And The Writer Is...with Ross Golan - Ep. 163: Nickelback

Episode Date: October 4, 2022

Today’s guests are a part of a globally celebrated, multi-platinum rock band and have cemented themselves as one of the most commercially viable and important acts of the past two decades. Their success includes worldwide sales of more than 50-million units, solidifying their status as one of the top-selling acts of all time and the second best-selling foreign act in the U.S., in the 2000’s decade, behind only The Beatles. Their inescapable and irresistible smash “How You Remind Me” was named Billboard’s ‘Top Rock Song of the Decade’. It was the number-one most played song on U.S. radio (any format) in the 2000’s decade according to Neilsen Soundscan, being spun over 1.2 million times. Their album All The Right Reasons was Diamond Certified (10-million copies sold) by the RIAA, in 2018, and has currently sold more than 13-million units in the U.S. and 19-million units worldwide. Amongst all these accolades, they’ve also been named Billboard’s “Top Rock Group of the Decade”, and they have received a staggering nine Grammy Award nominations, three American Music Awards, a World Music Award, a People’s Choice Award, twelve JUNO Awards, seven MuchMusic Video Awards, and have been inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame (2007). With more than 23 chart-topping singles and fans spanning the globe, they boast twelve consecutive sold-out world tours, playing to well over 10-million diehard and adoring fans. And The Writers Are… Chad Kroeger and Ryan Peake of Nickelback! Watercolor by: Michael Richey White Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to And The Writer Is with Ross Golan. There are millions of singers, thousands of artists, and only 40 songs per genre at a time. These are the stories of the hottest creatives, the most venerable legends, artists, songwriters, executives, and more. Come join our Discord, follow our socials, and share your music with the and The Writer is community. We'll see you all there and now. Here's this week's episode. Hey, what's up? It's Paige MacDonald, and this is your weekly music industry update. US recorded music revenues hit $7.7 billion in H1 of 2022, but Grove slowed compared to H1 in 2021.

Los Angeles-based manager Luke Mitzman of 100 Management and music entrepreneur Mike Karen of Artist Partner and Artist Publishing Group, have entered into a partnership focusing on music producers and entrepreneurs. Robert Kinkle has been appointed CEO of Warner Music Group, effective January 1st of 2023. Sony Music Entertainment's entire recorded music catalog has been pulled from Resso, which is TikTok's sister subscription platform. Cobal has agreed upon a fresh licensing agreement with META, the new deal struck to license 700,000 songs for Facebook. Influence Media Partners has made another multi-million dollar acquisition since

forming a $750 million fund with Black Rock and Warner Music Group. YouTube has launched a creator music licensing hub and a new revenue sharing model for shorts. The France-born Distribution and Services company Believe has made several new appointments in its Southeast Asia leadership team. The independent rock label Samarian Records has signed a long-term distribution agreement with Virgin Music label and artist services. Downtown Music Holdings has established a new division to manage its global services for artists and songwriters after months of making key hires across its business.

Bide Dance is offering to buyback up to $3 billion worth of shares from investors at $176.00. $17. According to multiple media outlets, which cited Bight Dance memo on Friday, September 16th. Tencent Music Entertainment Group has successfully been listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Warner Music, UK, has promoted Charlotte Sacks to SVP, Legal and Business Affairs, effective October 3rd. Millie Petriella is joining talent management company Milk and Honey. Universal Music Group has promoted Pete Simmons to head of A&R UK, effective immediately. A big thank you to Haley Evans of Megahouse for gathering today's news.

Now tune in next week for a new episode of And The Writer Is. Welcome to And The Writer Is. I'm your host, Ross Golan. Today's rock stars are the founding members of what Billboard magazine called the most successful rock band of the 2000s. Amassing hits for over two decades, their band has sold over 50 million albums worldwide and over 4.7 billion streams. By the time we're done on this podcast, it's probably like 4.701. But it's like a lot of streams. They've topped every kind of radio format sold out world tours in the biggest of venues

and have been nominated and received every music award you can name. They're the band everyone loves to love, loves to hate, and loves to love again and again and again. All the way from British Columbia by way of Alberta, these guys just dropped their first single in five years. And the writer is our Chad Kroger and Ryan Peake of Nickelback. How's it going? man. Hey, guys. Hey, thanks for having us.

Thanks for having us all the way from here. Yeah. Okay, so, I mean, like, you guys, obviously, you know, you guys, it started this band in a very small town, and it's always amazing when you think of hot spots for music. I don't know that I would think of Alberta as, like, a major hot spot. but apparently you guys came, you know, from, like, the smallest towns of a, you know, you guys are now in Vancouver, but you weren't when you started. So let's just talk about you guys were, you know, you guys were born, not together, but, you know, you guys were born.

That's very true. Tell me about your child. You're nailing this so far. So far, so good. You're nailing about your child. You know, Alberta's a hotbed for hockey players, not musicians. Maybe, I don't know. Maybe.

True. I think. Are there other musicians out of Alberta that we all know? Katie Lang? Is she from there? Katie Lang is from Consort. Consort Alberta. Let me think.

Why, how does, I guess let's start really though from the beginning. Because Chad, I know your brother was part of the original lineup and all this stuff. Feist. How do you guys, that's a good one. We're going to keep him off here. I'm just going to keep rattling them up here. rattling them up very slowly which

you know you got tell me about your childhood how does how does literally how does somebody go from the middle of what I think of the middle of nowhere somewhere very cold somewhere that doesn't have you know

it's not like all the bands are touring through your hometown you know what is your childhood like who's introducing you guys to music Chad you go first tell me about your childhood a little bit um well I started off as a... I loved getting into trouble.

I loved just being a little deviant. And I think the first time I grabbed a guitar, it was a great outlet. I got all that negative stuff. Like any time I wanted to grab a can of spray paint or start making smoke bombs in my fort in my backyard or any of that stuff, it was like, as soon as I got my hands on a guitar, I was like, ah, this is...

This is a great place to channel all of this. This negative behavior, bad behavior. Where was that coming from? Where is that negative behavior coming from? Oh, hot blood. Long line of, genetic? Long line of troublemakers. The dad's a wild man.

Is it really your parents, was your childhood sort of, did it enable that kind of activity? Like, how does a kid become... a bad kid in the middle of nowhere? Genetics. Let's dig deeper. Let's scratch more than the service here, Chad. My dad is a barfighter with a criminal record as long as my leg

because he loves to fight and he's really good at it. And so I think I'd come by it very honestly. But it's not like he was even around when I was growing up. My dad, my mom and dad split up when I was two. and my dad only kind of really re-entered my life once I was probably like a teenager like 13 I think old enough to go hang out with him but then once once I got the guitar all of that energy went towards that and it's funny you you and Mike were so so different but you guys like music you guys locked in for sure together I imagine.

Yeah, it's weird though. Like, Mike would, once Mike started, because I think I was already playing the guitar for about two years before Mike decided to pick up the bass. And it's funny because we'll do a lot of interviews and people are like, oh, so you guys must have just jammed together all the time. Mike and I never jammed together.

Like I'd be in my room practicing whatever I wanted to practice, and Mike'd be across the hall, you know, and his bass amp would be, you know, roaring over there, and he'd be practicing whatever he wanted to practice. And we never put. our amps in the same room. Like the first time I think we put our amps in the same room was at a rehearsal.

Like it was in a garage when we were getting ready to start learning 55 tunes, I think, to go on the road with you, Pek. That's right. Yeah, I didn't play these guys for a long time either. How did you end up in a house with somebody who's playing bass and you guys didn't,

did you guys listen to music together? I mean, it's just, how did you guys not put that together? Like, hey, we should play together. Did you guys not get along? I have no idea. There's two years difference in those guys, too. And at that age, I'm just guessing your chat, because I mean, I had a brother that was a year older than me.

But there's enough separation there that's like, I didn't hang around my brother. Didn't matter what we did necessarily in two years. Yeah, I think that was probably more of it too. Like Mike had his friends and I had my friends. And we didn't co-mingle a ton until we were like, until I got out of high school. The second I got out of high school,

we were all on the road together. Like, the day that I was out of high school. We went and got a booking agent. We convinced you to drop out of college peak. Yeah, it was going that way anyway, I think. Idiot. It wasn't satisfied, you know, intellectually enough, so I had to dumb it down.

What were you majoring in? volleyball? Philosophy, I think. I was going to get that real good gig teaching philosophy. Where were you going to school? What's that? Where were you going to school?

I did two years at Red Deer College, the renowned Red Deer College in Alberta. Basically, I meant that I just, I had no idea what the hell I wanted to do. I went there for, I did well for a couple of years and just literally just did general studies for both to see where I could apply it.

If things were going to work out and then by the second year, I'm like, yeah, no. I think grades are fine, but I was like, I just wasn't into it. And you just, it's just weird. It's a weird trajectory. At that snapshot in time, all my friends were working on the oil rigs or working somehow in the welding industry, pipe fitter rigs.

And just, and they were making a living like that. They were just killing it. And I'd finished college, and I'm like, I still had no idea what the hell I wanted to do. And so, I mean, serendipity kind of kicked in when, you know, Chad was ready out of high school. I was like, let's get out of here. And I'm like, yeah, let's play some music. Like, that's everybody, we all kind of gravitated that way, but that was the fun.

I was sick of no fun. And it was like, how did you guys know each other before college? I mean, Chad, for you to be like, hey, you should come with me. And Ryan, for you to be like, yeah, I just, I'm going to leave school and join a kid who just graduated high school. I imagine, Ryan, your parents... Pana is 2,900 people. Crazy. So in a town of 2,900 people, like the day I got my guitar,

and I tell this story all the time, the day I got my guitar, and Ryan, you're... Are you a year and a half older than I am? Yeah, about that. And Scott, who wound up being our... The singer in the cover band was two years older, maybe a little more than two years older than me. And the day I got my guitar, there's a knock on my door.

Like, I had this guitar for a matter. matter of hours. Here this knock on the door and there's Ryan and there's Scott. And they're like, hey, we heard you got a guitar. I'm like, yeah. Can we come in and check it out? I'm like, yeah, of course. This is all Scott, by the way. You can't say no to older kids because I was, I think I was 14.

So you would have been 16, so I think you drove over to my house. I would have had to skateboard over to yours. And there there were questions. So, what can you play. I'm like, I've had this guitar for 24 hours. And I think I could play, I'm like, well, I can, I can rock some power chords. You're like, okay. And I can kind of play a little bit of crazy train, I think, because I'd learned some, some guy had taught me on his guitar, and that's what got me into wanting to play the guitar. And they're like, can you solo? Can I solo? I mean, I can bend the strings.

Yeah. And they're like, can you finger tap? No. No, I cannot. Like, okay. All right, cool guitar man. And then they just fuck it up,

walked out. Yeah, we're like the local music bullies. We just want to come and bully anybody to get a chance to. Pretty much. What do you got? Pretty much. Show me what you got over there. What are you got over there?

We'll call you after the majors in a year. See in a couple years. When you said the cover band, I mean, I think, you know, I'm from the Midwest, which is not Alberta, but it is a place where the cool, the bands that would write

their own stuff were not like headlining about all the bands in my high school. Like, you had to do covers. Like, everyone loved the cover bands. What kind of music was your cover band? A lot of Canadian.

Yeah. That's it, too. You're right, though. We did all do covers. Like, the original thing wasn't a real thing. Like, if you were in the city, I think there was an availability to play gigs. And it was in your brain that, well, we can do originals. We should do originals.

We're in the country. We're two hours from the nearest city. We're like, it's got to be covers. Yeah, and we did a lot of Canadian stuff, lots of tragically hip. We did a whole set of tragically hip, like 10 songs of that, of course. Yeah.

And I don't know. Like, what else? Like we had, like, college bands, like the odds from Canada. I don't know if anybody's going to know. We were like super familiar with the odds, from out here, actually. They were very popular, the Doe Boys.

Everybody that was kind of like on the college circuit in Canada was who we thought was just the coolest because we wanted to be on the college. So we just thought, remember that peak? Oh, yeah. We were just like, oh, if we could make it to the college circuit. We got it made, man. We got it made.

Watchmen, we played a lot of the Watchmen. That's right, too. Yeah, there were a lot of popular bands in the college circuit that we were trying to emulate. But like I said, if you wanted to get some experience, you had to play cover tunes to, you know, play the bars. When were you actually writing songs? When was the first time you were like,

you know, I'm sick of learning this odds song or tragically hip record. I'm going to start something by myself. Chad, did you wrote that one before? Sorry, what was that? Chad, you wrote by yourself, you know, without anybody in the room first, right? Yeah.

When did you write that first one? That was before we went in the road, wasn't it? And then we went and did stuff. You did one. Yeah, that very first tune I wrote when I was 16, but I didn't write anything else that I just kind of had that little thing kicking around for... What was it? He just had that little thing kicking around, just whatever. It's actually a really good song.

It's a really good song. We'll probably have to record it one of these days. As a matter of fact, that's the one kind of touchstone for me when I heard him play it. I think you guys played it at, or you played it at the high school or something. I think we did it on stage there. Maybe that was after the fact. I thought we did. I'd heard him play it.

And that is funny. It's like, like I was just, I was just into playing cover tunes. I don't, I didn't have the, um, the songwriter kind of mentality back then,

really at all. Whereas he just had this outlet that just kind of went, blah, and dropped this out. And I could hear it. And I, I could kind of gravitate to certain songs. You could tell by the lyrics

and how he put it together. Like, I mean, this guy kind of knows what he's doing. This is his first try? I think he kind of knows what he's doing. Like, no, seriously. You can kind of tell.

And I then just, then nothing after the fact. which actually led me to that that's why I was like he's like I got a few songs I want to record in Vancouver when we finally decided to put together our EP I was like yeah I think I'm I think this is worth it for sure for studio experience but I have a feeling this guy he's got a beat on what he's doing is kind of my vibe so

I mean this is way before Roadrunner days right I mean this is like this way before that so when you say your EP, you guys obviously had tour done a bunch of these covers, Chaz got this one song, he's like, okay, I got some ideas, and he's playing you these records, and, you know, you guys are only comparing to the songs you're covering, I would assume. It's not like you guys were doing random sessions or were used to other bands like that you're, you know, like you were saying earlier, your peers. You weren't necessarily like analyzing their compositional skills.

You were just sort of like, this guy's songs are pretty good. Like, how do you get into a studio in Vancouver? Whose studio was it? And was someone paying for it? Or were you guys, like, was it the touring money? How did you actually pay for that first recording? I borrowed some money. From who?

My stepdad. It's funny because I was released from police custody. and why were you in police custody it doesn't matter yeah statute of limitations gone I think I don't even care

if the statute of limitations around it on that one I got off on that one so I'm not just leave it alone yeah but anyway um had to do with stealing some crap anyway so

I just was like once I got up I was like I need to do something with my life this is just because I'm just heading straight down, you know, I'm heading straight for prison is where I'm going if I don't get out of this damn town. And I called him up and I had a business plan. It was just all bullshit. And I said, hey, I've got these songs. And the guys, and Mike, Mike was already in Vancouver

playing in a metal band called the Black Dogs of Depression. It's a lot of, that's a lot of, sunshine over there, that one. And Mike would play in his underwriting. And Mike would play in his underwomen. which I thought was interesting. But I called them up and I said, hey, I've got this idea and I've already spoken to a studio in Vancouver, which I hadn't. And I said, if you lend me $4,000, we can go to Vancouver, record an EP, press 1,000 copies, sell them each for $10 to all of our friends,

and in six months, I'll pay you back $5,000. And he said, okay, the money will be in your account tomorrow. And I was like, why don't I just do that instead of trying to steal shit? And so talking people over the money is way easier than actually taking it. Yeah. I had had zero success with talking people out of their money up until that point, though. So I remember seeing you at, remember at the gas station peak? I rolled up, you were in that blue car and you cut all your hair off.

and you were just full fucking Tom Cruise. And I was like, God damn, and I think you'd just broken up with Trina. And you were like, hey, are we still going to Vancouver? I'm like, yeah. He's like, let's go tomorrow. And I'm like, fucking rights, let's do this. I said, I just bought $4,000.

And you're like, fuck, I'm good. Let's go. So we packed up and headed out west. Where did you stay in Vancouver while you were recording? I slept on Mike's floor. And who was, who produced the album? You guys did, right? Or the engineer,

or sort of was that kind of studio where you had the engineer doing, right? It was pretty much just us, but there was a guy named Jeff Boyd who worked at the studio, who I had contacted. And I think he got us in there. How much did it cost to record?

Was it $1,700 and we got two days? Something like that, yeah. And we recorded and mixed seven songs, damn near live off the floor in 48 hours. And then we had to go master it. And we mastered it with that guy named Cordlord from the rubber room. It was Cord. I thought it was Al.

No, Cordlord. I have no idea how he acquired that nickname. And then we went home. And then I had enough money left for us to press 1,000 CDs. But I went to Calgary and I bought a pound of magic mushrooms. and I took her back to Hannah and tried to make money. There it is. Yeah, but then I made a ton of money, and I spent all the profits.

On more firms? Business plan out the window. What was next? Yes. So you guys press those albums. Is that curb? Which album are? When are we right now?

This is a little demo called Hesha. sure. Did we press them in 96, I think. We recorded it in the summer of 95. We didn't even have a band name. We didn't have a band name. We didn't have, we must have press some if we'd get it to the radio station or just had a couple of one-offs around Christmas time

and they got it to the radio station. They got us a gig in Vancouver in the middle of January. And that's when we decided, let's do this. It was the start of January and we played the town pump and we opened up for a band called Rust or Rusty. Rusty's different. That's another Canadian band. Not from Alberta.

And did you guys, did you end up selling all 1,000? I don't think we, I think we had to repress a few times. Yeah, I think we did a couple of pressings. You're right. I think we have some left over. Because back then you could go to Canadian record stores like HMV and Sam the Record Man and A&B Sound and all those places. and they would take your independent stuff on consignment.

And so then what happened was we started realizing that if somebody sends all these CDs to radio stations across the country and then calls them and tries to get radio play, then all we have to do is go and tour there and take our CDs to the local record stores and put our first little EP in there. And we just, I mean, we did that for, so that was, so we did that with Hesher, then we did that with Kerb, and then we got really successful with the state,

and we got a song, and, like, I was, like, telemarketing at the time, so I had no problem picking up the phone and calling strangers. That was not tough for me at all. And I had a pretty good spiel. and I just wouldn't tell it was me I'd just say I was someone from the Nickelback camp calling

and had they had a chance to listen to our song yet and if they wanted I would fax them that's how long ago this was I would fax them playlists from other radio stations that had already added the song and so what I would do is I would take whatever chart position we were in and I would just move us up the chart position

and then I like literally just cut and fucking paste this onto another piece of paper and I would move our chart position and then I would fax all these things to all these radio stations and it helped us get ads and then we would go on tour and then we would fill all these stores with as much product as we possibly could and before we knew it we'd sold 10,000 copies we were we broke top 20 by ourselves independently we were 19 in Canada and still we were just astonished at how little all of these people who work in record companies who are supposed to know what they're doing. If you remember that peak, you'd look down that magazine.

I can't remember which one it was. But every single band had a label beside it. Label. They were signed to Universal. They were signed to A&M. They were signed to Virgin or whatever it was back in the day. And then beside us, it just said, Nickelback, slash. No record company.

And it was like, but it's not like they had seen us and passed. Like, no one was even calling. Like, we were just blown away. We got top 20 on our own. And then when we finally got some attention, it was from the U.S. And then all the Canadian vultures started swooping in. And we were like, not really interested.

Like you guys weren't even paying attention. You had no idea who we were or what was going on. And now that America's interested in us, now you're interested. And so we just went straight to America and signed a deal with Roadrunner. What's weird is like for misfits, this is why the music industry is so good,

is that you can tell people whatever you want. You can actually walk in and be like, I'm a bassist. And people are like, okay. All you have to do is own a guitar. And literally people in your own town who knew you bought the guitar the day before are like, can you solo?

Like, no. I mean, yes, I can. Totally. I mean, you can say whatever you want. I did the same thing. I used to call record labels when there used to be this thing called Yellow Pages of Rock and they would have everybody's information from all the record labels and I knew somebody who worked in a label

who gave me the 1997 one and this was 1998 so he had an updated one so he's like you can have the old one and I was calling heads of record labels not even caring because I didn't What are they going to do? And I used to say I'm fuck yourself

I said I'm Mike I'm Mike Thompson who is was my roommate at the time. I said, I'm Mike Thompson. I work with this kid, Ross. You got to hear him. And every once in a while, some assistant would be like, well, yeah, I mean, sure, come by the, you have my number. I mean, come by. And I would go to these offices and I was terribly nervous because I was like, I just lied my way into this thing with like a homemade press, you know, did you go there as Mike or as Ross? I would go as Ross. I would never tell them. Mike was, I mean, Mike and I are still friends now, but like that guy doesn't have anything.

to the music industry. He was literally standing next to me and I just... Did they say that... That's what I... Jeez, I sound a lot like Mike. You sound a lot like Mike on the phone. This is Mike. Dude, I'm telling you, man,

like you can say whatever you want in the music business and eventually people are like, okay. I mean, one of the weird things about streaming is like it's really easy to track how you know, your chart position. It's a little harder now than when you could fax and literally cut and paste and move your chart position.

but it worked obviously with Roadrunner, which is a good-sized label. In late 90s, that was a massively hot label. Were you meeting with a lot of labels? Because that's not, it's not universal. It's not Electra. It's a smaller, but a hot label. Why did you choose Roadrunner?

Well, we went, RCA was interested. and RCA said we want to sign you but we're not interested in this record we think that you guys are getting better and better and better because we've heard your previous we've gone back now and listened to your previous stuff but we're not interested in this record but we think that what you guys have coming is probably going to be great

which turned into how you remind me and Silver Side Up but we were really bummed out because we'd spent so much money and we were already like I think the cumulative debt was probably north of 40K for all the stuff and we really needed to pay people back

and we thought there was something good like in hindsight probably should have just I mean obviously things all worked out the way they worked out and everything worked great

but if If I didn't know that now, and I was standing behind the younger me, I'd be like, take the deal, you fucking idiot, take the deal. Really? Why? Why was that a better deal? In retrospect, even, why was that a better deal? Because we went out and we worked a record that didn't even have a solid single on it, and we toured it for 14 months.

And obviously there wasn't a hit on that record, because if there was a hit on that record, it would have come to fruition at radio and sales and what have you. obviously it didn't and you know if you listen to the record it's an indie record made by a bunch of guys that are just kind of figuring out what they're doing well to be fair though leader of men went top 10 it went to number six in uh in the states and uh actually made some noise i i think it was good i mean i think it was a good opportunity for us like i know what he's saying but um we didn't come out of the gates boom and just like people are saying well look at this you know this overnight

success, it was not an overnight success. And this was part of it. Because we went out and did the work. You're talking about that yellow pages of music in 98 that you were using? I would have killed to get my hands on that. Yeah, exactly. So these guys, Chad was doing, you know, radio and stuff,

and I'm out soliciting the label, and I've got all these packages. I'm sending it to all the information that our lawyer had, our music lawyer had it. He was busy in a lawsuit going to court every day in those ridiculous gowns you wear. and he's like, I don't have time for it. Here, here, he just gives me a list.

And so I just sent it out to everybody. And the reason I'm going back is because it's like, I found it interesting because nobody was really interested in the band. There was a guy in a publishing company named Jan Seedman who sent the album to somebody from Roadrunner who heard it and said, oh, let's have a meeting. And then RCA, yes, they wanted a meeting as well. Roadrunner flew us out.

Like I said, it was basically the only guys that were even interested in us. And RCA obviously was like just hovering, tertiarily hovering around us. They didn't really want to commit. So Roadrunner paid for our tickets, which we didn't tell them at the time that we flew out to see roadrunner.

And then we ran around town going, we snuck a little meeting. We got a deal. Anybody else? So we go to RCA. Yeah. So, I mean, that's you do it. You're doing the best we can.

So we go to RCA and it's like the building that Elvis built. It's like this huge chrome building, right? That's where we had the meeting and Chats, right. The guy said, we'll do a development deal. I don't think you guys are ready. All right, great. We leave there. A little dejected, but just kind of felt weird. Go to Roadrunner.

It's one floor in a modest building and everybody's jammed in to little cubicles everywhere and they're all like metal heads. And we're like what are we doing here? Do you remember this? They brought us into the boardroom and they didn't even have, there was

like four chairs from here and three chairs from over there. Yeah. They didn't even have all the same chairs in the boardroom. We're kind of looking at that. And so it was like holes in like shit. And we were just kind of like, this is gritty. Yeah. But they were just so passionate.

They're like, if you sign with us, we will kill and or die for you to make sure that we do everything to push your career as far as we possibly can. I believe them. Yeah, and we all believe it because there was the, like, the passion was there. Remember the radio guy at the time? His name was Joe, something, and he got, he got a song called Anal Cunt, played on, by the band, you mean? Or was it by the band? That's the band's name.

Yeah. And they were all, they just thought that this guy was a god because they said, if this guy can get anal cunt played on the radio, he can get anybody. I think they're pronounced AC. Is that right? Yeah. So once we sign. there, I don't even think that he worked any of our stuff at all, because immediately what

happened was the head of our label, Case Wessels, said, okay, if we're going to spend as much money as I think we're going to spend breaking this band, we're going to need, like, a real radio department. So he had hunted RCA's entire radio department. So, Dave Lonko. Dave, Dave Longko, the head of the department who broke tons of bands from, like, Dave Matthews to Eve 6 to everybody else at that time. Like he had like, and also used to manage, he used to manage John Cougar Mellon Camp. And like, so he brought his whole team with him.

And so they became all of our regional people. And once that was happening, we were like, okay, like they're revamping the entire label around us. So it felt like we were going to get a real solid push. Now, also in hindsight, had we signed with any of these other bands, after we sold the amount of records we sold on our first one, I think we would have got dropped. But Roadrunner didn't even think like that at all.

They were just like, nope, we got off the road 14 months straight, and they said, you've got five weeks to go in and make your next record, and then you're going, we already had the whole next tour booked. But once Silver Side Up came out, and once How You Remind Me hit, suddenly all those tour dates disappeared and now it just turned into like i remember the first day we showed up to the the coliseum in vancouver and there was all these trucks and buses and i was just like what's all this and who's that and who's that and it's like well that's your new security guy he goes

with you everywhere you go uh that's your pyro crew there's the sound guys there's the lighting department over there and like i couldn't believe that level that jump just going from one bus and there was 12 of us on there I think like the band, roadies front of house tour manager to all of a sudden I'm like

where are we going there like the whole world dude you just sold out an entire arena tour with how you remind me but I was like this is gonna be awesome were you familiar with Roadrunner like like obviously did you solicit a Roadrunner oh me

Yeah, or Mike. Oh. Did Mike solicit to Roadrunner? Your roommate? Your alter ego. Oh, Mike Thompson. I thought you were talking about. Sorry, I tried to get a little joke there.

No, no, I got it. No, no, it's fine. No, it's weird because Roadrunner is, I was, my fraternity, I was in a fraternity with the guys from Eve 6. So this is the same sort of era that you're talking about. Sure. Oh, wow. And it's like, you know, and it was a, it was a time where bands were actually

bands and and like you you could have a song break like inside out you could have some of those songs that just somehow break and or at least that was the appearance i mean granted that they without getting into eve six like there's there's no question that that that era was a time where major labels were looking for bands which you know 10 years after that no bands were getting signed and none of them could break, you know? Yeah, yeah. One of my questions was two things. One was a comment when you said like you would have done it differently potentially,

man, if you can get a label small, big or whatever that will literally say like we will die for you and they will hire radio departments, that's the label you should be with, period. I don't care if there are RCA or if there's no way in retrospect that there's that RCA, that there's that RCA and I like RCA is a great label they would not have done they would not have

stuck through that first album no matter how much especially in a development deal you guys made all the right choices by following people who are passionate and not by people who have access so like they made access that's exactly what I was kind of getting

at is that if you people were fans of Roadrunner sometimes more than just the band's right yeah the label had a fan yeah the label The label had a fan base. So that was what was new for us. Because I remember growing up with like Metal Blade records and Bonzai records, you know, some old...

Metal Blade records. I remember, oh, if it was Metal Blade or Bonzai, it's got to be good. For me, like, listening to Metal and like, it's got to be good. I would buy an album just for the label. So Roadrunner was like that. And to what Chad was saying, like, you know, we didn't shoot the lights out with the state

when we got released. And when we signed that deal with them, and they took that as their first album option. but we were being cut loose by a major immediately. But in the eyes of a metal label, having metal bands to slug it out every day on the road, barely sell albums because they don't get any radio play. They're like, you know, hey, it's pretty good guys.

Yeah, we'll try this again. Like, they're willing to put it in. Yes, they spent more money on us as a radio campaign on top of the tour support, but they were seeing something happening. And I just love the fact that they were like, A, we see the building happening, but B was like, guys, we need all that money back.

You know the money we spent on you guys? We actually need it back, so you guys got to go back to work. That was kind of the feeling. But it was a really weird. It was a weird place to be because there was just some weirdness going on with metal bands. And, you know, we're a rock band. You know how metal bands typically say bands

of lesser heaviness than them. It's like there's that vibe, right? but it was the absolute best place for us to be because it was that vibe when you went into the people working there the actual, not the bands, but the people working there, they were like, they would kill for you. And they did, they absolutely just went above and beyond. 2001's a weird year because it's, you know,

it starts to become, you know, that second and third album of, like, Brittany and Backstreet and that kind of thing. Like, you end up with, like, the pop scene is really strong. You have Kelly Clarkson breaking out. Then you also have like these like, you know, Lincoln Parks and, and, and, and, Biscuits also sort of at the same time.

And it's, it's kind of this no man's land of like, I'm not sure how you would describe the year 2001 musically. And then... I don't know. I guess that's the thing. It's like, in the early 1990s, you have all these different bands. but there was a very is very clearly

grunge and is very easily genreized. I don't know what that. Sure. Whatever. But what, when you guys come out with how you remind me, are you a,

are you a rock band? Like in your, like when you're on a label with a lot of heavy metal people, what you guys, I've listened to the album. There are harder songs than that on there. But how did you, how would you have described?

your own music at the time. Rock music? For me, there's no question. Yeah, we're a rock band. I mean, there's lighter bands that call themselves rock bands, I think, and I know, like you say, you listen to the rest of the album,

you can hear the rock, but it's like, that's... When you get judged by one song, like, if you listen to the beginning of... Or if you listen to, like, you know, one of Metallica's lighter songs or instrumentals, what kind of band is this? Well, you can't quite do that. Sugar Ray Fly was like

that's their biggest song on that album and the rest of the album is not that, you know? It's like there's maybe there's a reason why singles are singles. That song though becomes so big and like Chad what you were saying like you show up to an arena and you see

buses. You're seeing all that stuff before any of the money shows up. You're seeing all like you're seeing like the, it's like there's this lead time where you get you already know the tour you're about to go on, you're hearing your song fucking everywhere. The song's skyrocketing. It stays up

at the top of the charts. You're selling all these albums but it's not like the money's showing up yet. It takes 18 months. You know, you still have to recoup things, you have to do all this stuff. What's it like going from being a... Not once you play live. You get that money at the end of the night. Okay, that's fair.

Arenas don't settle in 18 months. Arena's settled at the end of the night. That's cool. I mean, that's a huge... difference for you guys though you guys had gone from that grind of like you know since you guys were since you just picked bought your guitar to basically that moment you know there's a huge difference between what you're talking about where you go from you know the state to silver side up that's a huge huge huge huge huge difference that's like that's i'm an aspiring rock star to being a rock star

everything changes how did you guys mentally co-operate? How did you guys mentally co-operate? with that? Did you mentally cope with it? Oh, it was just smiles. Yeah. It was just, we were just having, like, I was just partying every night after every single show. But, like,

it's not like, it's not like we went from our bedrooms to arenas. And we went from bedrooms to clubs, like everybody does. And then we went from clubs to larger venues. And then we went from larger venues to, like, theaters, you know, and then we, like, so we were already,

we could independently in Canada before we signed a record deal we could easily pay for a tour bus you know like go from gig to gig to gig to gig and like so we definitely weren't going to sign a record deal in the U.S. and then jumped back in a van

so we weren't doing that so we had definitely like we paid our dues we had it climbed the ladder and so it wasn't that much of a culture shock but it was weird the fame thing was weird like suddenly

every restaurant you go anywhere in the world people are pointing going oh shit that's the guy from and then like every club you go to and just everywhere

you go every plane you sit on it's just like all of a sudden because your face is just everywhere it's just everywhere you know like every

and that's back when you know video station's played videos, you know, and then you go to Australia, you go to the UK, you go to Germany, and people are just like, hey, that's the dude from, you know, and so that, that was weird, having to go from kind of being, I can't even say famous, I was going to see famous, like, mildly famous in our own town, but not even, not even that, really. Being, being, being known in your own hometown, or even maybe just a couple cities in Canada to, like, globally,

recognizable is that's weird it is it's it's a little hard on the head yeah we we did like thinking back we did a lot of I mean I don't know how many it was only I guess it was five years from release

of us when we started playing to when how you remind me hit and then the tour came probably about five six months after that we played everywhere in Canada and there's a lot of driving and there's a lot of there's learning curves everywhere from playing to like places that know you to places that don't know you to places that don't want you,

which is a whole other thing, which we've had some of those, which is like, all right, like, please. Yeah, but we love those stories. Oh, for sure. And that's part of it. I think you're talking about like it wasn't quite the culture shock in that sense. Chad's right, I think, with the familiarity and the fame part that comes with it is probably the hardest thing to manage however you. you can manage it. But as far as like playing, we couldn't wait to get out of clubs.

We were playing clubs forever. We were playing bigger clubs in Canada, then went down in the States and just shrunk back to smaller clubs, opened for three doors down for a while when their song was just starting to take off. So we started back down the bottom there, you know, opening it for a 400 seat club. Until like by the end of that tour, they were playing, you know, some pretty solid five to 8,000 seat venues. and we were opening at that point.

And then how you remind me popped off and we were like, you know, we're ready for this. Especially in the sense where we just going to, we were like, let's bring the show. Let's keep investing in the show. Like we've got, we've cut our teeth playing live. We've got this. I feel like it.

Let's bring some fun stuff. Let's bring some stuff that's going to make this show really great. And so you kind of put your nose to the grindstone and you just do it. And how your remind me comes out and it's doing what it's doing, but we're still just preparing for this tour, getting ready to do what we do.

That was the work part of it. The play part of it, yeah, Chad liked to party after the gigs and, you know, soak up that part of the experience. Just me. Chad was the only guy that did that. He partied for everybody. What a crock of shit. Yeah, well, it's what it is.

But it's weird when you're, you know, the, no offense around, but the rest of the band, in any rock band. offense to whatever you're about to say. Go ahead. As you should. When you say no preemptive, you're preemptively offended. There's some anonymity attached

to not being the lead singer where that person doesn't have to not to mention that like if you're not the lead singer you can drink all you want and you don't have to worry about your voice because like... That's not true. What are you talking about?

I sing every song. Well, you sing back. I guess you When I sing what? Backups? Backups, I'm still singing. That's true. Did you ever worry about losing your voice? Constantly. I have the same terrifying dreams that Chad has about going up on stage and something's not working or you try to sing something and you forget the words or it's like, oh yeah. But that's the thing. From my part of it, I do low harmonies, high harmonies. I dig around. Chad does obviously the heavy lifting when it comes to like singing every word of every song. But it's like we, that's my biggest fear.

Losing my voice on the road constantly. Doesn't go away. Do you think trying to pay roadies 400 euros to swallow golf ball sized lumps of wasabi? That's good for your vocal cords. And after getting no takers doing it yourself is good for your vocal cords? Now, that was a course I learned from Mr. Miyagi, I believe. Here's something about that. Wasabia on?

I don't know. What did you guys? You guys are a bunch of pussies. Fuck I'll do it for free. Goop. Oh, dude, I don't know if you should have done that. Lots of tears. Those are the days, man.

Those are the days. You know, you guys, obviously, you end up being worldwide known and you're playing arenas everywhere. You guys manage to repeat the success and most bands don't. Did you feel pressure along the way to, repeat the success or was it sort of keeping your head down like oh yeah we're just writing a second album and why why were you guys able to repeat the success when it seems like every other band struggles with that uh i think the the pressure we felt was all internal and and also self-applied

um because we were also very aware of the statement that you just made, that the world's got more one-hit wonders than it does, you know, lifetime sort of achievers. We didn't, we'd much rather be the latter. So I think that we just put a lot of effort in, truly. Have you met musicians?

We're all incredibly lazy. Then the reason we become musicians in the first place, is so we don't have to go get a nine to five job. Now, if you're just going to be honest, be honest. It's like, yeah, it's true. Now, you take a group of four of them who are typically incredibly lazy and try to get, like, I've produced lots of other bands, and I've sat in the room with them watching this happen. You, like, you get 10 minutes of creativity, and then everybody just wanders off and it's like,

oh, we're good for the day. And I'm like, what are you guys doing? Like, what? Like, we have another solid 14 hours of work we need to do today. You know, and they're just like, no, let's go play Frisbee. And so that doesn't surprise me that most bands, you know, they don't achieve the, you know, the continued success because just get in the room with them. And, like, for the most part, it's, like, hurting cats.

Yeah. And the people that sustain and have longevity, those are the ones that put. put in the really hard work and the long hours. And it pays off. Well, that end, I mean, I want to say good songs, but I know that that's subjective. But that's kind of it, like songs that connect, I guess. And that's kind of what we did is that, you know,

we went back in the studio going, yeah, the pressure's on ourselves to do something better. It always is. It just, you want to just make better songs anyway. The label really wants you to up. re-up your last project, of course. But we were like, you know, Silver Side Up wasn't her first album.

So it's not like, they're like, hey, your first one's always the easiest to get. It's the next one you gotta follow up, that's tougher. Like they say that about every album. That is a saying too, like a lot of people say, if you get success with your first record, a lot of people say, well, you've had your entire life

to write that first one, now you've got two years to come up with the second one. Yeah. And that's not even too, like that's including the tour. So you do the massive tour and you better put out another record maybe a year and a half even. But yeah, to what Ryan was saying,

that was our third attempt in the studio. But then they also said, okay guys, well, the next record probably isn't going to do that well and they're trying to prepare us for failure. So we're probably going to slide down and it actually did.

You know, the singles off the next record were someday and figured you out. And the record probably sold three. It probably went three times platinum in the U.S. I'm not sure what it's done to date, but they're like, well, there you go. It didn't sell as much as the last one, so it's a failure. And they were just like, so the next one's going to,

and then I just wasn't buying, I wasn't buying that. And then we went in and we did all the right reasons, which is I think 22, $22 million worldwide, something like that. So I just wasn't willing to buy it. into that hole. Okay, so this is the trajectory we're on, so we definitely have to just prepare for, you know, we're heading back to clubs, boys. I'm like,

no, no, we're not. Let's put in some work here. It's a good lesson, though. You know, I'm always more interested in what happens besides the successes because, you know, like, every interview you have, people are going to ask about all the hits, and what's way more interesting is the ability

after the second album, when your own label's, like, you know, like, that wasn't as big as you last one, the next one, you know, you should go back in, but like, it's going, this is the trajectory, and you're going, you're going downhill, so just prepare for that. Like, that is, that is usually the trajectory. And, and so to, to have an album that's the biggest of the albums being the, after what should have been the biggest album, is very, very unusual. Did it come as a shock to you, Even though you had your own sort of probably ego driving it,

just, I mean, there's no way you thought you were going to top how you remind me. And then you have, you know, three like songs on the next album that are all just massive. You know, did that surprise you at all? Or were you sort of like, no, this is, this is what I, this is my, these were my expectations. This is our opus, essentially. No, I know what you're saying. My perspective on that album is that we put a lot of time in that album And it was a lot there was a lot of

Stuff going on that album Well we were in the we were in the studio like it's seven months of nickel back in a sense What's that wasn't it seven months to make that record? Yeah, it was a long time of pushing and pulling and twisting and and just like Really analyzing certain songs of how it was coming out and then other some songs just came together like so fast like we had we had we had um we tell the story but we had on the on the board we had bib boop boop boodied up we had that song up for the whole time animals yeah yeah that's we renamed it animals it was really long so we just called animals but that was just the riff we had and then we were like at the very end of recording nearing the

very end of recording we're going oh god we need we need this lot last song and so chad took that one took the music down into the car and just wrote the lyrics in a little over an hour came back in, sang them, boom, animals, boom, done. So some songs, like saving me, it was like three to four weeks of like really figuring out what the hell is working with that, what's not working and changing this.

That was worth it. It was worth it, but it was long. Because sometimes they just don't come right away, but you also don't want to give up on stuff that you, like that's part of what I've enjoyed over the years is that in general, Chad and I usually are pretty good, like, this is going to work.

This part doesn't work, but this does work. So you kind of, you got to be honest about these parts. And a lot of times when it was Chad, when we were coming up with stuff, something didn't work. I remember telling him and saving me. I said, this pre-course part, it just doesn't feel right. It just doesn't.

And he was kind of, wow, because I just, I thought it was okay. And, but then he was just kind of, and then next more, He was kind of mad? Was that a good impression of you? I thought it was pretty close. I'm a 70-year-old...

You're a grumpy character for Mary Poppins, I think. I'll go do this. Anyway, next morning he comes, well, I got this in. He plays, show me what it's like, and I'm just like, that's good.

Like, that's way better than what was there. And so, I don't know. You got to dig, you got to get some emotional things going, maybe sometimes, I don't know, to get it inspiration. Obviously, Chad, obviously you write, you know, I think it's interesting that it almost not every song, but most songs say, you know, lyrics written by Chad and, you know, music composed by Nickelback and sometimes the producer or whatever.

Is there a reason why you don't co-write lyrics? I do co-write. We do. At the beginning, Chad, Chad wrote like, that's all his brainchild. and as we went further, I think, sorry, not stepping into, I personally, for me. Why didn't you start earlier? And Ryan, why didn't you start?

Did you ever bring in songs that you wrote by yourself and say like, hey, this is a nickel back song? No, I, early on, I was never a confident songwriter at all. Like I said before, I was like, it wasn't kind of my calling. I think I've learned to be able to do it and to contribute where I can. and I've written music since then that I've done, but I felt, because he was such a, Chad was such a juggernaut

in what he wanted to write and champion in the sessions that it's like, I think I can slash dickhead. I never said that. No, but it's like sometimes when you're a creative force, sometimes you just kind of got to get it out and get going, and it can steamroll some other people with some other, ideas that might not be as loud in the room about it. And I was like that.

I was just, I was more of a timid person going, oh, no, it's a stupid idea. Like the typical songwriter I think of somebody's like, ah, it's not good. And I don't want to tell anybody this. Until you overcome that, the chat had that in spades.

He was just like, which is, that's what the prolific songwriter does. That's what you do. You just like, and it comes out. Whereas I just kind of pick a little bit here and there. And where I really felt I could chime in. I would. That really came out in all the right reasons. I mean, bits and pieces

before that, but I didn't really feel comfortable till about then. And we had the time to really peel the onion on those ones for sure. I was, I just think that I had like really naive and sort of inexperienced songwriter's syndrome where

I'm like, I know where the song needs to go. I just know exactly where this needs to go. So if everyone just follows along with my idea, this will come to fruition and it's going to be great. But it took me a long time, and I had to really start co-writing with other people. And as soon as I did that, then I started realizing, you know,

not to be precious with ideas just because you came up with it. The better idea should always go in the song. Fighting for something and saying, no, no, no, this part, but I, yeah, but no, but I want to, and going around and around for 45 minutes, just because you came up with the part is idiotic. Better is always better, and the better part should win, especially when you're trying to compose something to make it the best it can possibly be.

So once I let go of that, it was much easier. And then the guys and I would sit around and it became, the contributions started flowing from all different directions instead of me sort of directing it because it got to the point where when we were let's say with Rockstar for instance we're all sitting around the room

just coming up with really stupid shit that would make you laugh you know like I want two stripper pulls in my tour bus and just kind of anything like that that if you could get everybody in the room fucking grinning it's like that one should go in there all we had to do is just you know set it up and say you know I threw us down standing in line to clubs I'll never get in. It's like the bottom of the ninth, but I'm never

going to win. This life hasn't turned out quite the way I want it to be. It's like, okay, well, then what would you like? I want this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this. And then all you have to do is start naming all kinds of ridiculous shit that you think that every rock star has or wants or needs or whatever. And that writing session was great because we just sat around for hours and hours and hours and just brainstorming all, just stupidity. And we picked, you know, the dumbest ones made it in because the dumbest ones were the ones that would make you kind of chuckle. Yeah, it sounds like a song that friends wrote with each other. Yeah.

Do you know what I mean? And it sounds like people who are actually having a fun day. And it doesn't sound like somebody who's alone struggling to write a song in their room isn't writing those lyrics. No. Or they're fucking crazy. You know, it's like it's way more fun to have that with friends. Totally. How did you guys, you know, the next album, you guys are now rock stars.

You guys are uber famous. You guys have won a bunch of awards. You're continuing to do more albums. The next album goes platinum. It doesn't have the same number of hits, but it still has some hits attached to it. How did you guys never take a break? Like what triggers, what triggers like,

we need to, like, don't you guys have any, when did you guys start having personal lives? Because it's kind of around this era, right? When your manager realizes that when you stay home, 20% of your downtime doesn't make him any money. So if he's like, guys, we've got this festival lined up for, so you're going to have to get over to Europe and do this, then we've got to hit Japan,

and then we've got to keep this moment. momentum rolling, then we've got to get to, I mean, and in a way, well, not in a way, I mean, he was right. Because the second you take your foot off the gas pedal, it's very noticeable. And that ripple effect carries for a long time. So, I mean, if you just stay. But especially that early in the career, like the career that's perceived after how you remind me. We've had a career before that, but nobody could give shit. other than, sorry, other than Canadians,

we've got lots of great fans in that sense. But yeah, that's when they notice, if you take your foot off the gas, it's like you can slip pretty easy. And I, yeah, I had my son in 2003. So right after we did the long road, and then I'm juggling fat, and then recording all the right reasons.

I had my daughter in the middle of it, so I recorded a lot from home back then. And, well, I didn't have it. My wife did all to work. But it was, I mean, and then Chad was just like, Chad and Joey were just like juggernauts out there. Just like, and I'm trying to do this and back and forth. And it was like, it was pretty crazy at that time.

But we all felt the same way. Like, you do. You got to kind of keep going and pay attention to everything at that point. Even if it's, you know, if you're taking seven months off, you don't really taking it off if you're recording and really focus. on something that you want to make decent. Yeah, that wasn't time off, man.

Those are long days. Holy shit. Yeah, it just continues to go on. I mean, you guys, it looks like you guys never had an opportunity to breathe. In an era where everyone talks about mental health and physical health and whatnot, I can't imagine how you guys could have. gone through this process unscathed.

Like my friends who've gone through this kind of this kind of career, most of them who had those down periods and saw other friends like, wow, you got out. Or man, you're like, it's like this, it's like two war heroes

that see each other. It's like, man, you know, how are you? You know? Like, you guys were in, in the trenches for so long. How were you dealing with the, you know, 10 years ago, how were you dealing with the mental strain of this?

Or were you guys just kids who never had to deal with it? I think if any of us had been a solo artist, it would be so much more difficult. I think that if you're surrounded by a bunch of people that just kiss your ass all the time and they're just constantly giving you yes, yes, yes. You're never going to get the truth.

And you're never going to get a real true support system. We had that as a band, you know, it was the four of us. And so through ups and downs, whatever we'd be going through, we were always there. And so I think it's just easier that way.

Like I look at some of these artists and I just think, God, I just think that, man, they must be so lonely. And when things, like when the world starts coming down around them, it must be fucking terrifying. But when you got brothers to lean on, it's not as bad. It really is. It helps.

And I think stress is relative to whoever's going through it. Like some people are just, you know, they're born in conflict. And so they're just like, that's fine. Like that, they can handle the day to day, whatever it is. And some people, it's not, you know, it's, you know, everybody deals with it differently. So when you're talking about mental health, it's like there were for sure moments

where it was going, you know, me personally is like, Chad had the fame part of it because his face was on every video and everything. Like you just saw it everywhere when things were really firing. But to what you were saying before, like I,

that was kind of one of the things I think people talked about us is that it was, in a sense, besides Chad, it was a faceless band. which I mean some a lot of bands get that moniker I guess to a degree or that tag

but but I think we were a faceless band until uh until hero came along and then all of a sudden then there was a name attached to it too and then it wasn't just like oh the guy from exactly exactly I mean that that was like the merging of that at that time was just

stratospheric but um but the fame part was the thing that's hard to deal with, I think. For me personally, it's like, that's the mental health thing. It's like, are you okay? It's like, because, you know, you play music, you write music, you enjoy it, and then when you play it for people, it's great, but then when you play it, you've got to play at bigger venues and you've got to do TV shows,

and it's a one-and-done thing, don't screw it up, and then you've got to do this press, and you've got to be funny and you've got to be engaging and you've got to be this and that. You've got to be everything to everybody. It feels like that sometimes. And that can, and it's just every day wake up and repeat.

That can be wearing after a while. We also didn't grow up in the era of snowflakes. Like, we didn't come from that era where it was like, oh my God, are you okay? Is everything all right? Because with us, there's a lot of like, shake it off, pussy. Like, let's go.

We got to. Yeah. The bus is leaving, dude. Like, we didn't have it. But we didn't have it. We didn't have a whole lot of coddling and a lot of like, you know, let's get a group therapist and talk out our problems. It's like, no, let's fucking yell at each other for 10 minutes. Get it all the way.

We're all going to fucking high five at the end of this and grab a cold beer and fucking move on. I mean, it doesn't have to be, you know, you don't have to have this big sit down and, you know, everyone's going to talk about how their parents fucked them up for, you know, the rest of their lives with a therapist. I mean, we just didn't come from that era. So we're a little old school in that capacity, I guess. Yeah, we're going to have some real tragic endings here. We'll all be like, you know, 75 years old talking about, I should have talked about my issues.

I should have talked about these things. Push it down. Suppress it. Push it down. If you grew up, if you grew up in, you know, in the Midwest, in Canada, in some of these places that might be a little colder. And it's like, I don't know. That is definitely how most of us grew up.

get back out there. Do you guys, you end up with a few more albums where every album comes out three years after the next. You guys are super consistent. I don't know if that's designed that way

or if it's just coincidence. But you guys always did that. Did you ever change your expectations? Did you ever change your definition of success? And do you look at all albums equally when you look back at them.

I think our definition of success is still success. If you're successful, you're successful. If you're not successful, you're, you've got to get a day job. I mean, that's pretty much, that's either you are or you aren't. Then there's just levels of. So, I mean, for me, that's more of a Webster's dictionary version of it. I'm not like, oh, well, I found the girl of my dreams. and so now I'm just so successful in life.

Yeah, but if you put something out and it doesn't take off, you know, it's like that, you know, critically. And that was less successful than the briefings. Or were you happy with it? Like, did you like no fixed address? Like I did. There were parts of that I really enjoyed. Yeah, but I wouldn't call successful.

Technically called a success. There's lots of great stuff on that record, but I wouldn't call it successful. Exactly. So my definition of success hasn't changed. Yeah. But what was your, I guess then I didn't ask you to start with. What was your definition to success before that?

If it hasn't changed was success, you know, the state? Because if that was successful, then so is feed the machine. Do you know what I mean? No, the state is not successful. And neither was feed the machine. The feed the machine is something we wanted to do, going into it, knowing what it was probably going to do globally, but we didn't care because we wanted to do it.

Yeah, that has nothing to do with the definition of success. That has something to do with doing it because we want to do it. Yeah, but I also think that is successful. Like if you're able to be in a position of your career... We're able to do that because we're successful. That's different. That's fair. Yeah. Yes, our success has afforded us to go into things,

not caring if it's going to fail. I don't think you can actually gauge album success either, and comparing album to albums necessarily. I mean, if you're talking one with a bunch of singles at the time, I mean, yeah, that's tough to, you can set that one aside. But timing for everything is huge. Timing for everything. Is this the music people want to hear right now?

If you're talking about success as being accepted, I guess, is your music accepted? is the project accepted. When you're not famous, it doesn't matter, right? Then you get famous. Then you hire Miami, and then the long road kind of teeters a bit, you know, maybe getting tired of us. All the right reasons comes out, pop, good songs on it.

People were ready to listen to that kind of stuff. And then it's the careful what you wish for scenario because then you can't get away from us. So that's the hard part. Then as we release, you know, sorry, Dark Horse, we had a few songs on that one that still kind of made a dent in the radio.

Here and now, no fixed address. It's like there's some decent stuff on those, but I think there might have been fatigue. It may not have been the climate to want to listen to nickel back. Yeah, but isn't it strange, they were getting tired of us. Some of those songs that might not have gotten success,

we have to play them every night live. Could you imagine if we didn't play got to be somebody every night live? like that's one of our biggest to the ground. Yeah. It's got it. I agree. That's got to go in every single set.

If today was your last day, huge off that record. But bands put out good albums that just don't get traction. That's kind of what I'm saying. So that's what I mean by it's very subjective in that sense. It's hard to, like if you grab one of those albums

and you put it out at the same time frame you did another successful album you had, things might be very different. That's kind of what I'm saying. So it's just, we're finding it's timing, or I'm finding it's timing with us because I think there was a lot of fatigue on the band for a while because it was so, the name was so ubiquitous

and the songs are ubiquitous. And it's, it's, people don't have a chance to miss you or not know, you know, not know what it's like to not hear one of those songs. So I can understand that so things could kind of like ebb and flow in that sense as far as popularity or demand for your music. but we've been gone for about five years since this last release.

We broke our three-year cycle. Yeah, we broke our three-year cycle. It's one of my notes is like, clearly this is like the first time where you've actually taken that breath. I mean, before we go on to the new release, like one thing, you know, you guys are almost at a billion on songs that were released way before streaming. you know, not only

22 million albums worldwide is, those are great stats, but what's shocking is that these songs are are evergreens. Like these things are happening where they are outliving

they apparently, like they will outlive you guys. I'm dumbfounded by that. Yeah. It's, dude, it's fucking awesome. It's great. These songs aren't our songs anymore, though.

That's the thing. I love that. It's amazing. I have to ask, and you were saying, like, you know, Nickelback being everywhere and being ubiquitous, it's not like you guys live under a rock. And, you know, there are all these memes one way or the other. There's all these, like, there's always a conversation about Nickelback.

You guys are so famous that, like I said, the band that everyone loves to love, loves to hate, and loves to love again, is it weird to still be to have songs that are almost a billion that are 20 years old to be able to still be part of the conversation how do you absorb the attention that you guys are still getting years after those songs were released?

I think very graciously because honestly honestly just like you say there like to have something you've done 20 years ago still have some kind of relevance. My daughter just went to her grad party to start the year. And she's like, holy crap, dad. They were playing nickel back at night there, blah, blah. And I'm just like, what?

She goes, yeah, I couldn't get away from it. I'm just like, that's okay. That is okay. It's like, I'm like, I'm surprised that. I'm genuinely surprised that they're interested to hear that. And it warms my heart to hear that. Just like, that's, it's not what an artist wants. They want to be like timeless.

Timeless is, I'm fine with that. Because that's the goal, man. I love timeless music. I love stuff that I put on and I just don't get tired of. So if you can be in that company, things are going okay. Yeah, I think after, you know, how long have we been in this band? 25 years or some damn thing? You know, after making music and touring the planet for a quarter of a century,

and we still get to do it. somebody still gives a shit. I find that, you know, mind-blowing and incredibly humbling. I'm just like, because I thought, I did not think that we'd be able to keep going. I didn't think this ride would last this long. And, you know, so just to keep doing this is like, oh, it's just a dream come true. I don't know what I did in the last life. But I must have saved somebody important.

Yeah, for sure, especially if your life started with you trying to avoid going. to prison. And then now you're in this position. But speaking of which, your first single is about, you know, it's Sam Quentin. So it's clearly, it falls into the amazing legacy of the Johnny Cash kind of lyric in, like, a real rock record. Is the rest of the album? I haven't listened to the whole album. I just know the single.

Why did you guys, is the whole thing as heavy as as Sam Quentin? What was the impetus? And when everyone's writing songs about love and me and you, you come out with a song called Sam Quentin that isn't about, it's about escaping prison. It's about trying not to go there. Or trying not to, you know, it's like, there's lots more rock on.

the record like that one. But there's lots of everything. It's just like all the records we put out. You know, there's something on there for everybody. And it's like, it's something, there's something on there for every mood that we go through as human beings. I mean, if you just, if all you're doing

is just listening to ballads, then you're going to get bored to tears. And if all you're doing is listening to the same rock tunes over and over, it gets a little mundane. It's just repetitive. and I always like my favorite records are all over the place and my favorite movies are the same way and my favorite shows like when I go see a show

like I don't want to be you know I don't want someone to croon me to sleep and I also don't want someone to just bash my head for an hour and 45 minutes I want the thing to ebb and flow like it should have all the characteristics of a good movie because if you can take people on that roller coaster ride emotionally

I think at the end, because that way you're just, you're feeding the brain so much more than just the same thing. And I find that as humans consume music that way. It just makes it so much more fulfilling for me. This is coming out, oh, go ahead. I was just going to say, I like, though, that we put out San Quentin, the clip, and then everybody is like, oh, my God, this is heavy. This is so heavy for Nickel.

Oh my God. Nickelback just got hard rock. They just got metal core. They just got like... No, Nickelback released one song. I've seen some stuff like that, which is like I like that. I think like I said, we're a rock band. I've always thought we're a rock band.

But I do like the surprise. Like, there's a lot of... And I don't know if it's just people that are casually listening to the band on the radio or haven't really listened to the album, which just, maybe they're not a fan, but they just listen to some passing. Or they're new fans that are just discovering it. I like that. I was just thinking the other day,

I'm like, we should put out, see if we could pitch like a nickelback heavy playlist. Because we've been doing that for years and the fact that people are just discovering that or realizing that again, it's like, okay, hey, let's bring this.

Just look at this. Check these out. Because the songs that get on the radio aren't typically the, you know, rock radio for sure. And we've always put out rock singles. But our songs that tend to like permeate society a lot more Nickelback's using panic chords

Yeah, exactly. I love panic. Panic chords. Panic chords. Panic chords. They're the ones in pop radio, right? And then more people know about the softer stuff and not the rock stuff.

But yeah, we've been doing it for years. Do you make your kids listen to all the Nickelback albums? I have a one-year-old. So we've been talking about it like, do I have to, like, does this kid have to go? through my discography. So when he grows up, he's like, yeah, my dad wrote that song.

Or is it sort of like, nah, I want to keep you like in the blind. Let him discover it. Let him stumble on it. Let him discover it. Oh, you did that? Oh, cool. Seriously.

No, my kids, they listen to, they do listen to our stuff for sure, but I don't indoctrinate them with the stuff. I've made sure they've had a nice, well-rounded, you know, pop music. The police and Queen and Macedon and James,

Bay and I mean Phil Collins we get the whole thing Genesis like we just we listen to everything in this house so Chad do you have a what's your personal life like can you see behind me? Yeah it's probably the same as yours

no um yeah my personal life is just now it's all about uh because so many my friends are nine to fiveers um it's just waiting for them or trying to convince them

to take chunks of time off so we can go enjoy the fruits of my labor because I'm like I'm like you guys I bought this new boat let's all let's go take this boat out let's go live on this boat for like 10 days and you know let's go up to this lakehouse I bought and you know it's I'm always just like I want to bring the people like my friends that I love dearly I try and just just shower them with you know as much love as I can and spoil them absolutely rotten because if you got all the toys in the world and you're by yourself it's got to be a pretty boring existence um But yeah, no, I love to just, I love to share so much stuff with, you know, my dad's here.

My dad's in town. He's over at the house. And the second we're done, I think we're going to head up to the lakehouse. Cool. Well, we're going to go to the last segment, which is going to be a five for five. I'm just going to lose five things. And you can tell me what comes off the top of your head. We're going to start with the other two guys that are not on this podcast that belong to Nick and Beckhamack, starting with Daniel.

Idiot. And what do you want to know about Daniel? I don't know. Whatever, like, whatever first comes off the top of your head. Ryan said. Oh, I reiterate. Idiot. Off the chain.

Yeah. Daniel's awesome, amazing drummer. Amazing, amazing drummer. And funny as hell. And a complete idiot. And I get along with him very well on the road. And, yeah, he's fun to play with. He's a good goalie.

But he doesn't play hockey. He's a very, he's a very entertaining drummer. Let's go with Mike. Mike. Mike is the grandpa in the band.

Not just because he's the oldest, but I don't know. Mike is the necessary voice of reason in the band, I believe. Mike is the unnecessary voice of reason. No necessary. Use that in it? Okay, whatever.

Let's go with Roadrunner. Um, they're passionate. Just so, they were, you know, for us, they were so heavily dedicated and, uh, there's, there's nothing but love. I, I, you know, I wish to this day we could still be signed to them. Um, but, you know, we've moved on and they've moved on. And they're not really the same label. They're not at all the same label they were when we were signed to them, um, not even close. Um, so those, those glory days are gone, but nothing but fond memories for sure. sure. Hannah Alberta. Hometown. Good start. Love it. Yeah. Yeah.

It's bizarre. The older you get, the more nostalgic you get, you know, the more you miss. I mean, it used to just be, I would think about my childhood and I'd think about this stuff, you know, occasionally throughout the day. But the older I get, man, it's just, it's like, it's all encompassing now. I just find myself, it's like every third thought is. is just thinking about my childhood, thinking so much about, you know, where we grew up and all the amazing times we had. Yeah, it's amazing that that's the town that,

you know, all the people who've ever enjoyed one of your songs owes something to that town. Oh, dude, that's such a nice thing to say, and that's such a cool way to say it. Thanks, man. I do it for a living. All right, Ryan. Sometimes you hit the post, man.

Yeah, everyone's good. Ryan, Chad. To me, Chad? Yeah. Chad. Idiot. Idiot. Like, talented songwriter, funny guy. Great guy to hang around. I mean, we're still a band for a reason. So, hell of a guy. Chad. Okay.

Wouldn't it be even like if I feel like I should just say something other than Peek? Wouldn't it just be such a dick move? Okay, no, Chad. That would be great. And so, and what do you think about, what do you guys think about me? What about me? Okay, Chad. So, enough about what do you guys think of me?

What do you guys think of me? Chad, Pete. Okay. Ryan, stop listening. Oh, stop. I'm going to goosh about you here for a second. Keep it short. Ryan is probably the best father any kid could ever ask for.

the best husband any woman could ever dream of. And as a friend, a confidant, a comrade in the trenches, he is the most caring, loving, truthful human that you could ever find yourself standing next to if you were in this band. So I am just, I just feel blessed to have Ryan Peek still want to put up. play music with me 25 years later

and that is honest to God. That's very kind. I need to rewrite my vows, I think. I've got to get mine longer, so. If you die before me, you're fucking your eulogy. You googly. It's going to be quite something. You googly. Make a good one. Bet you didn't think I was such a good you googlyizer.

Well, thank you guys for doing the podcast. You know, for me, this is always fun where I get to talk to people who are from all different walks of life who were famous long before we were any of us were making music, people who are younger, but there were certain bands that were very successful when I was just starting off in bands

trying to get record deals. And it's fascinating to see how time does what time does. But I know I was speaking of gushing, but talking about like how songs like from that era of 2001 to 2008, a lot of those biggest hits that you guys had are just as big now. Like they're as big as the biggest songs I have had in the last 15 years. And it's like those songs are older and they're still strong now and they're still pushing the envelope.

And it's really, it's very cool. to have you guys on this and and and uh you guys are are cool you guys are cool in my book thanks man thank you thank you thank you i appreciate the interest even but man that's great i had a good good time yeah well uh good luck on the new album i know it comes out pretty soon and the uh you know good job on the first single man it's fun to listen to him thank you guys see you down the road there you go awesome this episode is produced by joe london hypnosis mega house management and myself Shout out Paige McDonald, Kelly Fox, Casey Robinson, David Silberstein, Tim Kirch, and Zach Weinstein. See you all next week. I'm Ross Golan, signing off.