The American Idol machine that has made dreams come true for many recently worked its magic for one Carlsbad musician. Last year, after enduring three days of auditions, local guitarist Josh Steely joined the now acclaimed rock band Daughtry, lead by American Idol alum Chris Daughtry.

A homegrown talent, Steely grew up with music in his blood. Both his parents were musicians, so it was only natural for him to follow that same path. He started playing music at age 10 and by 13 he had formed a punk rock band with a few friends, the first of many to come. “As soon as you start playing and getting better and better and making friends and start a band up, it’s like you can’t turn your back on it,” he says of his passion for playing.

Steely has spent his life in Carlsbad. He grew up on Royal Drive and remembers lazy days playing kick ball in the cul-de-sac or skateboarding with friends at Magnolia School after hours. He recalls making forts in the woods off Highland, long before it was developed and turned into a residential area. His roots are here in the Village-by-the-Sea.

During the last year, Daughtry has been traveling and touring constantly. They’ve been across the globe performing and supporting their first album, which has been rewarded with ample support. But while many artists move to more well-known music scenes like Los Angeles or New York once they hit it big, Steely has refused to ditch his low-key life here. “I love the vibe of the town,” he says, “the way it really feels like home to me, but even when people come and visit they think that it’s paradise and it really is the best place anyone could live in the world. All the places that I’ve been, it just feels so good.”

Don’t be fooled by Steely’s apparent overnight success; he is a seasoned vet who struggled for years to make it in the competitive music world. After more than 20 years of playing, he had essentially given up on his dream and was content to pursue a music career more as a hobby. He had a family, he was realistic, he knew that working a day job was nothing to be ashamed of. The moderate success his former band Sandlot had earned performing at various bars and venues around Carlsbad had been rewarding in itself. The group had performed together for 12 years and put out a couple albums. Not bad at all. He had no idea what opportunity would bring when it came knocking.

When he received the call about auditions for Daughtry, Steely was tempted to pass. His friend and music producer Steve Salas, another Carlsbad native, wouldn’t take no for an answer. “He’s tried to talk me into auditions before and I’ve just blown it off. I was like ‘why would I want to leave Carlsbad?’ I’ve got a family and I can’t really just run off and chase a dream,” Steely says of his initial reaction to Salas’s proposal. “Plus, I’ve been doing it for so long, I just didn’t imagine becoming famous when I was 37 years old. This last year has been a good payoff.”

Daughtry has been on the road for the better part of the last year and Steely says he has had no trouble using Carlsbad as his home base. “I knew that I had joined a multinational act and we were going to be touring and we would be flying out to different places, so it really didn’t matter where you live,” he says. “Everyone in the band lives different places. We all fly and come together to do different gigs or get on the bus and tour for a while.” Hard work is nothing new to Steely and the other band members, which is probably why Daughtry has been so successful. “We’ve literally been the busiest band in the industry,” he says. “We’ve sold the most records of any rock band this year. We’ve sold 3.5 million copies through touring. And we’ve put out four videos this year.” Their hard work also earned them three American Music Awards and they’ve performed on nearly every television show from “The Ellen Degeneres Show” to the “Today” show.

Going from playing local venues to selling out stadiums has been a huge adjustment for Steely. “I didn’t really get out of Carlsbad too much when I used to play in my band in town because that’s where all our fans were and we used to make it easy for people to come see us,” he says. “But now I’m playing arenas and festivals, the biggest shows of the year were some of the shows we did attendance wise. So it’s really changed where we’re playing, that’s for sure. It kind of validates someone who’s tried and tried and that things can finally come true in a big way even out of a place like Carlsbad.”

But while being on the road and touring is part of pursuing his life long dream, Steely is constantly battling the pull back here. Not just because he misses the quiet solitude that Carlsbad provides, but also because he misses his family. He has three sons, Chris age 21, Trevor age six and Jonah, nine months. Being away from them and his wife Mary has been one of the biggest challenges of his life. “The whole band’s family oriented so everybody’s trying to get home as often as we can so they try to schedule it so it works out,” he says. In fact, last summer Chris Daughtry brought an extra bus on their tour so each of the guys could bring their families along for a couple weeks. They called it the “family bus.”

So, while it’s torture for him to be away from his wife and kids, he appreciates not having to work a day job anymore. “It’s exciting. It’s a big trade not to be able to be home, but I figure you really do need to take advantage of things when they’re placed in front of you, especially when you’ve worked forever at it.” Steely says none of this would be possible for him without Mary’s support. Two years ago, they both opened a shop on the Coast Highway called The Den. So, in addition to taking care of their two little boys, Mary is running the shop and keeping their daily life on track here. “We’re trying to make our life here last forever. We want to live here in Carlsbad until we can afford to have houses all over the place,” Steely says. “When I come home, I step right into giving my wife a break,” he says of switching roles from rock star to daddy. “I’ll tell you, without her I could never do this. She makes me feel like I don’t ever have to worry, even though we have a two-year-old business, six-year-old son and a brand new baby. It gets to her sometimes, it’s tough, but she does it. And she makes me feel OK about doing something I’ve been trying for. I would have stayed and not taken the job if she didn’t think she could pull it off.”

Steely has proven that dreams don’t have a time frame, and not to give up if it doesn’t happen right away. “People try to make you think that, especially in the music industry,” he says. But Steely is Carlsbad’s living proof that perseverance really does pay off. •