Nickelback
Nickelback is a Canadian rock band formed in 1995 in Hanna, Alberta. It is composed of lead guitarist and lead vocalist Chad Kroeger, rhythm guitarist/keyboardist/backing vocalist Ryan Peake, bassist Mike Kroeger, and drummer Daniel Adair. It went through several drummer changes between 1995 and 2005.
This article is about the Canadian rock band. For the gridiron football position, see Nickelback (American football).
Nickelback
Hanna, Alberta, Canada
1995–present
- Chad Kroeger
- Ryan Peake
- Mike Kroeger
- Daniel Adair
- Brandon Kroeger
- Mitch Guindon
- Ryan Vikedal
The band signed with Roadrunner Records in 1999 and reached a mainstream breakthrough in 2002 with the single "How You Remind Me", which reached number one in the United States and Canada. Its parent album, Silver Side Up, would go on to be certified 8× Platinum in Canada.[1] Nickelback's fourth album, The Long Road, was released in 2003 and spawned five singles, including Canadian number one "Someday", which also reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100.[2]
In 2005, the band's best-selling album to date, All the Right Reasons, produced three top-ten and five top-twenty singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including "Photograph", "Far Away", and "Rockstar", the latter of which was their biggest success in the United Kingdom.[3] Nickelback released eight singles from their sixth album Dark Horse (2008), including the United States top ten track "Gotta Be Somebody". In 2011, the seventh album Here and Now topped the charts in Canada.[4] The band has since released No Fixed Address (2014), Feed the Machine (2017) and most recently its tenth album Get Rollin' (2022).
Nickelback is one of the most commercially successful Canadian rock bands, having sold more than 50 million albums worldwide.[5] In 2009, Billboard ranked it the most successful rock group and the seventh-most successful artist of that decade; "How You Remind Me" was the best-selling rock song and the fourth-best overall.[6] In 2023, Nickelback were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.[7][8]
History
Formation (1995)
The band was formed in the early 1990s as a cover band called Village Idiot[9] by brothers Michael and Chad Kroeger; their cousin Brandon Kroeger and Ryan Peake rounded out the band. The band later changed its name to Nickelback, which originated from the nickel in change that band member Mike Kroeger gave customers at his job at Starbucks; he would frequently say, "Here's your nickel back."[10][11] The band performed covers of songs from Led Zeppelin and Metallica. Chad Kroeger then asked his step-father to loan him CA$4,000 so that the band could record their first demo, a seven-track EP of original material, called Hesher (1996).[12][13] The band spent half the money to record the EP, while Kroeger spent the other half on magic mushrooms[9] to resell.
Curb and The State (1996–2000)
In 1996, the band recorded and released their first full-length album, Curb. "Fly" was included on both Hesher and Curb and was the first single produced by Nickelback. In 1997, Brandon Kroeger left the band and was replaced by Mitch Guindon; however, Guindon soon departed as well. While initially reported due to him starting work at a car company, Guindon's departure came due to him "not [being] meant for the road". Chad Kroeger stated that his skin was not able to handle cold weather and they convinced him to leave.[14] In Summer 1998, Ryan Vikedal joined the band.
Roadrunner A&R Ron Burman told HitQuarters that one of his West Coast scouts sent him the self-released album and, suitably impressed, he travelled to Vancouver to see them perform live. Although an unknown property in the industry at the time, the venue was packed out. In Burman's words: "I immediately got the chills! I thought their song 'Leader of Men' was a smash hit."[15] Off the stage he was impressed by their industry and initiative in managing their career. Despite this, it still took Burman three months for him to convince his label bosses to approve the signing, a decision that would mark Roadrunner's first move into mainstream rock.[15] Nickelback signed a record deal with EMI and Roadrunner Records in 1999.
The State was released by Nickelback in 2000 by Roadrunner Records and EMI Canada, followed by its release in Europe in 2001. It spawned 4 singles: "Old Enough", "Worthy to Say", "Leader of Men" and "Breathe", the last two being Top 10 rock hits. The album was the band's first album to be certified gold status and it later went into platinum status in 2008, after the success of their later albums.[16] The album entered the Billboard 200 at number 130 and peaked at number 3 in the Billboard Top Heatseekers albums chart and peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Top Independent albums chart.[17]
Silver Side Up and The Long Road (2001–2004)
Around 2001, Chad Kroeger started "studying every piece, everything sonically, everything lyrically, everything musically, chord structure. I would dissect every single song that I would hear on the radio or every song that had ever done well on a chart and I would say, 'Why did this do well?'" Kroeger said that Nickelback's single "How You Remind Me" sold so well because it was about romantic relationships, a universal subject, and contained memorable hooks.[18]
To record their third album Silver Side Up, Nickelback collaborated with producer Rick Parashar. The album was written before the release of The State and was recorded at the same studio.[19] The album was released on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. The album peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 with over 177,000 copies sold in its first week and peaked at number one at the Canadian albums chart, making it the band's first album to do so.[20] The single "How You Remind Me" was a number one single on the Mainstream and Modern rock charts, as well as the pop chart. It also peaked at number two on Adult Top 40 and became the Billboard Hot 100 number one single of the year for 2002. The next single was "Too Bad", which also reached number one on the Mainstream Rock Chart. The final single from the album was "Never Again", which also hit number one on Mainstream Rock.
In 2002, Chad Kroeger collaborated with Josey Scott on the Spider-Man theme song, "Hero". This recording also featured Tyler Connolly, Mike Kroeger, Matt Cameron, and Jeremy Taggart. In 2002, Nickelback released their first DVD Live at Home. On August 19, 2002, an incident occurred while the band was performing at the Ilha do Ermal festival in Portugal. While performing the second song of their set, Chad Kroeger was sprayed with a full bottle of water hurled from somewhere within the audience. After finishing the song, Chad asked the crowd, "Do you want to hear some rock 'n' roll or do you want to go home?" A person in the audience then threw a rock at Chad's head. The band then left stage, with Chad and Vikedal giving the finger to the audience as they left. The band's label, Roadrunner, posted video footage of the entire incident on their website.[21][22]
In 2003, Nickelback released The Long Road. The album was certified 3× Platinum by the RIAA in March 2005 and it had sold 3,591,000 copies as of April 2011.[23] It has sold over 5 million copies worldwide and, in 2003 alone, the album sold 2 million copies worldwide.[24] It debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200. This was their first album produced by Joey Moi, a former classmate of the band's.[25]
The Long Road was ranked No. 157 on Billboard's 200 Albums of the Decade.[26] It spawned five singles. The lead single was "Someday".[27] The band also released "Feelin' Way Too Damn Good" as a single, which peaked at number three on the Mainstream Rock Charts. "Figured You Out" was also released as a single and topped the Mainstream Rock Charts for 13 consecutive weeks.
All the Right Reasons (2005–2007)
After wrapping up the band's tour in support of The Long Road on New Year's Day 2005, drummer Ryan Vikedal was fired after a royalty dispute. He was later replaced by 3 Doors Down's drummer Daniel Adair.[28] Kroeger later sued Vikedal to prevent him receiving any further royalties from Nickelback's music, though the lawsuit was later settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.[29][30][31] Nickelback promptly went into the studio with their new drummer from January through May 2005. The sessions resulted in their fifth studio album, All the Right Reasons which was released on October 3, 2005. It peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 with 323,350 copies in its first week in the United States, as well as producing five U.S. Hot 100 top 20 singles: "Photograph", "Savin' Me", "Far Away", "If Everyone Cared" and "Rockstar". Three of these became U.S. Hot 100 top 10 singles.[32] Also, the album peaked at number one on the Canadian albums chart. The album sold more than 12 million singles and over 9 million ringtones. The album also made Nickelback the first band in Nielsen BDS history to have 5 singles on the CHR charts. It included appearances by Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, who played a guitar solo on the song "Follow You Home" and sang backing vocals on "Rock Star"—and a posthumously sampled appearance by Chad Kroeger's friend Dimebag Darrell from Pantera, culled from guitar outtakes. All the Right Reasons had sold over 7 million copies in the U.S. to June 19, 2010.[33]
Musical style and influences
Nickelback has been described as various genres, including post-grunge,[103][104][105][106][107] hard rock,[99][103][108][109][110] pop rock,[111][112][113] alternative rock,[107][114] alternative metal,[107][115] and nu metal.[116][117] Their earlier sound has been classified as grunge.[118]
Nickelback have cited bands and musicians such as Creedence Clearwater Revival,[119][120] Bob Marley,[120] Metallica,[120] Nirvana,[121] Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ozzy Osbourne[120]
and U2 as influential or inspirational.[9]
Studio albums