The opening chords chiming of How You Remind Me drifted across the airwaves from mother’s retro radio in the kitchen of a sunny September morning will always be etched in my memory. Who knew that 21 years later that same song would still be leaking from my car radio and the album lovingly kept under my bed.
I have often referred to Nickelback as the rock community’s marmite band, people either love them or hate them. Personally I have always loved them even though a couple of albums have been a bit meh. I have never fully understood the hate that Chad and the guys have received over the years especially from the media but they must have done something right! They have sold out arenas and gone platinum with their albums all over the world, so what gives?
When the band teased about their documentary I knew that I had to see it. I am not a die hard fan but they were a part of my growing up and yes, I did have a crush on Chad and Ryan (we do not have time to dive into my questionable choices of crushes). I wanted to know how the media backlash and maybe even cancel culture (before it became the big ugly monster it is on social media) affected them as a band since they always came across as either being in on the joke or just brushed it off. From the trailer it looked like the documentary was going to unleash it all, so my brother and I headed to our local cinema for this two day only worldwide event.
How the Hell Did We Wind Up Like This?
One thing I will say to start off with, everyone was sat in the cinema rearing to go when they asked everyone to turn off their phones, respectful to other people and all that jazz. Then the first advert pops up and asks everyone to scan the QR code with their phone to gain access to exclusive content? Didn’t make sense but made me giggle. The lights were down, the screens flickered and I couldn’t wait to watch this journey of probably rock’s most hated band.
As always, the documentary starts at their roots that are deeply dug in a nowhere town in the Canadian wilderness, Hanna. It goes through the family dynamic such as Chad being a naughty tearaway, Mike being the big brother, Ryan growing up with rocking parents and the Kroeger cousin Brandon was brought into the fold. A little note that stuck in my head, is when Mike is talking about Chad being a rambunctious and occasionally challenging child and 10 year old Chad said to Mike “I can talk my way out of anything.” That statement to me is probably something that Chad has lived by most of his life.
Of course like most bands they clubbed together at high school playing cover songs and the band was called Village Idiots which to be fair, I think was a rather apt for a small town band that did everything and anything to play music and get into trouble.
Get Rollin’
After doing the exhausting trail of bars, pubs and clubs, Chad, Mike, Ryan and Brandon separated from their singer of the Village Idiots to go ahead and create their first seven track EP, Hesher, that was released in 1996. Chad took out a $4,000 loan from his step father to record it. Legend has it that only half of that money was used for its intended purpose, while the other half was invested in magic mushrooms for Chad to distribute to hopefully raise more money for the band.
Each member of the band had their own role in trying to get their band heard and off the ground. This is the time before Spotify, social media and YouTube. Chad would call up the radio stations pretending to be a promoter, Ryan would distribute the EP to record stores hoping that they would display it meanwhile Mike was the booking agent, calling up every venue possible to get a gig. I see so many of my friends doing the exact same thing nearly 30 years later, the other thing that has changed is the distributing and promoting landscape, with the over saturation of everyone scrabbling for their moment.
Ryan talks about this time with his father in the kitchen, saying that one time they played to nobody, just the bar staff and it broke Ryan’s parent’s hearts. Thinking that they should give up and just go back to being regular joes, Ryan stood firm and said: this is how you do it dad. Ryan goes onto say that he saw a sign in a venue that has always stuck in his mind “Be kind on the way up, we’ll look after you on the way down”.
Four guys in a van travelling across Canada playing to anyone and sometimes no one, took it’s toll on Brandon so he parted ways with the band and which created an opening for a new drummer, time for Ryan’s best friend from school, Ryan Vikadel to enter the ring.
Fast forward a bit to when the guys hit the big time with a chance spotting by a member of RoadRunner Records… they say the rest is history but not always.
Look What Your Money Bought
Nickelback were laughed at near enough from the start, especially by people on their record label Roadrunner Records who they signed with in 1999. Roadrunner mainly handled heavy metal bands. King Diamond and Annihilator were early successes for the label that started in Germany in 1980 and even handled early Metallica releases in Scandinavia but the first band to go platinum for the label was Slipknot. But as a hard rock band amongst 80 and 90s heavy metal giants, the band could have easily sank to the bottom of the discarded and forgotten bands black ocean bed.
It was their album Silverside Up released on September 11th 2001 (an unfortunate day) that thrusted them into the limelight and the band erupted all over the globe. Four guys in a band van playing to no one, were now selling out stadiums across the world. Nickelback became the most played band on American airwaves with How You Remind Me starting every 3.2 minutes. Chad also released a single with Josey Scott from the Spider-man film, Hero and then the second single Too Bad just kept their good luck running. Three singles in the Billboard Top 10, there was no stopping them!
After a massive release comes a huge tour, which was constantly burning the band out but kept them going creatively, this lead them to releasing The Long Road but it wasn’t as commercially successful as its predecessor.
It wasn’t until the next album was released that the serious media backlash started to rear its ugly head along with the monster that was to become, social media memes.
Next Contestant
It’s never fully explained why Ryan Vikedal left Nickelback after being a part of their stratospheric rise to rockstardom. On some sites including good old trusty Wikipedia (sarcasm), it says there was a dispute over royalties, but in the documentary Ryan Peake talks about how hard it was as a band to sit down with him, explain their position and fire him. This lead to years of both Ryan’s not speaking with each other ultimately tainting a friendship. This is a very common thing that seems to happen no matter what level you are in this game.
2005 saw the release of All the Right Reasons which gave us Nickelback’s biggest hit in popular culture to date and that of course is Rockstar. Love it or hate it, its a dumb song that explains everything that people want from being a rockstar. The star studded music video included Billy Gibbons, Gene Simmons, Garth Brooks, Nelly Furtado, Playboy Bunnies and of course its fans. The album also spawned Photograph which became a big meme all in itself. Despite the albums mixed reviews, it still managed to sell millions world wide and was certified Diamond by the RIAA in December 2015, making it one of the biggest selling albums of all time in the US!
The band also had a new drummer in 3 Doors Down guy, Daniel Adair, who slipped into the band so seamlessly, you wouldn’t have noticed if anyone had mentioned it.
During 2005, the media jumped on Nickelback in a vicious and at times hubris way, calling them corporate sell outs, creating only airplay friendly tracks, just four guys making a lot of noise and playing to middle aged women, they were not a real rock band. But what the hell does that even mean?
I have never understood the hate that they have received and I could write a whole other post about this, instead I am recording a video about it, so stay tuned for that.
In the documentary, the band touches upon points where the fame and backlash really affected them. Such as Chad exploding back stage before a gig at his brother Mike, who tells him to just shake it off.
Chad screams back “You have no idea what it’s like to be the frontman of the world’s most hated band! I can’t walk downtown Vancouver without someone shouting ‘your band fucking sucks!’, from their truck! It’s fucking hard!”
Ryan goes onto talk about how his children were being bullied at school for their dad being in a butt rock band. Kids are pricks anyway but why do they feel the need to jump onto the venomous band wagon? A lot of times the band was criticised for poor lyrics, playing dumb rock to not very enlightened music fans but sometimes, all you want is a dumb rock song with a good riff.
A little later on, it turns to Chad, the unmistakeable frontman and commander of the rock n roll circus. This touched my heart a little bit. All Chad has wanted to be was be a rockstar, he had no plan B in his life goals. Earlier I mentioned about his outburst backstage but while playing pool with Mike in the bar room of his amazing mansion (it was on MTV Cribs a long time ago), Chad states “I can’t not be me”, which struck a chord with me as I know someone a bit like that.
Standing in the Dark
Chad has spent almost half of his life as the main guy of Nickelback. Whether you liked his 90s grunge aesthetic of the first two albums, the ramen noodle look of early 2000s and now the cropped back and sides of the 2010s+, he will always be the face of the band and sadly the band is him.
In the early days, Chad tried everything to get the band on the radio, doing bookings and promotions but spent most of his time in the studio. Hours upon hours of writing, recording, rehearsing and the band became his life. “I am nothing without the band”. And sadly, it’s probably true. Chad will never escape the blimp on internet history as the most memed and hated rock band of all time, which the band or himself actually never deserved.
Chad was once upon a time married to fellow Canadian rock royalty, Avril Lavigne which he admits just amplified the spotlight on his life and everything that surrounded him. He struggled in his own way but never made it clear to family and friends. Not wanting to bring his doubts to the surface incase they became a reality.
His only life is the band even though according to family and friends, he is the most loving and devoted man you would ever meet.
An example of this would be during lockdown, Daniel Adair, quit Nickelback. He sent Chad an email basically saying I’m done due to an injury and the constant pain he had been struggling with in secret to do with his left shoulder and arm. Chad was like nah man. Chad called him by saying “Hey bud… heard you broke ya dick”. Bringing laughter and light into a serious situation but then doing everything he could to keep his band mate happy.
This made me teary as I can draw comparisons to someone I know and I would never want them to feel alone and isolated or that they are just the band. They are a human being with an abundance of creativity and sprite and surrounding themselves with the right people, they could thrive over any pain or problem that the world can throw at them.
This is where Chad has grown as a person and as a creative genius in some aspects.
Edge of a Revolution
Nickelback display in this documentary that you can be one of the biggest selling bands in the world and still have a huge set backs of haters, while continuing to rule the arenas. The personal struggles such as Chad almost losing his voice, Daniel’s crumbling shoulder and arms and Mike’s brain exploding (his words not mine) can really amplify any issues within bands. It is how you deal with it that matters, and it seems to me that communication in this band has always been key. The fact that Daniel now feels a part of the band, as in a family member, is a great thing to see.
Nickelback are not by any means a revolutionary band. They were the staple of early 00’s rock but have somehow managed to evolve and still be loved by millions across the globe.
The documentary as a whole, is very run of the mill, pretty standard in its delivery but it does give a more personal feel to a band that has really existed through the years off the backs of haters. They haven’t been a band to constantly appear in the media just off their own backs, go on talk shows to address rumours or anything like that. They always seem to shrug it off but of course we all know that’s not really the case.
But let’s not forget the die hard fans who have stood true, I have never been ashamed to be a Nickelback fan! In fact Dark Horse (2008) and Silverside Up are in my top 10 favourite albums of all time.
Even though social media and the general media have tried to tear these four guys down, they have had a resurgence and reached a whole new generation of fans thanks to TikTok challenges using their song 2014 song She Keeps Me Up. And of course the legionary sea shanty version of Rockstar.
At the end of the documentary, the band perform three songs live (These Days, Someday and How You Remind Me) which brought a smile to my face and to be honest that is what music is all about. Mike Kroeger says in the film that “they play Nickelback music to Nickelback fans” and “they play dumb vacuum less shit” which sometimes is just what people need to hear and it’s true.
Lyrics don’t always have to be heavy and meaningful, just being dumb and repetitive which great riffs works too. I will always be a Nickelback fan even though their last album was a bit meh.
All The Right Reasons
Our world right now is full of hate and right fighters, people who want to be against the curve or do the complete opposite and jump on the band wagon of hating something. No one has their own identity and prefer to tear down others. Before cancel culture became the everyday phenomenon that we have grown accustomed to, Nickelback found itself at the brute force of its early conception.
They weathered every storm that was thrown their way and have emerged on the other side in a somewhat victorious state of play. Even those early haters (including music journalists) who bashed, chewed up and spat out Nickelback in the early years, have grown to understand and appreciate the band’s way of doing things.
They have created anthems and ballads that have captivated music lovers of all genres and have even crossed over into other genres such as country (catch Nickelback performing with Hardy on his single Truckbed). They’ve shrugged off hate, they have embraced love and continue to go from strength to strength.
It all comes down to one band from a small town in Canada, that has taken over the world by sticking to their guns, creating music they love, embracing their fans no matter what they prefer to listen to and just love being a great rock band. And one line stuck with me throughout this whole watching experience:
Creativity happens on the crust of Chaos
Catch Nickelback on their upcoming European Tour in support of their latest album Get Rollin’
GlamRat 