Chris Daughtry wasn’t so sure about “American Idol” back in 2006.

That year, the singer-songwriter and bandleader finished fourth on the fifth season of “Idol,” kick-starting a career that has lasted more than a decade and produced multiple Billboard Hot 100 hits such as “Home” and “It’s Not Over.” Although season four’s rock-leaning performers such as Bo Bice and Constantine Maroulis helped pave the way for Daughtry, the show was known primarily as a pop haven — not the best fit for a working-class, North Carolina bar band leader raised on ’90s alternative and Southern rock.

“I think that was my initial hesitation to go on the show — that’s not the rock way, right?” Daughtry — the man — said while traveling with Daughtry — the band — somewhere in New Jersey. The tour closes out the Clear Summer Nights concert series at the Athletic Club of Bend on Wednesday.

“At the time I was playing in clubs,” he continued. “It was also before YouTube was a huge thing; it was before people could get their music out online in such a big way in front of a massive audience. So I felt like I was spinning wheels. I was like, well, no record labels are beating down the door coming to see us in North Carolina, so what do I have to lose by going on the show? I was thinking I’d get on there for a couple (of) weeks — see if I got on there at all — and maybe get a few gigs and be able to support myself playing music. But obviously, it turned out much better than that.”

Daughtry helped “Idol” shake some of that pop stigma, leading to the success of future contestants such as Adam Lambert. If you’re a rock musician in 2018, auditioning on “The Voice,” “America’s Got Talent” or the recently revived “American Idol” seems like just another avenue to be heard — and not even the most viable one thanks to the internet.

“I see so many artists on Instagram who have way more followers than me, and they’re playing covers and they’re getting their name out there,” Daughtry said. “I think there are so many avenues to take now that I don’t know if there’s a right or wrong answer. I think you just get it out there the best way you can and wherever your audience is, that’s where you service it.”

Of course, Daughtry’s band is well-established by now, but it is not immune to music-industry changes. The band’s relentless touring schedule has become a necessity with album sales declining in favor of streaming. That’s part of the reason for the five-year delay between the sextet’s fifth studio album, “Cage to Rattle,” released last month, and its 2013 predecessor, “Baptized,” Daughtry said.

“I started writing on the record back in 2015, back when we were getting ready to release the greatest-hits record (‘It’s Not Over … The Hits So Far’),” he said. “Then we ended up touring on that, and that took some time. I moved around a few times over the past three or four years, and that’s always (taken) a few months out of my life. It just felt like one little obstacle after the next.”

Produced by Jacquire King (Shania Twain, Kings of Leon), “Cage to Rattle” swings away from the poppier moments of “Baptized,” but continues to push the band away from its commercial hard rock roots into more modern sounds.

“There was a few songs that I think dictated the sound of the record, and (initial promo single) ‘Backbone’ was one of them,” he said. “I remember when I wrote that song with Scott Stevens (formerly of The Exies) and Marti Frederiksen — I remember going, ‘That’s the sound we’ve been talking about for years.’ We’d been wanting to incorporate this bluesy, rootsy, Southern gospel vibe into what we already do, and this feels like a nice hybrid of that and where we come from.”

No stranger to songwriting collaborations with everyone from Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger to the Goo Goo Dolls’ John Rzeznik, Daughtry worked extensively with Stevens and other outside songwriters on “Cage to Rattle.” The album also features one of the singer’s most personal collaborations to date on “As You Are,” with lyrics written by his wife, Deanna.

“I remember she had brought me these lyrics, and she was kind of passive about it — she was just like, ‘Hey, if you see anything in here that inspires you, feel free to use them or whatever,’” Daughtry said. “I read them and I was just moved. I started hearing this chorus in my head based on some of the lyrics. I took some of her lyrics and added my own, and we just basically did a little collaboration. … I didn’t really show it to her until it was finished, and she bawled — when I showed it to her, she started crying. That was a good feeling; I felt like we had done something pretty special.”