Most teenage daughters would cringe and hide whenever their dad decided to belt out a few notes.
But Dayla loves when her daddy Kris Jones sings.
It’s that love that made her father a viral superstar and helped to rekindle his dream of being a professional singer.
She and her dad were sitting in his Dodge Ram pickup truck in a parking lot when “Tennessee Whiskey” by Chris Stapleton blared over the speakers.
Kris didn’t feel like singing on camera.
But he did it for his daughter. The 15-year-old pulled out her cell phone and started recording.
While Kris’ voice is incredibly stunning, my favorite part of the video is how her face lights up when her dad sings.
It’s truly a beautiful moment because you can tell she loves him so much.
It was a rare father-daughter moment they got to spend together since Kris’ job as a contractor repairing mobile and manufactured homes kept him away from his wife and three kids.
He didn’t care that he was tired or that people in the parking lot were starring, he just wanted to make her happy.
And you can tell by the look on her face that she was.
Dayla texted the video to a friend and then showed it to her mother Destinie.
Destinie then secretly posted the video on her Facebook page.
“I need to make my hubby famous,” she wrote.
And it worked. There were almost 3,000 views within an hour.
The video had gotten more than 6.5 million views within four days.
Destinie decided to go with it and made her husband a fan page and left her cell phone number on it.
Calls from radio stations and newspapers started pouring in asking about the “Tennesee Whiskey Dad.”
Within about 10 days, Kris heard his own voice singing over the radio. He also signed his first autograph. He also got a call from The Voice.
He was officially “famous” or at least internet famous.
Kris new that internet famous isn’t the kind that lasts so he used the opportunity to make his dream of becoming a country music star come true.
According to the Dallas News, Kris grew up in Fort Worth, Texas and started singing by the time he was 10-years-old.
His mom, however, wouldn’t allow him to sing in the church choir because she thought he was too young.
He wrote and sang her a song to try and prove her wrong.
Kris would continue to struggle as he grew up. His parents divorced and his mom struggled to pay for things like water, which would sometimes get shut off.
He was also half black and half white which made it difficult for him to fit in at school.
But he eventually found a place in the church choir.
His dad would take him to karaoke competitions on the weekends.
He met his future wife Destinie when he was 16 but they grew apart after he spent some time in jail.
There was a reported theft at his appointment which prompted him to threaten and pointed a gun at some of his new friends.
He was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and spent six years in and out of jail and prison after losing his chance at probation.
But in prison, he would sing sad songs for the inmates.
Even the guards enjoyed his singing.
But he still dreamed of a life that included a stage and a microphone.
When he got out of jail he got a job and found Destinie who had two children.
They were married within eight months.
Kris continued to pursue music but it didn’t go anywhere and he wanted to focus on his new family.
While Destinie’s children, Traelon and Dayla, started calling him dad and Kris had a child, Crista, from another relationship.
Destinie pushed him to audition for “American Idol” but he was 31 and they were only taking singers 28-years-old and younger.
He was also denied by judges from “The Voice.” But after his viral stardom, he was asked to be on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
“If this is all that it ever does, if this is as far as it goes, being on your show, I feel like I’ve reached the top,” he told DeGeneres.
Kris went on to release his very own single called “Big Black Truck.”
He even plays at venues with his own band.
He also recorded a five-song EP. You can see the viral video where it all started below.
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