American Idol Walks The Line Of Controversy

So, the Chris Daughtry controversy surrounding his performance of 'I Walk The Line' last week on American Idol continues to heat up.

Chris - Cash Controversy

Or does it?

In case you haven't heard, it all surrounds a cover song by Chris Daughtry of Johnny Cash's classic song 'I Walk The Line' vs. the band Live's version of the same song.

Confused?

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Here's how it goes...According to early reports, people were said to be making quite a calamity out of the fact that Chris seemingly neglected to give credit on air to Live, thus when the American Idol judges heard it and declared he had "made it his own" it was assumed that it was 'I Walk The Line' - Daughtry style.

Not so, say American Idol fans.  According to a few news sites, among them The Chicago Trib and MSN (who reported the exact same story), they say Idol fans were "buzzing Friday over a controversy surrounding Chris Daughtry's version of 'I Walk The Line' ".

They go on to report that fans say the version wasn't Daughtry's and in fact say instead, that Chris swiped it from a band called Live in 2001.  According to what I managed to find out, I Walk The Line was covered by Live on their Awake: Best of Live album, which was released in 2004 not in 2001 as reports suggest.

Also, according to news sources, chatters have posted messages on chat boards ranging from wanting to punch Daughtry, to acknowledging that perhaps the judges are lacking in the fact that they didn't realize it was a cover song x2, to "Live singer Ed Kowalczyk called and said that he would like his vocal style back."

Ouch.

--Tina Bacon is an associate editor of The National Ledger and the publisher of Glitterati Gossip