Nickelback on being a pop culture punchline in new doc: ‘It really sucked’

nypost.com:

walking out the front door. Alt-rock group Nickelback discussed how they dealt with nearly two decades of mockery in their tell-all documentary “Hate to Love: Nickelback,” which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival this weekend, reports Entertainment Weekly.“Nobody picks up a guitar to be the most hated band in the world,” said vocalist Ryan Peake, 50, in the new film. “It doesn’t feel great.”Peake’s children, who also make a brief cameo, echoed their father’s statement adding, “Everyone hated the band, so everyone hated us.” Bassist Mike Kroeger, brother to frontman Chad Kroeger, claimed the backlash to the Canadian band “really sucked in the beginning” while noting the toll it took on his sibling’s mental health.

The film chronicles the band’s rise to fame as well as several emotionally charged moments throughout their career, including the 2005 departure of ex-drummer Ryan Vikedal, Mike’s nearly fatal heart attack and replacement drummer Daniel Adair’s struggle to overcome a frightening neurological condition.One such event in the film comes when Adair, 48, revealed that Chad reportedly “blew up” in his dressing room due to pushback the band had received while on tour.

Adair states that the outburst was also due to several people shouting “f–k you” out of car windows while Chad walked by. Later in the documentary, Mike hypothesizes that a lot of the hate toward the group comes from their seeming shallow lyrics. “Sometimes people want to hear vacuous, dumb s–t,” said Mike in defense of the lyrics.“I play Nickelback songs for Nickelback fans,” concluded frontman Chad Kroeger. ” “I don’t have to try to win anybody over.”The Post reached out to Nickelback for comment.