competition on March 28, 2007 finishing in tenth place.

Contents

Chris Sligh is the son of Charles (Charlie)[2] and Susan Sligh, Baptist missionaries to American military servicemen in Europe. Chuck Sligh is an accomplished guitarist and passed his love of music to his three sons, of whom Chris is the eldest.[3] Chris Sligh was born in Madison, Tennessee and moved to Durham, North Carolina with his family when he was three years old.[4] Chris Sligh spent ten years with his family in Wiesbaden, Germany and speaks German as well as English. Although Sligh has been singing since high school, as Adam Fisher, the lead guitarist of Chris's band noted, he "grew up listening only to classical music in a regimented upbringing."[5]

Sligh attended Bob Jones University for seven semesters but was expelled before graduation because he attended a 4Him concert [6] He then attended North Greenville University, where he is 3 credit hours shy of a music degree.[7] He frequently performed in plays, operas, and musicals while in college, and he now serves with a worship band at Seacoast Church in Greenville.[8]

Sligh is the second cousin of America's Got Talent season 2 winner, Terry Fator.

After American Idol, Sligh currently resides in Franklin, Tennessee.

Chris Sligh: Lead Vocals, Guitar Adam Fisher: Lead Guitar, Vocals Cole Edmonson: Bass, Vocals Half Past Forever rose up from the ashes of several local Upstate, SC bands, quickly forging their own sound in a vibrant music scene that produced NeedToBreathe, Overflow and Georgia. Based on Chris Foxx's songwriting and voice, the band began to find a following of their own, playing any venue that would allow them to grace their stage, touring endlessly while all the members worked their "real jobs".

In 2006, the band hit rock bottom when several members decided to pursue other interests, leaving Chris and guitarist Adam Fisher to pick up the pieces. After several months off, the two decided to continue the band with new members, emerging with 45 new demos that would be whittled down to create the band's 2nd album Take a Chance on Something Beautiful. The band added Cole Edmonson to round out the band's official lineup (the band hires out drumming duties).

The band spent several months recording the album, producing the album in Chris's home studio. Adam brought in engineering experience from his former band Nova 77's 2 albums, while Chris brought in production experience from his 2 solo records. They recorded the album slowly, taking time to get things right. The album that ensued was beyond all the band's expectations, and has received critical acclaim for the songwriting, production and vocal work.

Because of AI rules, Sligh was forced to leave the band, but on the album, Take a Chance on Something Beautiful, released on March 13, 2007, Sligh sings lead vocals and plays guitar, bass, and piano. He rejoined after being voted off American Idol. The band signed with record label Brash Music in May 2007. Take A Chance on Something Beautiful was re-released July 10th on their label Brash Music.

Sligh auditioned in Birmingham, Alabama singing "Kiss from a Rose" by Seal, after which Paula Abdul gave him a standing ovation and said, "I like you very much." Idol judges laughed at his ambition "to make David Hasselhoff cry," a reference to Hasselhoff's crying when Taylor Hicks won season 5.

Sligh was an early favorite of the judges, as all 3 judges spoke of a guy with curly hair who didn't look like the typical American Idol, Paula even used Teller from the magician duo Penn & Teller to describe her favorite of the competition...Sligh bears a slight resemblance to the magician. However, by the third week of the semi-finals, after Sligh sang "We All Wanna Be Loved" by DcTalk, the judges seemed to turn on him, especially Diana Ross week, when Sligh re-arranged the Diana Ross/Lionel Richie duet "Endless Love".

During the top 24 week, Sligh showed his extensive knowledge of American Idol trivia (which he claimed to have learned while researching for hours at his job in South Carolina). Simon claimed that Sligh's performance of "Typical" by the band MuteMath was "...like being at some weird student gig" and told Sligh that he felt like Sligh was there more on personality than vocal skill. After an exchange between Simon and Ryan Seacrest, Sligh retorted, "Just because I don't sound like Il Divo or the Telletubbies doesn't mean that I don't have a good voice" alluding to Simon's creation of the classical boy band Il Divo and his work in making an album featuring the Teletubbies. Randy and Paula cheered at the supposed insult. Many fans were left bewildered by Simon's dour reaction, which Sligh and Seacrest later cleared up in saying the dour expression was aimed at Seacrest.

Sligh was aware of the Vote for the Worst website and had tried to get the attention of the founder Dave Della Terza while on air by saying "Hi, Dave."[9]

Sligh was eliminated from American Idol on March 28, 2007 and is therefore the tenth-place singer in Season Six. While singing his last song, he told Phil Stacey "You owe me 50 bucks," from a bet that he would be eliminated that show.

On the next day, Sligh said that he had not sought to win the competition and that he had considered quitting the show two weeks before, but stayed on the show in order to make it into the top ten so that he could go on tour with the other top ten finalists and receive the accompanying payout.[10]

Later, on Sligh's blog, he cleared up the statement, saying that his wanting to quit was similar to anyone working a job and feeling like they couldn't do it anymore. He also cleared the rumor that he never wanted to win, saying, "I never set my sites on winning because it would've driven me crazy...I just focused on small goals, the first of which was to make the top 10 so I could go on tour.

Auditions/Hollywood

Week # Song Choice Original Artist Result
Top 24 Typical Mute Math Safe
Top 20 Trouble Ray LaMontagne Safe
Top 16 Wanna Be Loved dc Talk Safe
Top 12 Endless Love Diana Ross Safe
Top 11 She's Not There The Zombies Safe
Top 10 Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic The Police Eliminated


On May 19, 2007, Sligh stated on his personal blog[11] that he, Phil Stacey, and Chris Richardson will "be heading off to studios somewhere [after the American Idols Live! Tour] to work on [their] debut major label records" and then added, "or at least it looks at this point like all 3 of [them] will be on major labels." Since then, Stacey has announced that he has been signed to Lyric Street Records on his myspace page; Chris Richardson is in the studio working on a record, though it is unclear if he yet has a record label involved.

In September of 2007, Sligh announced on his blog that he had signed with Blanton, Harrell, Cook and Corzine, the management company that has handled Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith through their entire careers and now handles Bebo Norman, Aaron Shust and Point of Grace.

In November of 2007, Sligh stated in an interview with the Way FM nightly show Total Axxess that he had signed a solo deal with Brash Music, an Atlanta-based independent label that is distributed through Warner Bros. ADA distribution and Word Distribution on the Christian side. Brash Music has seen great success with Aaron Shust, who won Dove Award for New Artist of the Year and has sold over 200,000 albums. Sligh also has officially started working on his debut label album, which, according to his blog, will include 12 songs.

The debut album, which according to Sligh's myspace is tentatively being called Holding On to the Letting Go is being produced by Brown Bannister, who has won multiple Grammy's and Dove awards for his work with artists like Amy Grant, Third Day and the Afters. Also producing on the album are Stephen Leiweke, who helped produce Jars of Clay's debut album and Will Owsley, a guitarist and producer who has worked with Shania Twain and Amy Grant, and was the lead singer of the pop band Owsley.

Demos for 6 songs and lyrics to the 12 songs chosen for the album can be found at Sligh's myspace: [12]

On July 10, 2007, Sligh's band, Half Past Forever, released their national debut, Take A Chance On Something Beautiful on Brash Music. Sligh produced, and wrote or co-wrote all of the album's seventeen songs. Jesusfreakhideout's Scott Fryberger reviewed the CD on July 7, 2007 saying, "Although a good mixture of adult contemporary and rock, Half Past Forever still isn't quite a must-buy album. It remains, however, a very good debut for the band. I wouldn't be surprised to hear them on mainstream radio stations in the near future. Listeners of pop stations seem to like just about anything or anyone that comes from American Idol, and there's no reason that Half Past Forever should be exempt from that." Fryerberger only gave the album 3/5 stars. The full review can be found here: Review for Take A Chance On Something Beautiful

However, on the other hand, Christa Bannister at the well-respected Christianity Today reviewed the album, giving the album a solid 4/5 stars, saying "While the project is a little long by today's standards, there's actually not a throwaway in the bunch...The biggest surprise lies in the varied production, which is especially impressive for an indie band. They go all out with strings on the aforementioned "In a Moment," while faster songs like "Naïve" and "Closer" are reminiscent of The Strokes' latest project, with a more raw, stripped-down indie feel that offers nice contrast to overproduced pop." The full review can be found here: Review for Take a Chance on Something Beautiful

  1. Forever
  2. Waiting
  3. Hero (first single)
  4. Know
  5. In A Moment
  6. Naive
  7. Transcendental
  8. Need
  9. Rise
  10. Closer
  11. Convienience
  12. Cry Tonight
  13. Somewhere
  14. Tunnel Vision
  15. Gone
  16. Beautiful
  17. How Long

  1. ^ Chris Sligh's personal BlogSpot entry commenting on his birthday.
    Madison, Tennessee, US
  2. ^ Chuck Sligh bio on church website
  3. ^ Stars and Stripes news article; 1999 missionary prayer letter
  4. ^ [1]
  5. ^ Greenville News, March 21, 2007.
  6. ^ "Sligh said he has no hard feelings, even though he was expelled from Bob Jones after attending a contemporary Christian concert featuring the group For Him (sic). 'They kicked me out,' Sligh said. 'It was actually good, because I had been trying to figure out how to leave. My parents had given me the option of going to two colleges, and I chose the less-crazy one, believe it or not....I don't want to throw them underneath the bus. I respect what they do--it's just that their sect of Christianity is not really what I want to be associated with.'"Greenville News, March 29, 2007. Sligh's mother, interviewed by CBN, said, "We were disappointed that he broke the rules, because he knew what the rules were. You don't want your children to fail. We felt like he made a wrong choice, but it was nothing more than the fact that he went to a contemporary Christian concert, but again he broke the rules. [BJU was] somewhat disappointed in the direction he had gone. I thought that was very gracious from their stand. I they could've said a lot of negative things, and I don't think they did." Susan Sligh on Son's Faith: CBN interview. "While not on an overt mission to denounce Sligh's participation in 'American Idol,' BJU spokesman Jonathan Pait said the school has distanced itself from any connection between Sligh's affiliation with the university and the talent show watched by millions. 'One of the reasons he left Bob Jones is he had chosen another direction musically, and he was not going to get that type of training here,' Pait said. The show, Pait said, doesn't represent the values of the university. 'It's not any ill thoughts toward Chris because he made that decision," Pait said. "Chris is a likeable guy. We wish him well in his life.'"Greenville News, March 21, 2007.
  7. ^ Cheryl Greene, Sligh's vocal coach at North Greenville is also a BJU alumna. Greenville News article; BJU Vintage [yearbook], 1990.
  8. ^ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/tv_american_idol_sligh
  9. ^ http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/entertainment/music/16993877.htm?source=rss&channel=kansasc
  10. ^ "Ousted 'American Idol' contestant Sligh says he considered quitting before being voted off", Associated Press (International Herald Tribune), March 30, 2007.
  11. ^ http://frommymindtoyoureyes.blogspot.com/2007/05/tonight-was-great.html
  12. ^ http://myspace.com/chrissligh

v • d • e
American Idol season 6
Jordin Sparks · Blake Lewis · Melinda Doolittle · LaKisha Jones · Chris Richardson · Phil Stacey · Sanjaya Malakar · Haley Scarnato · Gina Glocksen · Chris Sligh · Stephanie Edwards · Brandon Rogers
Idol Gives Back · Finale · Tour
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Sligh"
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