Nickelback Tickets


Can I Get My Nickelback?

Chad Kroeger isn't just another pretty face. He's the lead singer in a million dollar rock band with a platinum album under its belt. Despite the band's humble beginnings in Alberta, Canada, Nickelback has changed the face of music with their break out album, “Silver Side Up.” This record went multi-platinum in several countries, and Nickelback has released four more since then that have also done well, if not better. Add in several awards and some international touring and you're a successful rock band. In addition to those records, Chad Kroeger himself has completed a few solo projects that have taken off with fans of spanning rock generations as well as budding listeners. Although the lyrics to the song “Rock Star” might be dreaming big for some folks it was a real life story for Nickelback, and just like any legend of Rock, they started out in someone's garage.

Flashback to 1995. Chad, Mike, and Brandon Kroeger teamed up with Ryan Peake to form an infantile version of what we now know as Nickelback. In a post Kurt Cobain era, Nickelback formed with a true 90's grunge sound to their songs. Hesher, the first of a couple of albums that didn't quite make the top charts, was self released with the original members. Curb was also self-released as their first studio album, destined to be re-released later. Both of these albums are raw input from Nickelback and did well for a beginning project. In 1997, Brandon left the band and was covered by Mitch Guindon until Ryan Videkal joined as their new drummer in 1998. The State was released in 2000 by Roadrunner and EMI Records (a Canadian label) in Europe and won Nickelback a Juno Award for Best New Band in 2001.

Nickelback really began to pick up steam in 2001. On September 11, their break through album Silver Side Up, burned up the charts with singles, “How You Remind Me,” “Too Bad”, and “Never Again.” All three of these singles hit number one on the Mainstream Rock charts, and “How You Remind Me” topped the Adult Top 40 and the Billboard Hot 100 at second and first respectively. Silver Side Up has sold over five million copies in the United States alone. Kroeger and the boys weren't finished though. Two years and one platinum album later, Nickelback released The Long Road, which brought us “Someday” and “Figured You Out.” The Long Road also went platinum and hit Billboard's Album of the Decade. Many listeners tout either of these two as their favorites, while critics have trouble telling the albums and their singles apart.

Deciding that time was ripe for change in 2005, Ryan Videkal left the band was replaced by Daniel Adair, already familiar with mainstream as the drummer for 3 Doors Down. All the Right Reasons was released that same year with Adair as the drummer and a guitar solo by Billy Gibbons (from ZZ Top). “Rock Star” was a huge hit and helped bridge the gap between older listeners, along with other projects that had been completed between albums. Touring until 2008, Nickelback then released Dark Horse, an album that features a racy song that surprisingly made it to number one called “Something in Your Mouth.” This album gave the band three more Juno awards as well as a Grammy nomination. Sling-shotting their career into the present is the 2011 album, Here and Now, giving the world two more Nickelback singles so far. Incidentally, Adair was the drummer for this album and continues to perform with the band both in-studio and on tour to date.

Not unimportant in the span of Nickelback's career is Chad's solo projects and outside collaborations. Serenading the audience for the Spider-Man soundtrack in 2002, Chad Kroeger and Josey Scott teamed up between Nickelback albums to sing “Hero,” a song that also featured Mike (Kroeger), as well as Matt Cameron, Jeremy Taggart and Tyler Connolly. Later on that year, Kroger wrote and sang on Santana's Shaman. Eventually with Arista records wanting to re-release the single, “Why Don't You and I?”, Kroger handed the project over to Alex Band. Later, Kroeger preformed with Santana again to release “Into the Night” in 2007. These projects were crucial to the band's popularity, considering that working with Santana introduced the sounds of Nickelback to a group of listeners that were presently unaware.

Over all, Nickelback's career has been successful so far, despite a rocky start and some tough criticism. Nickelback has been called unoriginal and been denounced because Silver Side Up and The Long Road sounded entirely too similar, as if the band were following a formula instead of using their imaginations to continue to please their fans. Also under fire has been the content of their songs, singing about topics such as strippers, sex and partying. Whatever the case, Nickelback has a long career ahead of them and will likely continue to produce number one singles until they decide to stop touring.