Canadian hard rock band Nickelback has long been a key part of the Roadrunner Records legacy, despite the mixed reactions to their mainstream success. The band’s third album, Silver Side Up, which achieved 6x multi-platinum status, brought unprecedented commercial success to the label.
Following that, the band’s follow-up album, The Long Road, went 3x multi-platinum, while their 2005 diamond-certified release, All The Right Reasons, propelled them into even greater fame. This success not only solidified their place in rock history but also shifted the culture at Roadrunner, leading to a more commercially-focused approach.
With Nickelback and Slipknot dominating the label’s spotlight, other artists on Roadrunner’s roster began to voice their frustrations about being overshadowed or underrepresented. As a result, the label’s identity as a home for groundbreaking underground metal bands began to evolve, much to the dismay of longtime fans and artists who had helped build Roadrunner’s reputation.
Still, there’s a part of Nickelback’s history that could have taken a more nü-metal direction. Mike Kroeger, the band’s co-founding bassist, recently shared his admiration for several landmark albums from the label’s 90s and early 2000s era on the ‘Meep Meep Podcast’. He spoke about his favorite records:
[Transcribed by ThePRP]
“The ‘Roots’ album by Sepultura, that song in particular on that album — ‘Roots Bloody Roots’ — Oh my god… You just want to run into a wall. But it was Ross Robinson-produced, so there’s that Ross Robinson kind of signature two rhythm guitars that kinda are very different, but when they come together, they just make this reinforced concrete, unreal sound. And the playing and all the performances are outrageous on that one.” “[Sepultura]’s ‘Beneath The Remains’ album is also huge for me.
‘Type O Negative’’s ‘Bloody Kisses’ is crazy. All the Slipknot records. All of them. All of them. I love all of those albums. I remember when I got the first record on the CD with the hole drilled through the barcode because it was a promo. And I remember the first time I listened to ‘Eyeless’ like ‘what in the fuck is this?’ Like ‘what in the fuck is this? I gotta know more about this.’ [They] turned out to become one of my favorite artists, still. I still just absolutely roar that shit. Fear Factory was massive for me.”
When podcast host Ryan Rainbro joked about a potential collaboration between Nickelback and Ross Robinson, the legendary nü-metal producer known for his work with Korn, Sepultura, and Slipknot, Kroeger revealed that the idea was something he had considered in the past. Kroeger also shared that he had hoped to collaborate with legendary rock and metal producer Terry Date (known for his work with Pantera, Soundgarden, and Deftones), but unfortunately, that never materialized.
Kroeger explained:
“Dude, it wasn’t… I didn’t not bring that up. It didn’t make it out the meeting. But the other one that I really, really wanted to work with was Terry Date. And he unfortunately passed, for whatever reason, maybe he doesn’t like our band, I don’t know. I never found out what the reason was. But it was just ‘no.’ Cause I love Ross Robinson and I love Terry Date. I think what Terry Date did with Pantera was nothing short of historic, and I would love our albums to sound even a little bit like that.”
Nickelback and Pantera had an enduring friendship, even collaborating with the late Dimebag Darrell Abbott on a cover of Elton John’s ‘Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)’. After Dimebag’s tragic death, Nickelback released ‘Side Of A Bullet’, a tribute featuring guitar parts originally laid down by Dimebag. When the topic of Dimebag’s fandom for Nickelback came up, Kroeger fondly recalled how both Dimebag and his brother, Vinnie Paul Abbott, were huge fans of the band:
“He was a huge fan. He was a big, big fan of my brother [Chad Kroeger, Nickelback vocalist/guitarist.] Big, big fan of my brother, both of those guys [Dimebag and his late brother, Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott.] Vinnie and Dime were both unapologetic fans too. I’m sure that there was more than a few times when some the metal standard-bearers were probably like, ‘What do you mean Nickelback? What are you talking them for? Who gives a fuck about those guys.’ And they loved it, and they loved us.
And they were unapologetic about a lot of their music that they liked. I remember riding in a limo with those guys from a gig in Dallas to the Clubhouse one time. And Vinnie was just like, if you could do backflips in a limo, he would be doing backflips in a limo for Christina Aguilera.
He was like, ‘Listen to this shit!’ And he would just crank this Aguilera stuff. Like, Ok, wow. What a Twilight Zone episode man. Like, I got one of the most influential metal drummers in the world, ever, playing me Christina Aguilera songs, on the way to a strip joint.”
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1 Comment
They need to be tariffed for spreading their bullshit in the states