Chad Kroeger has noticed a “softening” in people’s hatred of Nickelback lately.
The 48-year-old star admitted it was “definitely a thing for a long time” that “keyboard warriors” felt the need to voice their negative opinions about his band, but he believes that has been toned down recently, and he thinks it could be because they have received “a ton of love on TikTok” of late.
When asked why he thinks so many people used to hate Nickelback, he told Arizona’s KFMA-FM radio: “That kind of used to be a thing. I shouldn’t say ‘that kind of used to be’ – that was definitely a thing for a long time.
“And I think there’s been a softening – there really has, thankfully.
“I’m not sure if it’s because we receive a ton of love on TikTok or whatever the hell it is, but for whatever reason the teeth have kind of been removed.
“It’s really nice, it’s really nice to not be public enemy number one.”
Chad hasn’t ever pinned down exactly why people have a distaste for Nickelback, but thinks it could be because the ‘Rockstar’ hitmakers pen songs that work in various genres.
He said: “I think that with the range of songs that we write – from rock to all the softer, melodic stuff, all the way down to … well, I know that ‘Far Away’ got played on country stations even and I know that ‘Rockstar’ – the heavily redacted version – got played on CMT
“So when you’re going that far and the scope is that wide, it makes it tough to get away from the band if you’re not into the band.
“And if you’re trying to switch the radio station three times, and it’s just, like, ‘Ah, there they are. There’s their rock song on the rock station. There’s their pop song on the pop station. And oh my God, I can’t even go to the country station and get away from these guys.’
“That type of oversaturation could p*** people off.
“But at the end of the day, we’re just a band that makes music.
“I can’t stand a couple of bands, but I don’t go online and turn into a keyboard warrior and just start hating on them. I just change the channel or I put on something that I wanna listen to.”