The lead singer of Nickelback Chad Kroeger came on the Bobby Bones Show today (October 7). Bobby Bones was super excited to talk with him because he’s always been a Nickelback fan even when people hate on them, including his good friend Eddie.
“Rockstar” is one of Nickelback’s biggest songs and Kroeger shared a fun fact about the song that not a lot of people know. Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top is the guy who sings the ad lib parts in the song. He asked Gibbons to come in studio to play guitar on another one of their songs. After they finished recording Gibbons asked if he had any other music and he only had a flash drive with him. On their was their song “Rockstar.” He played it for Gibbons who immediately asked for them to play it again and then told Kroeger “that’s a hit.” He kept hyping it up so Kreoger asked if he wanted to be on that song too and he really wanted to. So they came up with the idea for Gibbons to impromptu respond to Kroeger’s lines in the song. One of the lines Gibbons says “I’ll have the quesadilla” and as soon as Kroeger heard him say that, they knew they had to keep it in. And that’s the “Rockstar” we all know today. “Photograph” is another one of their big hits and Bones wanted to know based off the lyrics “What was on Joey’s head?” Kroeger said it’s a champagne pillar and it kind of looks like a trophy. The song was inspired by a real life picture he’s in with his friends. In fact, one of Kroeger’s friends got cropped out of said picture and he’s still mad about it.
Kroeger admitted he’s very self-deprecating. He believes a lot of things about Nickelback’s career is funny. Though he’s not the only one. His bandmates and him are actually really goofy and they are like “four idiots.” He said they will take a bunch of fun photos at photoshoots for their PR and then they always make them take one serious photo, which is somehow the photo they always end up using. So fans think they are really serious, however they all actually love to laugh and have a good time. When discussing the hate Nickelback receives all the time, Kroeger said it happens with anybody in any capacity. He compared their situation to the one Elon Musk is currently facing. Musk is trying to advance technology and help the world, but he receives a lot of backlash for that. It just comes with the territory. Though Kroeger has noticed some of the love their band has been getting on TikTok, he’s also still aware there’s people out there who have strong opinions about them.
When “How You Remind Me” was released, Nickelback shot to stardom. They were number 1 in multiple countries and Kroeger remembers when their career really took off because it was when he became the most recognizable. He also recalls that time being very weird for him. In recent years, he decided to cut the long hair he was known for and replace it with a short and spiky look. He felt the long hair was becoming a bit too much of a “ken doll” situation especially when an ex-girlfriend wanted to straighten it. So that’s when he cut off the hair and presented a new stage look.
Eddie is known for being a hater of Nickelback so Bones made him have a question prepared to nicely ask Kroeger. He first asked Kroeger the 50 Cent/Nickelback joke, to which Kroeger was able to figure out the answer but admitted he doesn’t pay attention to the jokes made about their band. Eddie also asked if a fan ever came up to him to say they used to hate Nickelback, but then heard their music and fell in love with him. Kroeger admitted it’s usually the opposite and they love them at first, but then get tired of them later.
Nickelback’s current single is called “Those Days.” Kroeger said it’s a song about remembering their past and special moments. When they went out to write this song, they needed another “rocker” for their album, but Kroeger stumbled upon the melody and then threw out the lyric “remember when the street lights came on and we had to go home,” which then sparked lyrics out of the rest of the crew.
