Original subtitles

Did you wanna come and see all the good

folks that showed up tonight?

[applause]

Light em up.

[applause]

Nickelback! Nickelback! Nickelback!

Back around the turn of the century,

Nickelback explodes.

They were omnipresent all over the world.

I knew that I always wanted

it to be a part of my life.

I had no idea it was

gonna be this integral.

It always felt right, standing on stage

and performing for people.

We've been through a lot. We've been through a

ton of stuff together.

Half of my life has been the guy

screaming into the microphone

at front of the stage.

So I don't even know who the

hell I am if I'm not that guy.

In the 2000s,

there wasn't a band on the planet

that got more radio airplay

than Nickelback.

All of that exposure

triggered a reaction.

Why does everybody hate Nickelback?

Nobody picks up a guitar to be in the

most hated band in the world.

Nickelbad, Nickelhack,

Nickelbomb, NickelCreed.

They were part of cancel culture

before we had a name for it.

It's like a meme.

You know what a meme is? It's kind of just

like a long running meme.

What's that, Nickelback?

[inaudible mimicry]

I don't think we have anything to prove

really to anybody at all.

How You Remind Me has been considered one

of America's most played songs ever.

At its peak, it would start playing every

3.2 minutes somewhere in the US.

He's an amazing front man, you know?

He's a badass.

The complaints about

Nickelback aren't unusual.

Their songs are formulaic.

But I think sometimes people

wanna hear vacuous shit.

Everybody's got an opinion about them,

which I think is brilliant. That's how it's supposed to be.

It's supposed to upset people.

ruffle a few feathers.

If you're selling 50 million records,

you're doing something right.

And if everybody hates you,

you're doing something, right.

It's time to accept what we already know.

Nickelback is fucking amazing.

♪ Well you can make a couple of calls ♪

♪ Tell your brothers I'm in town ♪

♪ Put a bounty on my head ♪

♪ Tell my parents that I'm dead ♪

♪ and hope to hell I'm never found ♪

Growing up in Hanna,

have you been to Hanna yet?

I wonder what it's like now.

It's been a while since I was there.

Hanna was the quintessential sleepy little farm town.

But as a teenager,

like in most small towns

you get to the point where you need

to see more and you would

just be

like, get me out of here.

But growing up, it was,

it was, the perfect place to be.

I've still got several

friends that are there.

There's something that feels good about that.

It also one of those places where,

because there's not much going on,

it's really easy to get in trouble.

Mike was the quiet one.

He didn't do anything wrong,

but Chad was always doing some little thing

to get himself in trouble.

I don't really blame that all on Chad.

I think he kind of

inherited a little of that from me.

We were what you could

probably call inseparable.

Chad and I have always kind of been a

team, or it was Mike and Chad.

Chad and Mike, you know,

just always did

everything together.

[inaudible]

These are by year.

[laugh]

That mom has, 2006.

It was the three of us most of the time.

Michael

really took seriously

looking after Chad

helping me as much

as he could, always.

Mike was always a really

protective older brother.

I think a lot of older brothers pick on

their younger brothers.

It was probably more the reverse for us.

I think I probably gave Mike more of a

hard time than he ever gave me, and

he was always protecting me.

I remember him getting

in trouble for something.

He said, don't worry, I can

talk my way out of anything.

He was like 10.

And he's used that to

stunning effect since.

Many, many years ago, it was, you know,

when I was in my younger teens,

I was brought to my attention

that Chad's dad wasn't my dad.

But it was not really like a hey, sit

down, you know, you

should hear about this.

It was more in like a moment

of kind of heightened tension.

It's not a good story,

and I didn't handle it well.

My mom just kind of like said,

you know,

this guy's not your,

not really your father.

And it was like

dad was supposed to be

coming to pick them up

to take them somewhere,

and ummm,

rarely showed anyway.

Michael was really upset.

He was losing it,

and I said the wrong thing

as thing as far as his

father was concerned.

He's always been mine,

and he always will be mine.

So, I love both my boys so.

We don't always do the right thing,

even when we know better.

He said to me that, well, I just,

you know, always raised you

up like you were mine.

But, you know, he didn't really raise either of us.

He wasn't around when we were kids.

And I understand it, you know, like there

was a whole bunch of

political dynamics there

that didn't involve us.

My grandfather literally shot at

Chad's dad,

with a shotgun, chased him with a shotgun.

It wasn't a very harmonious group.

He was told to stay away.

It didn't matter what happened.

I was getting blamed for it.

And the best thing I did

that helped was

to get away from that community.

I don't know that it alienated me from Chad so much.

I kind of realized there was a

difference between me and him.

Oh, Chad.

Yeah, he was either on

his way to it or from it.

I was a bad kid.

Lots of break and enters.

You know, I talk about that in the song

"Photograph," like breaking into my school.

and the irony is,

for a building I never

wanted to be in, I don't know why I

wanted to be in there at night.

He ultimately got caught breaking in to the

school and got sent

to juvenile detention.

I think the cops really

wanted to get me out of this town.

That I can tell you.

When he got released into my parents'

custody, it gave us the

opportunity to get really close

and develop our musical ambitions.

I'm glad he got into music.

If he didn't get into music, I don't know

what would have happened.

My concern is the next

stop could have been jail.

Right when I moved to Hanna, is was when

I kind of opened my eyes for listening to rock music.

It started as,

honestly, just more of a

challenge to myself to see,

can I push myself to be in front of a

bunch of people playing?

It's really not my style, is to be

front and center,

playing in front of people.

I don't like the attention so much.

My dad sold cars in the day

and played music at night.

Music was everything.

He was a big fan of metal,

and so was my mother

big metal fan growing up.

I think it was Slayer

all the way, mostly.

But I had to push away from that.

Chad, Mike and I weren't like

like great friends when I first moved to Hanna.

Our social circles were totally different.

And experimenting with music in town

and trying to find other players,

that was the connection

that we ended up making.

Ryan played the guitar.

That's where the the common ground was

We'd learned like 50 songs.

I think we learned like just the bare minimum

to get on the road and get going.

And I was just the lead

guitar player at the time.

♪ Shakespeare's ♪

♪ bent to touch ♪

♪ She never had any ♪

♪ time for me♪

I'm really glad that we got

to do it the way we did it.

Because you just get

way more comfortable.

You're like, what's going to happen?

You're going to get up there and what?

Something's not going to work, someone's not going to like you?

Someone's going to yell, "You suck."

You've heard it all.

You're not phased by any of it.

And what you start doing is

you get this

sort of this mantra in your head

that's like, by the end of tonight,

you're going to get into

whatever it is we're doing.

You could be like, "I didn't really like them at first."

But at the end of it, it was like, "Yeah,

they're pretty good."

And I think I learned that

from our singer at the time.

If he could feel the crowd not into us

he would go nuts.

We definitely got to be

better musicians by doing that.

It was one summer Chad said he had

five or six songs we wanted to record in the studio.

It was going to be Mike and Chad and Ryan and myself.

It was the natural evolution from all the

years we had played together.

We drove to Vancouver and

recorded the first EP, "Hesher."

In a day and a half,

I think it took a day to mix it.

But that was kind of

the inception of the band.

It was really an exciting time as we were

getting traction with our first single, "Fly."

♪ For all the trusts I've broke and ♪

♪ Let justice know ♪

♪ It's just that easy ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm a liar, ♪

♪ I conspired, ♪

♪ I'm a liar… ♪

We got a phone call from Mike saying

"We can gig!"

We were gone, on the road.

Four guys in a van that shouldn't

have made it two miles, and

they were living the dream.

We were concerned about the boys

out on the road and the safety.

Was that all you were worried about?

Not the pitfalls of the music business going on

Trying to make-it,

getting involved in drugs.

I'm used to that, but I was - girls and booze

used to that with your dad.

It was a slow

crawl of an evolution of,

"Can we write songs?"

"Yes." "Can we get gigs?" "Yes."

"Can we now

get people to start showing up?"

It took a while.

You guys went to Banff.

Nobody showed up.

-You didn't get paid. -No, nobody showed up.

And I remember seeing you,

Gee, I don't know how you do it.

I wouldn't take the guitar

in my case for less than

100 bucks, 150."

I remember you saying, "Dad,

this is what you have to do to get

to get people to hear you."

-Which… -Wow I sounded wise back then.

Do any of you guys have our disc?

7 of you have it

Just gritty rock clubs, exactly.

Like you would imagine Like punk rock clubs

and the whole floor smelled

like booze and cigarettes.

It was what it was. It had its charm.

Nothing is beneath you in the beginning.

You need all those gigs more than they

need you, and you gotta do them.

I think it was in the Town Pump. Somebody

had written on the wall that says, "You

be nice to us on the way up,

We'll be nice to you on the way down."

The sound of the band was very raw.

Our music is,

I call it groove rock, but

definitely it was just

sort of heavy rock and roll

but, you know, high energy.

It was just, I mean,

guitars ripping your face off.

Big drums.

And then Chad's screaming vocals.

♪ No, I don't guess ♪

♪ I don't realize ♪

♪ Just how much ♪

You could not ask for

a better lead singer

with that loud of a voice.

Without a mic, t's just naturally loud.

♪ And then I guess It all falls back on ♪

♪ On to me ♪

♪ to see ♪ ♪ Believe ♪

♪ And down onto you ♪

♪ we do ♪ ♪ it's true ♪

♪ And I won't beg to stay, ♪

♪ to leave, ♪ ♪ or to believe ♪

♪ A word you say ♪ "

The toughest time working for the band

You know I think it's like

Probably like a lot of bands

It's the beginning

Six or seven guys

in a minivan and a trailer,

and you've gotta

drive 8 hours

set up, play a show,

tear down.

You're playing in front of,

you know, 10, 15, 20 people.

Canada

is a massive country

with very few people,

and the climate is not exactly

ideal for a good part of the year.

So that usually weeds

out a lot of the bands,

in itself. That, just the geography

alone and how

difficult it is to start with.

Thanks for coming out we're Nickelback

When we did that first demo, Chad

borrowed some money from

his stepdad,

And then my mom kicked in five grand to

actually make the albums

to physically press the records.

And that kind of got us going.

Well, once you were in and owed money,

the only way any of us were going to get

any money back is if we just kept digging.

At no point in time did anyone

say put down the shovel.

Nickelback came to me

because they had a management contract

that they needed reviewed by a lawyer.

And as I understand it they went to a different lawyer first

That lawyer was very expensive,

You know whereas I was the new kid on the block,

so I was a lot cheaper.

The division of labour

sort of broke down like this.

There was me, I was doing

obviously business affairs stuff for them.

Mike was in charge of distribution.

If they toured out to Ontario,

he'd pick up boxes of CDs

and drive around going to

record stores with a copy of the chart

saying, "Hey, you know

we're number 18 this week

Here's some CDs you think you could take them?"

Chad was working the phones.

He was the radio man.

I remember him like making

making these phone calls

to people like,

" Hey this is, you know,

Joe Flynn calling from

Vancouver Indy Promo.

I'm wondering if you got a copy of

that Nickelback record."

Ryan was the

booking agent because they

didn't have a booking agent.

Every place where we were getting played

on the radio, we would book a tour.

We got a grant to make

our second album, Curb.

That started to get some really good

attention, which was awesome, but it

became apparent that our next step was

going to involve a heavy touring

schedule, and that just

wasn't for me, so I left the band.

I ended up finding them my replacement.

Mitch was with the band for a time.

He toured with them,

and ultimately I think

the touring schedule

wasn't agreeing with him either.

We loved those guys,

some of our best friends

still to this day,

but, you know,

as you're running something like this, there comes a time when everybody will

have to check themselves to see if this

is where they want to be, and sometimes

you just have to move on.

After that was where we took the bigger risk,

where we wanted to kind of go big,

get a producer that had a name,

a mixer that also could help us get

kind of the sounds we're looking for,

So we took a loan out for about $30,000.

Ryan called a couple of times,

and there was a desperate need

for some additional funding

so we went to the bank and

arranged a line of credit.

It was enough to make me a little bit

nervous as to whether,

In fact, I would get it back.

Quite often these bands, they kind of just

run into some personal difficulties,

or one decides to go a different direction,

and the whole thing sort of just

collapses, and that would have been

The worst nightmare.

I had the odd phone call from Chad saying

that, you know, we just put so much into

it and nothing's happened, and

thinking about shutting her down.

When it came to borrowing that money,

I owed my grandma

$5,000,

I owed my stepdad four grand.

I'm sure there was probably a

drug dealer I borrowed money from.

I paid them back.

They get their money first.

♪ You can sing along ♪

♪ I touch your hand ♪

♪ touch your face ♪

Everybody pulled together

as a team and

sort of moved the ball down the field.

So

to those of you who

see this band as some

big corporate sellout,

fuck you.

Ryan Vikedal was the drummer

in our band

right before we got signed.

Hello

When he sat down and played, he had this

He had this jazz feel, but

the pocket was right there.

My relationship with Ryan Peake,

It goes back

Quite a long ways.

I think I was five years old at the time. Ryan had

brought like a drum over as like a

birthday present, and I remember sort of

bashing this thing to bits.

We didn't have a manager. We had just

took this loan out For the album, The State.

No record label

came back except

Ron Burman of Roadrunner Records.

I had a mission to

find a band that

I thought could be like an are…

You know an arena rock band

And when I saw Nickelback,

they had all the the criteria for that.

They had the songs,

they had the swagger.

They had some knowledge of how

The record industry and the

music industry worked at that time.

They knew what they wanted and

they were pretty, you know,

sort of laser focused

in what they wanted and what,

you know, and how they thought they should get there.

thought they should get there.

So they thought, well, hell, if these

four idiots can sell 20,000 copies in

Canada, well, then we're

going to make money for sure.

I came back to New York and went to my

boss and said, we have to sign this band.

We have to sign them

We're going to be huge.

All of a sudden, we're on a plane going

to New York to meet with Roadrunner

and still didn't have a manager.

So it was kind of weird that,

you know, we're representing ourselves.

Acting like we know what the hell we're doing

We had no idea what we're doing.

There's absolutely no idea. We were just bullshitting the whole way.

Honestly, it wasn't

such an easy task to

convince the band to sign with us.

We were a label that was

really only known for metal.

Joining a metal label was definitely

strange.

We didn't exactly fit in at that

at that label. Well, we didn't fit in at all.

For us, it was great.

I think a lot of metal bands

on that label kind of had

a little bit of a coughing fit

when they heard we were going to

be joining their ranks.

♪ Two men ♪

♪ They started walking ♪

♪ Started talking ♪

♪ bout better days ♪

Sitting in the meetings,

knowing the label and what there,

what their background is

and just going, what the

hell are we doing here?

Well, it's not like

we morphed into this

rock label. We still

were predominantly a metal label.

Even at the peak of Nickelback

90% of what we as a label

were doing was heavy metal.

The flagship kind of band at the time,

I think, was a

Type O Negative.

Coal Chamber and,

I guess, Machine Head and Slipknot was out

at the time, I believe.

Slipknot were the top dogs at the label

when Nickelback hit.

♪ How bout if I stay ♪

♪ and you run away ♪

I don't think Slipknot loved the fact

that Nickelback came in.

Metal fans don't realize what a great

thing Nickelback was for them because

everybody thought

Nickelback killed Roadrunner.

They don't understand that Nickelback

helped keep the lights on.

The success of Nickelback

allowed Roadrunner to be

Roadrunner, to continue.

It continues to this day.

♪ I'm the one who stays ♪

♪ I'm not leavin' yet ♪

When we put out the first record with them,

the amount that the label invested in us

far, far, far, far, far

eclipsed what they got back.

You know the old adage,

"Don't throw good money at bad money?"

Well, they did.

If we were on a major,

they would have just cut us loose with

with the amount of sales we had.

Whereas our label is like,

" Listen, guys,

we need that money back.

So you better make another album

and we gotta get that money back."

The writing session is over because we

because we gotta play.

I just gotta go. Alright,

Alright buddy.

I just finished the chorus

I remember when Chad came to my house and

and he said, "Listen, I've got this tune.

I'm not so sure, you know,

about it but I'll just play it to you." And he grabbed my acoustic. I heard it

I'm like, "It sounds like a pretty good song"

Like, I didn't go

"Oh, smash hit."

And I remember my wife was up in the

in the loft of our house there and she's like,

"That's a hit."

She points down the loft,

she goes, "That's a hit." [humming melodies]

And we all got together in a jam spot

and we worked out all the production ideas.

Just me, Just me

[inaudible]

Play some tape

We got lots of tape

♪ Never made it as a wise man ♪

♪ I couldn't cut it as a poor man stealing ♪

We just thought it was another song.

We were kind of like, "Yeah,

it's good. You know, we like it."

Mike didn't even want to lead with it as

a first single. Mike was like, "Nope,

-let's go with Never Again."-♪ You remind me ♪

♪ This is how ♪

Once the song went out and it went to

radio stations and all of a sudden people

started playing it, then

it was just everywhere.

♪ me of what I really am ♪

♪ It's not like you ♪

♪ to say "Sorry" ♪

♪ I was waiting on a ♪

♪ different story ♪

♪ This time, I'm mistaken ♪

♪ For handing you a heart worth breaking ♪

♪ And I've been wrong, ♪

♪ I've been down ♪

♪ Been to the bottom of ♪

♪ every bottle ♪

♪ These five words in my head ♪

♪ Scream, "Are we having fun yet?" ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ no, no ♪

♪ no, no ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ no, no ♪

♪ It's not like you didn't know that ♪

♪ I said, "I love you, " ♪

♪ and I swear, I still do ♪

♪ It must have been so bad ♪

♪ Because living with me must have damn near killed you ♪

♪ And this is how you remind me ♪

We went from playing, like, you know,

a couple thousand-seat club, just selling out arenas

all over the globe, and you

can't walk down the street

without everyone just going, "Hey, that's

the dude from Nickelback."

♪ I was waiting on a ♪

♪ different story ♪

When the album came out,

first week, I believe we sold like

240,000 or 250,000

records the first week,

and I was like, "Holy crap, this is big."

♪ …Bottle These five words in my head ♪

♪ Scream, "Are we having fun yet?" ♪

I enjoyed every second

of it, let me tell you.

Oh, my God, I felt like I tried to make

that last twice as long,

you know, the insanity.

At the same time, almost back-to-back,

I put up a song called "Hero."

For the Spider-Man soundtrack.

♪ I am so high, I can hear heaven ♪

So there was just like

two on the radio non-stop.

Nickelback explodes.

They become absolutely ubiquitous,

and for a while, it was fine.

We have a mob of people.

Just felt like a Beatles

moment there for a second

As How You Remind Me was

just coming out of the top ten,

we released "Too Bad," and

then that went into the top ten.

♪ It's too bad, ♪

♪ it's stupid ♪

♪ Too late, ♪ ♪ so wrong ♪

♪ so long ♪ So there was like three songs

in the top ten just getting played at the same time.

You couldn't get away from Nickelback if you tried.

I mean, you would have had to go on to the moon.

You have critics who believe that they

understand what good music is,

and they hear a band like Nickelback,

which is blatantly mainstream.

But they were so mainstream that they

were considered to be

irrelevant artistically.

And if you liked Nickelback well, then

you didn't have very good taste.

You didn't understand rock music.

I see so many concerts in this building.

Standing there.

Standing over there.

Right over here.

Motley fucking crew.

Metallica.

And now because of all of you,

we get to stand here

and we get to do this. Thank you so much.

We all didn't know what was coming

because we had never experienced this before.

It was just this wave that

we all kind of rode together

and didn't know where

it was going to end up.

And then next thing you know, we're in Europe,

and we're in Australia and these

different countries.

Feels good to document this stuff.

That's pretty incredible, man.

Get that thing off and go for a beer. Come on.

♪ bouncing off the wall, yeah ♪

We put them on some tours

that were absolutely brutal.

They toured non-stop.

It's a wonderful day here in…

Where are we today?

People that think it's

glamorous going on tour,

it's not. It's a weird ride.

♪ I missed you so much ♪

♪ That I begged here to fly here ♪

♪ and see me ♪

It's like a workout.

Some days you just don't feel like

working out, you know what I'm saying?

And err……

But you have to do it.

But you have to do it.

And you're caught in the biggest round of

Groundhog Day you can possibly imagine.

It was the worst part

of touring, was leaving.

You're leaving somebody behind

to go and do what you want to do.

And it really is the worst when you're

wanting both parts of your life.

You know, I was with them when he got his first guitar.

I was with them when they,

you know,

we were trying to distribute records to

random record stores.

So by the time they, you

you know, made it, I was like,

"God, good on you. You've done this.

Like, get on that tour bus

and go tour the world."

He was gone a lot.

Like, he was gone months and months

and seemed like those

months turned into years.

I wrote many letters though.

And then when you have families,

you know, it's just exponentially worse.

When your kid's running at you

because you have to leave

and you're like, they don't understand,

it's horrible.

And we would tour almost

two years solid every time.

Back in the day, I was

the one who was the workaholic

that was always in the studio.

Writing songs for himself or writing

songs for other people or writing songs for Nickelback.

I think he's getting better at it now,

relaxing and kind of shutting it off.

But at that time, he wouldn't,

kind of wouldn't know what to do with himself.

Usually we head downtown, we'll go and

just see what kind of

trouble we can get into.

You know, we'd go out and, you know,

party his brains out for ten days,

get all, like, toxic and

then recover for a few days

and then be like, "Okay,

now I can go back to work."

And we would be just like, we just got

reintroduced to our families.

We're gonna take a

little more time and see them.

By the time we'd finished touring, we

would have kind of a repertoire of songs

That we would get ready to record.

So, I don't know if it

was important to do it.

I think from the label it was important.

They said, "Listen, this one's the most

important album you're gonna make."

And they'll tell you that every album.

I'm just like, "You're fucking kidding me."

We didn't actually think we had

completely broken the band.

As we know, many times,

bands have a gigantic success

or an artist has a gigantic success

and then you're like,

"Oh, I never heard from them again."

We put enough pressure on ourselves to

make every album the best it can be.

So, to us, every album's important,

regardless of anyways, no matter what kind of

success you see before that, I think.

We were sort of getting

to that burnout moment.

We toured Silverside up for 18 months so

as soon as we hit this 16th, 17th month,

we were just feeling like, you know, it's

time for us to go away for a little while.

On their next record, they

probably sold half as many,

which was considered a failure.

They could have easily

faded into obscurity.

That was a real glass of cold water in

the face, so to speak.

We started to see the venues, started to

downsize and whatnot,

and that was kind of a

tough pill to swallow.

You are in the eye of the hurricane,

and you are working as hard as you can,

and you don't really absorb everything

that's really going on around you I don't think.

When the long road came out,

we were traveling so much.

You know, me personally, I think I was

getting a bit burnt out.

A lot of that is taking good care of

yourself and getting proper sleep

and all that stuff, but

we were traveling so much.

I just think my head was just not in the

right spot at that moment in time, so.

And then that slowly

started to affect things,

and then it just all kind of came to a

head where it was best for

us to sort of split ways.

This is going to be tough to talk about.

I didn't really see it coming as clearly as others did,

so it was a bit of a surprise for me.

There were some things

I couldn't fight against,

and I felt close to a Vic because I asked

him to come in the band.

Letting him go,

that was one of the hardest

things I think I've ever had to do,

is be a part of that process of telling

somebody that we're

going to make a change,

and he had to go.

He was just such a brother and a comrade,

and he was there in the trenches with us for so long,

but it just got to this point where it

just felt like he was going through the motions.

We had to be a group and

make a decision one direction,

and…

and it's just,

you know it's kind of like a

a divorce in some ways.

I don't think we spoke for

quite a few years after that, so.

And then finally it was

Ryan that took the initiative,

and he came and saw me.

Yeah, it was always bothering me that we

couldn't talk about it.

I like to talk about these kind of things.

I like to air everything, and

I wanted to reach out to Vic,

so I had my son,

and I went to his house,

and I finally went up the door, and I knocked,

and he answered and said,

"Hey, just in the neighborhood, and I was

wondering if you had some time to chat."

He goes,

"No."

Then I go,

"Oh, I totally get it. Okay,

I totally understand." He goes, "No, no, I've got somebody

working in the basement."

"Not right now, but maybe in like

a half an hour? Is that cool?"

I go, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah,

half an hour is fine. That's okay.

We'll go get a coffee, and we'll be right back."

Literally, I was left

hanging there for a second.

I was like,

"Wow, I was way off on this."

So I came back to the house.

I kind of discussed from the band side

how things went down,

and he discussed exactly

from his side, his perspective,

and I really wanted to hear that.

That was for me kind of

a piece that was missing.

And er,

and I'm just glad at the

end of that conversation

that we both kind of

had some closure on it

because these things, when they happen,

don't always end this way.

I mean, yeah, when you look back on it,

and there was tension there,

and there was different feelings that

people were experiencing,

but

you know life's too short to hold these

grudges and go through your life

where you've got this

thing on the back of your mind.

I remember when Ryan Peake

showed up at the door,

and we went out and talked.

It was the weight that

like just goes away from you.

It was kind of a special moment,

and I think when that happened,

it really brought

everybody closer together.

I mean, you do so much with those people

that you'll eventually

be your friends forever.

He's one of the best drummers you've ever heard.

From Vancouver, British Colombia,

comes Daniel Adair.

Daniel Adair.

Am I a rock star?

Yeah, I guess I am.

Idiot.

Fucking idiot.

Can I say that?

I was with Three Doors Down.

We did a co-headlining tour with

Nickelback in the States.

Chad would watch my solo every night,

and he was just a big fan of my drumming.

I had to make the decision

to leave Three Doors Down,

and Three Doors had a number one single.

Nickelback had just come

off the long road tour.

There was all these people in my ear saying,

"You know, Nickelback's done. You got a

good thing going on here."

What if I join this band,

This album falls flat.

And that's it. Now I'm trying to,

you know, get a gig somewhere else.

He was just such a good drummer.

A great guy.

Funny as hell.

And I wanted him in my band.

Daniel came in for All The Right Reasons.

What a great album to join on.

Our first band will

set this place on fire.

They're Alberta's multi-platinum monsters of rock.

They're album All The Right Reasons,

went straight to number one.

And the award goes to…

Nickelback, All The Right Reasons.

Wow!

Um…

We er, We just kind of showed up because we were

supposed to give one of these away tonight.

Um,

This is extremely unexpected.

We thought for sure that the Chili's were

going to just like clean house tonight.

♪ I'm through a standing in line ♪

♪ To clubs I'll never get in ♪

♪ It's like the bottom of the ninth ♪

♪ And I'm never gonna win this ♪

♪ Life hasn't turned out

quite the way I want it to be ♪

♪ Tell me what you want.♪

♪ I want a brand new house

on an episode of Cribs ♪

♪ And a bathroom I

can play baseball in ♪

♪ And a king size tub

big enough for ten plus me ♪

♪ So what you need? ♪

I would say when the band became

absolutely huge and

undeniable was All The Right Reasons.

One of the best selling albums of all time.

Yeah.

Just got wood.

♪ Been there, done that ♪

Just went diamond, too.

We didn't know it was

going to blow up that big.

Like how many number one

singles are on that album?

You had five hit songs,

Photograph, Far Away,

Saving Me , If Everyone Cared,

and then to top it off at the biggest

song on the record, Rockstar.

♪ I even cut my hair

and changed my name ♪

♪ Cause we all just

wanna be big rock stars ♪

♪ And living hilltop

houses driving fifteen cars ♪

♪ The girls come easy ♪

Being on tour with Nickelback is really fun.

The dressing room was always open.

It was like if you want to go in there

and talk to them, go and talk to them.

It was family.

♪ and the VIP

with the movie stars ♪

We don't often do things altogether just

because everybody seems to have

sort of different ideas of what

constitutes a good time.

You know, I can tell you my wife doesn't

think it would be a good time

for me to go out with Chad.

So as a result, I don't, because I'm a

big fan of staying married.

We never thought we'd get to the point where, you know,

we could take our own buses

and all that kind of stuff.

So when it did happen…

We raised our kids and

our first dog on the road.

-Daddy! -Good night.

Hey, Daddy.

Hey, Dax.

Hi, Mommy.

Hi.

-Hey, Katie. -Hello.

It turned into the

family bus and the party bus.

So,

So Chad and Mike separated at that point

and rode different buses.

Call your bosses.

Let them know you're not

coming to work tomorrow.

You're getting drunk with Nickelback.

There was a whole entourage.

Like, literally, there could be 50, 70 people on the road

just to make this thing happen.

It was the biggest rock show you could see

next to somebody like a U2 or something.

It just became this juggernaut.

[Fuck Nickelback]

Things begin to go south.

The level of hate directed towards them

began to exceed what

seemed to be reasonable.

There was a definite backlash from mostly cynical scribes

who had

Nickelback down as phonies,

as not as real

as the bands that they

perceived to be more real.

I was kind of in that camp,

and I thought that they

were making very corporate,

sanitized music designed

to get maximum radio play

and to offend as

little people as possible.

You know, they're being referred to

sarcastically as Nirvana Light.

The Nirvana's and the Pearl Jam's

and the Soundgards of the world.

I guess,

You know, all of those Seattle bands kind

of had inspired bands

to really put the

guitars front and center.

And we start to get complaints from the

audience about playing Nickelback.

We couldn't really quite figure this out.

Bad music makes people violent.

Like, Nickelback makes me

want to kill Nickelback.

[laughter]

At the same time, social media is

starting to rise up.

Facebook, MySpace, we would see Twitter

in a couple of years.

And this led to an extreme explosion in

the creation of memes.

It's bouncing around the web like a

beachball at a Nickelback concert.

There were millions of them.

They became the most hated band in music.

It's like if the Beatles were produced by Nickelback.

It's music, but it sucks.

I don't understand the hate for Nickelback.

It just doesn't make sense to me.

The bigger you get,

the harder they want you to fall.

Here's some of the things that are more

popular than Congress.

Hemorrhoids, Nickelback, Traffic Jams,

Cockroaches, Root Canals,

Colonoscopies, herpes, even herpes.

They couldn't beat herpes in the polls.

But I have a great admiration for Chad Kroeger.

He's a very self-aware man.

I asked him directly about this.

He said that he wouldn't be human

if he didn't feel disappointed

and frustrated and hurt by that.

But at the same time, the sting was

definitely taken out

by the fact that he was so successful.

In the 2000s,

there wasn't a band on the planet

that got more radio

airplay than Nickelback.

Nickelback was played

more than the Beatles,

more than the Rolling Stones.

Nobody picks up a guitar to be in the

most hated band in the world,

to be the most hated solo artist,

to be the most hated songwriters in the world.

It used to be really bad, you know,

with the way it would make me feel.

We try and laugh it off.

You can laugh off about 90% of it,

and some of it, it hurts.

It doesn't feel great.

We went through a period of

time where everybody loved us,

but then there's gonna be a period of

time where everybody doesn't love you.

But it still sucks, though.

Of course it sucks, and that's okay

And it really sucked in the

-beginning because it was… -Hey, I make great spaghetti.

Not everybody likes my spaghetti.

-Yeah. -I think my spaghetti's good.

You know, when it comes down

to all the crap that we get,

and we do get more than any band out there,

I don't know if anyone would ever…

anyone would contest that.

Something happened.

I can't remember what triggered it.

But Chad just blew up

in the dressing room,

and Mike's just like, "Suck it up, you know?"

"I don't care what anyone thinks about me."

And what Chad said, I actually went,

"Fuck, I never thought about that."

And he's like, "You know, you don't know

what it's like to be the singer for Nickelback.

Everywhere I go, I'll go downtown Vancouver,

and people hang out in cars and go,

"Fuck you! Your band sucks! Fuck Nickelback!"

And I was like, "Hmm."

He's like, "I can't not be me.

You guys can go and be dads"

but he's Chad.

I think that that hurt him.

I wish he didn't have such thin skin,

and I wish he wasn't so

easily hurt by those people.

I don't think Mike shrugs it

off as much as he appears to.

I mean, this is their life work,

and

to achieve the highs they achieved,

and then to be

torn apart and ridiculed,

I think, affects all of us.

Kids weren't very nice about it.

They were pretty mean,

because everyone hated the band

so everyone hated us.

Well, if it was at a concert,

these are what you would put in.

My defense mechanism has

been forget about most of it.

Fresh on, I'm gonna put them in my ears.

Thank you, bye

If people want to have an opinion about

me and my band, I'll wear it.

But when my kid comes home, I have to ask him

if he's had a tough day.

I said, "Did they bug you about the band?"

And he's like, "Yeah,

they'll throw that out there."

And he'll stick up for us,

as any kid would.

And I always say, "You don't have to

stick up for us. You don't. Like, don't.

I don't want you getting in this."

I feel like I'm dragging him through the

mud that people are making for us.

And that's tough. That's the

part I think is really unfair.

I don't think people understand that.

The pressure's definitely different when

it comes to being the face of the band.

Getting married to another celebrity doesn't double it.

It quadruples that whole thing.

You just take it in stride.

You just kind of go with it.

But then you also realize to yourself,

you know, life only has to be as

difficult as you make it.

You know, the music business is funny

because everything's so public,

both the successes and the failures.

So when something goes horribly wrong,

you feel horrible because you feel like

the entire world is laughing at you.

But when something goes great, you feel

like you're literally

on top of the world.

Part of their success is the fact that

there are some people who don't like what

they do, and that's okay.

Because they obviously have a huge number

of people who love the music they make.

♪ Funky little monkey, she's a twisted trickster ♪

♪ Everybody wants to be the sister's mister ♪

♪ Coca-Cola roller-coaster ♪

♪ Love her even though I'm not supposed to ♪

Dude, really? Nickelback?

What the fuck? I hate this shit.

♪ Prison gates won't open up for me ♪

This is beautiful,

bro. That's so peace…

♪ Every memory of looking ♪

♪ out the back door ♪

It comes with the territory, you know.

If you're a guy who wanders around

in a black t-shirt,

people who wear white t-shirts won't like you.

It's really rare these days

to have a consistent career

and a run of hits,

and to be on top of the world for like

ten years or so like Nickelback was.

Our fans are just so loyal, die hard,

they don't give a shit what other people think.

Hi, let's take a picture.

Ready?

This is my dedication as well.

I don't follow anybody else.

I follow my heart, what I like.

It's not a bad thing

-being a Nickelback fan. -I've heard it all before.

It's not going to stop who I am.

It's not going to stop what I enjoy.

And I will ride it out

with them until the day I die.

♪ Better run, better run, ♪

It's honestly a hope as an Albertan

to know that people can make it

and people can follow their dreams.

But also a hope that there is still

artists out there that care about their fans,

that still have that deep community connection.

You know, these aren't guys that got

big and famous and took off

and changed their music, changed their style,

changed who they were.

These are guys that, you know, even now are still out here,

you know, engaging with fans.

You still see people in oil is jerseys,

you know, people from Alberta

coming out to support them.

I think I'm in a way better place in my

life now where I,

I'm more, I'm like,

hey, it's okay.

Doesn't matter.

I play Nickelback songs to

Nickelback fans.

They want to hear Nickelback songs.

And I want to sing them.

So I don't have to go and try and win

over someone who doesn't like my band.

That sounds like some very strange form

of torture. Probably for both of us.

That's it. I'm done.

I've had it with all

this Nickelback hating.

You think that makes you cool with the

cool kids in school, Fred?

No, it just makes me right.

-It doesn't. -They're overproduced,

formulaic ear garbage.

Oh, really? You know who might disagree with that?

Facts.

50 million albums worldwide.

11th best-selling musical act of all time.

Billboard's most successful rock group of

the last decade. 6 Grammy nominations,

12 Juno Awards.

Those count. 6 Billboard Music Awards,

2 American Music Awards,

1 People's Choice

Canadian, and a partridge in a f***ing pear tree.

♪ This is how you remind me ♪

♪ This is how you remind me

of what I really am. ♪

♪ This is how you remind me

of what I really am. ♪

Chad, I mean, he's an incredible songwriter,

Pop is porn.

it's porn. They want to get you off.

And it's just, you know,

how they're going to get you off.

The next musical

composition that strikes your eardrums

will have some of the deepest and most

profound lyrical content

ever written by mankind.

I hate every bone in your body but mine.

It's hard to be unfaithful

when you never leave my side.

If you leave me can I come too?

You will hear lines such as

you look so much cuter

with something in your mouth.

Oh I've read things about us that were

shitty that that were well said.

The references to the stripper anthems

and the blowjob songs and the

and the party songs being a little bit

vacuous I don't think that's wrong.

♪ Got to meet the hottie ♪

♪ with the million dollar body ♪

♪ They say it's over budget ♪

♪ but you'd pay her just to touch it, ♪

♪ come on ♪

I'm not the first person to say something

a little risque in a song.

♪ Needs to hit the big screen ♪

♪ And shoot a little love scene ♪

♪ If Hollywood had called her ♪

♪ She'd be gone before ya hollered, ♪

♪ come on ♪

I think sometimes people

want to hear vacuous shit.

♪ You naughty thing ♪

♪ You're ripping up the dance floor honey ♪

♪ You naughty woman ♪

♪ You shake your ass around for everyone ♪

♪ You're such a mover ♪

♪ I love the way you dance with anybody ♪

♪ The way you swing ♪

♪ And tease them all by

sucking on your thumb ♪

♪ You're so much cooler

When you never pull it out ♪

♪ Cause you look so much cuter ♪

♪ With something in your mouth ♪

No. Well, mmm, mmm, mmm.

No, as a band,

Nickelback doesn't suck at all.

♪ Every memory of

looking out the back door ♪

♪ I had the photo album

spread out on my bedroom floor ♪

♪ It's hard to say it, ♪

♪ time to say it ♪

♪ Goodbye, ♪

♪ Goodbye ♪ ♪ Every memory of

walking out the front door ♪

♪ I found the photo of the

friend that I was looking for ♪

♪ It's hard to say it, ♪

♪ time to say it ♪

♪ Goodbye, ♪

♪ Goodbye ♪

♪ Yeah! ♪

♪ I miss that town ♪

♪ I miss the faces ♪

♪ you can't erase ♪

♪ you can't replace it. ♪

♪ I miss it now,

I can't believe it. ♪

♪ So hard to say,

so hard to believe it."

♪ If I could relive those days, ♪

♪ I know the one thing

♪ that would never change. ♪

Come on!

♪ Every memory of

looking out the back door ♪

♪ I had the photo album

spread out on my bedroom floor ♪

♪ It's hard to say it, ♪

♪ time to say it ♪

♪ Goodbye, ♪

♪ Goodbye ♪

♪ Look at this photograph ♪

♪ Every time I do,

♪ makes me laugh ♪

♪ Every time I do it makes me ♪

We were actually

recording in Los Angeles.

We would rent a house

that had a home theater in it,

that was, you know, sound treated,

and we would just move all the shit out

of the way and we would make that into

the studio in these houses.

I hadn't drank for a number of days

and I was going to the gym to work out.

It keeps me from going insane,

wether it's on tour,

in the studio,

or just going through life

at home with the family

If I don't do something

that err, that sucks terribly every day,

I don't feel like I've lived.

I felt kind of a funny feeling on the

left side of my head, like kind of like,

it felt almost like a

water droplet feeling.

So I crawled down on the floor,

I started trembling and sweating profusely,

and then I was somewhat

blinded and somewhat paralyzed.

Essentially the whole left hemisphere of

my brain was fucked.

An emergency room in Los Angeles

is a very high impact place.

I couldn't see because I was keeping

my eyes closed because of the vertigo,

but I could hear various situations of

people, you know, people

are dying all over the place.

It was pretty,

pretty frenetic.

We get there and they said,

"We think he had a stroke."

-Yeah. -I'm like, "He's fucking 40."

For the first three days, the doctors

couldn't tell me whether

he was going to live or not.

It was absolutely terrifying

and shock.

They couldn't comprehend

how he could have had a stroke

because he's so young,

so healthy and so fit.

I couldn't speak for Mike

because I was too traumatized

and just clearly in shock.

Shit.

That was also a very bad shot.

Chad stepped in

and answered all the questions,

filled out the forms,

helped them move Mike

from the bed to the gurney.

when we transferred him.

That night, Chad was

a hero to both Mike and I.

His wife was there.

she didn't leave his room for days.

She had other people bringing food

to her. She didn't leave him.

When you blow your brain up,

you got to learn how to walk right.

and,

In that process, you got to learn how to

walk in a straight line

while looking to the side,

or up.

and it's like a sobriety field test,

only there's no drugs or alcohol involved.

So You're impaired, but you're

bit you're impaired by your own wiring.

So, What would happen

in the beginning is if I tried to walk,

I would fall down.

So, I walked this driveway for

a few weeks,

20 times a day.

I think that a lot of people go through life

blindfolded about mortality.

Chad is a mystery to me in that way

a little bit because I think he understands mortality,

but I don't know if it's something

he doesn't want to know about

or look at or think about.

I'm not sure.

I can't tell.

♪ Now I know why

I hide my love from you

some days ♪

♪ No I don't mind

keeping this bottled

inside me ♪

♪ You came along

and tore this wall down

around me ♪

♪ Looks like you found me, ♪

♪ now I know why ♪

♪ I felt like shit when I woke up this morning ♪

I got really sick.

We had 10 days off

before the next

amphitheater leg started in the U.S.

and we flew over to the

west coast and I warmed up.

As I started singing, my voice sounded

really weird and I wasn't hitting the

notes and it was just bad.

Some days, it's like "Oh, my throat hurts.

I'm having trouble."

You're like, "Ah, come on, man.

just power through it. You can do it."

And this time, I heard his voice

and went, "Oh, that's broken."

It was kind of like a whispering kind of sound.

There's no notes.

He couldn't make notes.

He's like, "I can't make

notes. I can't sing at all."

And I was just panicking.

And then we went right into

shutdown mode immediately.

First, we canceled that show,

which sucked because there was…

20,000 people outside trying to get in

when we canceled.

It was not only the day off

it was like three hours before doors.

I was really freaked out.

And we canceled an entire leg of a tour

and then the rest of the world tour.

If he loses his voice,

the band stops.

The question really that I--you know

and I didn't ever ask you just because

I was kind of nervous to ask--

was when you were recovering and you

weren't able to talk and

you weren't supposed to talk,

did it ever go through your mind that you

might come back and

not be able to sing again?

Did that ever happen?

Like, did you ever think that?

I think it was a month.

He wasn't allowed to

utter a word,

say anything.

And I think during that period of time,

I think you…

I think that would be in your mind.

It would be in your mind, right?

that--is this ever going to come back?

I was scared.

Fucking shitting myself.

And I try not to let them

know what's going on.

I never let on to you guys because

I'm the one leading us

into battle every night.

And I can never show fear.

I have to maintain that fucking bullshit

in my head because

I don't want you guys to be scared.

-I checked the weather too. -Should I tell him that?

It said like 10 to 13.

Is that about--hey, dude, I don't want to

tell him he'll punch me.

Well, he can't punch you. Well, he can

punch you. He won't punch me.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Come sit.

I bet you're wondering why I've called you in here today.

-You're fired. -I'm absolutely the new guy.

Always will be. They went to school together.

They grew up in Alberta together.

They just have this thing.

You know, they're family,

the three of those guys.

I'm in the band. I am in the band,

but sometimes I feel like I'm not.

I'm part of the family,

but kind of like

this really weird, distant cousin.

We're in a weird spot

not many bands find themselves in.

Nickelback lifetime

achievement award for not going away.

Birmingham. I think I think they're in Birmingham.

You're welcome.

They've got a new album coming up!

Yeah, they've got a new album coming up.

If anybody gives a fuck.

Yeah, it's going to be great. The band is

saying it's some of their best.

Some of their best ever.

It's the heaviest album they've put out yet.

We're supposed to play a song off every album.

Maybe a new cover.

Sex Farm Woman.

♪ Hosing down your barn door. ♪

♪ Poking your hay. ♪

They'll love it in Estonia

-Spinal Tap. -Spinal Tap.

Oh, I'm not up on the Spinal Tap.

Break Like The Wind?

-Smell The Glove. -I know that one.

Smell the glove.

It's a very sexist cover.

Sexy. -Shark

-Shark Sandwich -What's wrong with being sexy?

You know, a lot of people would look at this band

and assume that it's

a dictatorship, right?

Because Chad is such

a strong personality.

And me being the new guy, I don't try and

weigh in on a lot of things,

especially business, because it's their baby, right?

But when it comes to song direction,

it definitely seems like a democracy, you know?

These people that come to the last six

shows in these cities

just want to hear something different.

-That's the problem. -Totally.

You know what I'm saying?

So we play leader Of Men and

it's not the best response?

No, at least, wow,

they played something different. -I don't give a shit

We have 33 singles.

There's no way we could

play 33 singles a night.

There's a lot of songs that we like to

play that we just don't play.

Imagine if we didn't play Rockstar one night.

I can't.

How You Remind Me and Rockstar,

are never coming out.

And the manager's head just

turns like this, like, no.

That's not going to ever be.

But you can say that about saving me, too.

If you're stuck in this fact where it's like,

well, we think that these fans

only want to hear these songs

every time we play,

it's going to be the same set list

for the rest of your life.

Do you keep making new albums with new music

and then not play that music?

It's a fragile balance.

It's like a family dynamic that can be

kind of fucked up sometimes

and, you know, you just, fuck, I just

wish this is over with.

I don't want to deal with this anymore.

But let's say you do quit.

You know, when it comes

time to talk and, you know,

have conversations with my friends,

they inevitably are, you know, run out of

things to talk about except for, hey, when

are you going on tour next?

You know, you just do because that's what

your common ground is for a lot of people,

you know, is doing this.

I think Nickelback is his entire

identity and his entire life,

you know, not just his baby.

You know, it doesn't just replace kids for him.

I think it's, I think without Nickelback,

I think Chad's entire identity as a

person, as a human, goes away.

I don't have an identity without this band.

So the same way that I get

labeled as the face of this band,

without it, I feel like

there's just, I'm like, so who am I?

We've been doing this for 22 years.

Half of my life has been the guy

screaming into the microphone

at the front of the stage.

So I don't even know who the

hell I am if I'm not that guy.

I'm like, I'm the guy at the

party who's got the most jokes?

I've always felt a sense

of loneliness about Chad.

Even when there are people around, I don't know.

I can't describe it for you.

Just a feeling that he

always needs a little bit more.

He's very caring

and very loving

and very wide open,

and he is so easily hurt

by someone who has the power to hurt him.

And er…

And he's a good man.

But you love breaking out of jail, man.

You love breaking out of jail.

But I'm pretty good at it, though.

Getting in trouble and then getting out

of trouble is kind of what your game is.

Getting out of trouble.

You love that shit.

Getting out of trouble?

-Yeah. -That's my favorite thing to do.

-I know. -I'm good at it, though.

I got a question. What's next?

What do you think?

What do you think is next?

Does it just continue on and make another

record and do another tour?

Or everything's going to be

greatest hits from here on out.

I don't know.

This is the question.

What's next?

What do you do?

Well, I set up the studio.

It's ready to go.

The album paradigm.

Good question.

And we've been asking this question for

about ten years because it's been--

the writing's kind of been on the wall

that albums are going to take form of

irrelevancy, you know, at some point.

And we've felt it comin,

and seen it coming.

Who doesn't want to keep playing music

for a fucking living?

If you're not feeling it anymore,

you don't do it anymore, you know?

Well, okay. But you know what?

How long do we play to cover-- how long

do we stand on stage playing other

people's music?

You know what I mean?

It's like, how long do we sit up there

just saying,

"Fuck, I can't wait to make

our own stuff and play it"?

But everything does end, though.

I don't know what the

future of Nickelback holds.

That's the thing. It's been that way the whole time.

I mean, Nickelback is

a big part of my life.

But it's not the only thing in my life.

We had a North American tour scheduled

for 2020, spring, and then that's when it

and then that's when it all fell apart.

Some breaking news on coronavirus.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

just announced Canada will be closing

all borders to

non-citizens and non-residents.

There will be some exceptions to this

ban, but a drastic move taken by our

neighbors to the north.

Well, you know, it was a weird time for a while

because the band shut down.

The band shut down and the whole world shut down.

And for a while, none of us really knew

if or when we'd return.

I was having a really tough time.

My grip was getting frozen.

My shoulder was raising up to compensate,

and then my hip would always hurt.

It's that nerve that,

you know, your ulnar

It's this side of your hands, feels

through there like a funny bone.

It comes around.

Over, I'd say, 10 to 15 years almost,

Starting the Dark Horse album in the studio,

just a little bit of lack

of control in my right hand.

If I start crying during the set

I'll get some tissues.

Then it doesn't feel better than yesterday.

I'll get some tissues.

One more show, boys.

The more I practiced, the worse I got.

So now I didn't have bass drum control,

I didn't have control of my right hand.

Shit! Shit, fuck!

It's a neurological disorder called

task-specific focal dystonia.

I just bottled all this stuff in, and

You know, that's what guys do.

We don't talk, we just stuff it all down

to say we can figure it out.

That all sucked balls.

I knew that I had to fix this, because

the phone was going to ring.

I was really stressed

about that phone ringing.

So the guys got this offer to play a

pre-Super Bowl party,

and the gig was in something like eight days,

and I shit myself.

Got into the studio,

started with Animals

assuming that we go right into a heavy rocker,

because that's usually what we do.

I couldn't even make it to the second

chorus, my arm

just…it was like granite.

Like I'm not even 50,

it's like, I'm going to retire?

Like, I don't…what am I going to do?

Like,

was drinking a lot in COVID.

But yeah, it was a pretty dark spot.

I mean,

I'm better spoken when I have

time to think about it. I think a lot of people,

you know, write a letter, cause,

especially with that level of emotion,

and I couldn't imagine

doing a conference call.

The guy's telling them it's over, so…

I wrote up this email and sent it to

them, and I pressed send,

and I was like

I'm not in Nickelback anymore, okay

I quit. I quit the band.

My wife and I,

we were talking about it,

I mean, we were even thinking of moving,

maybe leaving the country, moving, completely changing our lives,

because this would change everything.

And then my wife's phoning me,

She's like, "Chad, oh my God, Chad's phoning me!

Do I get it?" I'm like, "I'll call him

back. I'll call him back, don't worry."

So I just found a place to park,

and I called him back and…

he answered, he's like, "Hey, buddy, he's all happy."

You know, I'm just like, "Oh, what's he going to say?

This is going to be terrible."

He was just Jovial Chad, " hey, man,

heard you broke your dick."

I'm like, "Okay."

Immediately made me feel

like, Okay, he brought it,

he brought me off the ledge a bit."

And Chad was kind of baffled.

He was like, "What are you talking about?"

I was like, "We want you, buddy."

We spent 18 years in the trenches together.

He's like, "We're family.

We'll get you checked out.

We'll fly you wherever you need to go.

Specialists, whatever, we'll find out what's going on.

We'll fix you.

And in the meantime, we have some gigs.

We'll just hire some." He's like, "We'll wait six months."

He said, "We'll wait two years."

He's like, "We want you, buddy.

That's it."

I was shocked to hear that.

I always felt like the new guy.

And I now know that they

don't see me like that.

Which, like, you know, I was almost in

tears when I was talking to Chad in the car.

Because, like, the cloak of mystery was

taken off of this thing.

It's like, "Oh, they see me as family.

Like, we're a band."

And that just…

the level of pressure is gone.

You know, I'm like, "Oh, they…"

Like, I don't have to be afraid.

I don't have to be stressed out.

I'm gonna do the best I can,

and the guys are happy with me.

They want me here.

And if I make a couple mistakes…

they don't care.

I think if I had lost my arm and had to

relearn like Rick Allen did,

they'd be like, "Okay, cool.

You can still sing the harmonies, right?

Okay, cool."

So basically, it was a fuck-off.

You're not allowed to quit.

Nice wheels.

[laughter]

How are ya?

-Like that? -Your car just looks like mine.

-Just like mine. -I know isn't it?

Hop in.

Chad was sort of feeling, I think,

not really inspired to

create for a while there.

You know, when you're making your best work,

I think you're going kind of nuts.

Good creativity happens on the cusp of…

-Chaos, right? -Of chaos.

[laughter]

It's his function.

-It's his purpose.-♪ Driftin' through the night, ♪

We recorded a lot of

albums out of this house.

He lives there, so he just gets up and walks over.

And he's doing a lot of

work, a lot of heavy lifting,

so it was good that he's there all the

time if he wants to do it.

♪ light of day ♪

Chad is just a phenomenal songwriter.

Even if Nickelback didn't use any of these songs,

he could have sold them all to other people,

because they're just… they're good songs, you know?

♪ Undertow, getting pulled ♪

He's really prolific in what he does.

He's just coming out with stuff all the time.

♪ lovin' you, loving you

is just like surfin' on a tidal wave♪

Nickelback has finally, after five years,

having new album out.

It is so cool. It's

their tenth album as well.

And it is killer.

We're gonna play the new track right now.

This is San Quentin, Rock Hard with Phil and Tish,

89.7 PBA FM.

Here comes the band, the band is coming

Okay, let's go, let's go

♪ Let's get this circus ♪

♪ On down the road ♪

♪ We're taking bets how far ♪

♪ A tank of gas will go ♪

♪ Call up your best friends ♪

Well, since we all did

have a very long hiatus,

it just felt like we

definitely needed to give the fans

some new music

and I think that was an

itch we needed to scratch, too.

Like, we definitely wanted to get in the studio

and start cranking up the

amplifiers and smacking drums

and screaming into microphones and,

you know, doing what we do.

Being off for three years, essentially,

and seeing all those fans…

-Yes. -…rabid, excited fans.

And I've been a dad for three years,

just kind of trapped in my house,

so reentry's a little hard,

but it's awesome to see that excitement.

To see a new generation

of people find and discover

Nickelback on TikTok

and Instagram and YouTube

and all the social platforms,

and they're loving their music

because their music stands a test of time.

They're a Canadian band,

I'm a Canadian… Wannabe Canadian rock star,

so they're a big inspiration.

You know, I've listened to their music,

I've played their music

and I'm here now.

I've sweated to be here, you know?

It's a hot day, and I'm in all black.

Just for Nickelback. So they

mean a lot, obviously, yeah.

Again, thank you guys so, so, so much

for coming out on one of

the hottest days in Vancouver.

We don't get these very often.

Thank God it wasn't pissing down

with rain like it normally is

We got to shoot a music video,

like I said, for you on a beautiful day in summer

It's been fun to see this like,

not only just fans,

but this younger generation of artists

come up and be like,

"I love this band.

I grew up on this band."

My favorite song from

a Canadian artist ever

is, of course,

Rockstar by Nickelback.

Fucking Chad Kroeger, everybody!

I also thought I was

pretty fucking funny on stage.

I could take comedic lessons from you,

but I'm like, God Dammit! -"Thank you, Chad."

There is a rabid fan base

It's just online.

I mean, it sounds stupid to say they

actually are a hot AC again.

which is wild, -"Yeah."

I look today, they're like 19 on the hot AC charts.

They're probably 15 years older than

anybody around them.

Tonight, it's time to

accept what we already know.

Nickelback is fucking amazing

and totally deserve their position here

in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

♪ Look at this photograph ♪

Congratulations to Nickelback on their

Canadian Music Hall of Fame induction

presented by TD.

We love our job because everywhere music

brings people together.

Music transcends pettiness.

Music lets us feel other experiences.

Music shows how alike we

all are around the world.

It is that simple.

And it's you, the fans, who have done that.

The fans! The fans!

Thank you so much. We're forever

grateful. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

They mean so much to each other.

They've grown up together.

The chemistry is real.

It's palpable.

I think if you took any of them out and

tried to put somebody else in there,

I don't think it would be what it is.

I couldn't be happier for

those four guys on stage

who had to live

through all that negativity

and to feel this amount of love and

newfound respect is amazing.

It's wild when you show

them things from people,

whether it's famous hockey players,

athletes, musicians, actors.

Look at what this

person said about Nickelback.

And Chad's first instinct for a while

would be like, "Oh, fuck. Here we go."

And now you're showing him and he's like, "Everything is--"

It's all positive. Yeah, it's all positive.

Did you ever have anybody come up to you

and say, "Fuck Nickelback"?

-No. -I never met--

Oh, that's a lie. I had one

guy and there was a fight.

I just think you guys are laughing

because you're like-- you're still talking.

The internet just keeps them alive

and that just shows the

staying power of these guys.

Do you need a gig?

She's our press secretary now.

Why do I have to be Dave Coulier?

This is ridiculous.

I'm outta here.

Don't leave.

I'm keeping the Robocop suit.

♪ We all just

♪ wanna be big rock stars ♪ Live in hilltop ♪

♪ houses driving 15 cars ♪

♪ The girls come easy

and the drugs come cheap ♪

♪ We all stay skinny

because we just won't eat ♪

♪ And we'll hang out

in the coolest bars ♪

♪ with the VIPs with the movie stars ♪

♪ Every good gold digger's

gonna wind up there ♪

♪ Every playboy bunny

with their bleach blonde hair ♪

♪ And we'll hide out

in the private rooms ♪

♪ With the latest dictionary and

today's who's who ♪

♪ We'll get you anything with that evil smile ♪

♪ Everybody's got a drug dealer

on speed dial ♪

♪ Hey, I wanna be a rock star ♪

Hey lads, Sean here. Listen.

I was just looking at your tour schedule

and I see you have a

couple days off here.

Would you guys maybe be interested in

coming to Hannah to play a show?

I kinda have a scheme here to do a fundraiser.

You know, it'd be great to go under the

guise of village idiot

and play the music that we grew up to.

And have a great time.

Anyway, let me know if you're interested.

Give me a call.

Take care, guys. Cheers.

♪ Look at this photograph ♪

♪ Every time I do, it makes me laugh ♪

♪ How did our eyes get so red? ♪

♪ And what the hell is on Joey's head?

♪ And this is where I grew up ♪

♪ I think the present owner fixed it up ♪

That's crazy. Look at that.

Oh, the old album covers.

That is painted even.

I can't believe there's no spray paint on it.

Yeah, I know, right?

-Wow. -That's very cool.

That's the garage that

everybody got to jam in.

this garage right here.

I think I left some

of my hearing in there.

Should we go buy our old--

Oh, fuck yes.

Our old little shit shack?

Yeah. See what's left of it.

I knew it was small, but I just don't

even remember being that small.

It's even smaller on the inside.

I guess it's a box.

Kick the fucking door down.

It's not like I've never broke into the damn place before.

This is crazy.

I mean, I can still push that stupid thing open.

So there used to be a shed over here.

Right there, yeah.

That's the bathroom window.

That's the bathroom window. That's my room.

That's Mike's old room. I wouldn't even go so far

as to say it was Spartan.

This is like an emotional

An emotional marathon, slash triathlon.

It's a trip, man. It is a trip.

Ah, Mike's here, bro!

-Everybody's here. -Everybody's here.

-Really? -And a camera crew.

Camera crew, seriously.

No shit. Yeah, we're shooting a video.

Scott!

This is Christie David.

She grew up about…

-One door down. -Yeah, that was…

A house between our…

Yeah, that was about to makes you

two doors down

Yeah, you can do the thing with Angus or

else when Malcolm gets popped…

Nobody knew more AC-DC songs than him.

We would jam. We always knew you

you were gonna be a rock star buddy

-We all knew that. -Well, I wish somebody would have told me.

This is all Nickelback shit

I thought, like, a shrine, Daryl's there

Look at this.

Look at this. The younger me was just

so full of piss

and vinegar and headstrong

and thought I knew everything about the

world and just everything about everything.

I was gonna do this and

nothing was gonna stand in my way.

So either you're in or you're in the way.

And that's how I just looked at everyone

and everything in my life.

There was just no safety net.

You grow up.

You're just not in such a hurry to prove

yourself all the time.

I think it's a bit jarring when you come

back to your hometown expecting certain things

to be the same or similar.

And obviously it's not the case.

But it's like the song

you wrote about Hanna.

It's hard to say it,

time to say it, goodbye.

You can never really go home.

I think we really felt

it when we came back.

That being said,

the warmth of the people

you remember growing up with,

that's still there.

And even though the town has obviously changed,

I think the next generation will have

just as much reverence for

their hometown as we all do.

I mean, I think it always feels like home.

I mean, that's where most of your

formative memories are from.

Watch your nuts.

And the first time…

-And I'm not going to make it. -That's what I said.

-You're going to have to put it right. -Play right.

I remember these tables well and they've

got a little button in here that I don't

know if everybody I don't know if everybody

-knows where this button is. - maybe we will have a free game

There's a button right back here.

Can you just see one of these?

[laughter]

I guess that's what you came for,

watch some village idiot

It's been a long time since we've all

been together in the same room.

I don't know how long it's been,

but it's at least since like 1991.

We're going to get up there and play some

old cover songs that we haven't played in.

you know err,

Could it be 20 years?

No. Yes.

Thank you.

This is for ya'all at the back

Smoking crack

This ain't Nickelback

We got Village Idiot

in the house

We've come from England

all the way to Hanna

To see Nickelback

I have hazy memories of

playing here, to be honest with you.

This will be my first time

playing here sober, I believe.

Probably one of the first times I've

played in this town sober, like ever,

including rehearsals.

So, you know…

-We can fix that. -Yeah, well, that could

-be changed at any time.-♪ if the devil needs a ride ♪

♪ Because the angel on my right ♪

♪ ain't hanging out with me tonight ♪

It's fun scanning the crowd and like

picking people out of like that I haven't

seen in years and years and years,

people we went to high school with.

I mean, I think if anybody goes to any

kind of a small town somewhere, they may

not understand the value that it has for

people that actually grew up there that's home.

♪ no matter where we go ♪

♪ 'Cause everybody knows ♪

♪ We're just a couple of animals ♪

♪ So come on baby, get in ♪

♪ Get in, just get in ♪

♪ Check out the trouble we're in ♪

♪ You're beside me on the seat ♪

♪ Got your hand between my knees ♪

♪ And you control how fast we go

by just how hard you wanna squeeze ♪

♪ It's hard to steer when

♪ you're breathing in my ear ♪

♪ But I got both hands on the wheel ♪

♪ while you got both hands on my gears ♪

♪ By now, no doubt

that we were heading south ♪

♪ I guess nobody ever taught her

not to speak with a full mouth ♪

♪ 'Cause this was it,

like flicking on a switch ♪

♪ It felt so good I almost

drove into the ditch ♪

♪ I'm screamin' ♪ ♪ No, we're never gonna quit ♪

♪ Ain't nothing wrong with it ♪

♪ Just acting like we're animals ♪

When I see the people who keep showing up

to see us play, that's why we keep doing it.

♪ Animals ♪

So I'll keep writing music, and I know

that the band wants to keep playing

so why would we stop?

♪ Get in, just get in ♪

♪ Ain't nothing wrong with it ♪

♪ Check out the trouble we're in ♪

♪ Just a couple of animals ♪

♪ Just get in, just get in ♪

I'm really glad that I've got

the three guys that I've got in my band

that I can lean on for anything,

because they are the most down-to-earth,

humble humans hat you could

ever be in a room with.

We've all achieved a higher level

of acceptance of one another,

of who we all are.

♪ about you ♪

♪ I can't believe that I can breathe without you ♪

The futility of trying to change

who another person is,

you stop doing it.

You know, maybe just enjoy who people are

and accept and love

the things that you do like.

♪ pages, I know that ♪

It's really good for us all to realize

that now is the good old days.

♪ But it depends which one I'm standing on ♪

we're in very much a different space

and I really do believe,

I'll say it again that,

COVID took it away from us,

and that's what made everyone go,

actually I want that back,

I'd like to have that back now."

♪ In smoke, in smoke ♪

I love being around these guys. Just the

laughs we've had is amazing. I can't

imagine what the whole tour is going to be like.

♪ Tie the pages to a plane ♪

I think the future looks bright.

♪ to the moon ♪

As much as I can say Nickelback doesn't

define me, there's a certain element of

this that does define all of us.

And Chad appears to be the most

entrenched in this.

♪ on fire ♪

-We're all entrenched in this.-♪ in smoke ♪

Standing there when you hear the

swell of people,

♪ throw it in the ♪

that's the gold.

And I'll kind of nudge Chad

and I'm just like This is a pretty cool job.

♪ send it to ♪

-And it is.-♪ moon ♪

I hope that in my time on this planet,

I have made some songs

♪ I could set ♪

or some music or something that you might enjoy.

And um.

You know I hope that

♪ I could set ♪

I've made someones day

-♪ I wanna sing♪ -just a little bit better.

♪ I could set this song on fire ♪

♪ Sing this song to you ♪

♪ I could set this, ♪

♪ I could set this. ♪

♪ How the hell'd we wind up like this? ♪

♪ And why weren't we able ♪

♪ To see the signs that we missed? ♪

♪ Try and turn the tables ♪

♪ I wish you'd unclench your fists♪

♪ And unpack your suitcase ♪

♪ Lately there's been too much of this ♪

♪ But don't think it's too late ♪

♪ Nothing's wrong just as long ♪

♪ as you know that someday I will ♪

♪ Someday, somehow ♪

♪ I'm gonna make it alright but not right now ♪

♪ I know you're wondering when ♪

♪ You're the only one who knows that ♪

♪ Someday, somehow ♪

♪ I'm gonna make it alright but not right now ♪

♪ I know you're wondering when ♪

♪ Well, I'd hope that since we're here anyway ♪

♪ We could end up saying ♪

♪ Things we've always needed to say ♪

♪ So we could end up staying ♪

♪ Now the story's played out like this ♪

♪ Just like a paperback novel ♪

♪ Let's rewrite an ending that fits ♪

♪ Instead of a Hollywood horror ♪

♪ Nothing's wrong just as long ♪

♪ as you know that someday I will ♪

♪ Someday, somehow ♪

♪ I'm gonna make it alright but not right now ♪

♪ I know you're wondering when ♪

♪ You're the only one who knows that ♪

♪ Someday, somehow ♪

♪ I'm gonna make it alright but not right now ♪

♪ I know you're wondering when ♪

♪ You're the only one who knows that ♪

♪ How the hell'd we wind up like this? ♪

♪ And why weren't we able ♪

♪ To see the signs that we missed? ♪

♪ Try and turn the tables ♪

♪ Now the story's played out like this ♪

♪ Just like a paperback novel ♪

♪ Let's rewrite an ending that fits ♪

♪ Instead of a Hollywood horror ♪

♪ Nothing's wrong just as long ♪

♪ as you know that someday I will ♪

♪ Someday, somehow ♪

♪ I'm gonna make it alright but not right now ♪

♪ I know you're wondering when ♪

♪ You're the only one who knows that ♪

♪ Someday, somehow ♪

♪ I'm gonna make it alright but not right now ♪

♪ I know you're wondering when ♪

♪ You're the only one who knows that ♪

♪ I know you're wondering when ♪

♪ You're the only one who knows that ♪

♪ I know you're wondering when ♪