During my recent interview with Mike Kroeger of Nickelback, we talked about many things including their documentary Hate To Love: Nickelback, how “Rockstar” became a hit, and how they wrote the biggest song of their career, “How You Remind Me“.
Mike said that was a weird one. “At the point that we recorded that, we were still the underdogs that probably weren’t going to make it.” He spoke of how playing music for a living is a pipedream for some. He went on to talk about how that song was the most-played single in the world in 2001. “To think that that’s going to happen when you’re just trying to string together, an intro, verse, chorus, intro, re-intro, guitar solo, there’s no way that you can even contemplate what that means”. He said that Ryan Peake’s wife said that song was a hit. “Turns out she was right”
“We thought that was just one song of many that you feel close to these songs.” Mike went on to tell a story of playing the rough mix for a fellow musician “I remember, he just looked at me and he’s like “That’s got millions written all over it” and I was like “Really? Ok, alright..”
“We couldn’t see any of this stuff coming” he went on talking about crazy rock star moments the band was starting to experience. “There are going to be moments that are going to be crazy like that, flying around in jets, and playing rock shows and whatever, but you don’t know until you get there.”
Looking back on it, I didn’t see it coming either, as I admitted to Mike in the interview. Former WRIF assistant program director, Troy Hanson called it. He told me it was going to be a big hit. I had the same reaction Mike did. It’s a good song, but a smash hit? That’s indeed what it became.
You can watch the entire interview below. Hate To Love: Nickelback is in theaters for two days only….March 27th and 30th.
