Nickelback Frontman Chad Kroeger Talks Kurt Cobain, Getting Famous

2012-11-29

Story by Cat Badra

Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger can’t understand why Kurt Cobain had a problem handling fame

There’s no denying that Nickelback has enjoyed a successful career in the music business. Between hits like “Photograph” and “How You Remind Me,” the guys have managed to say in the limelight, and on the charts, for roughly a decade now. Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger is opening up about the group’s success, and he says the band made a number of calculated decisions along the way that helped them hit it big.

“I always thought it was strange when these artists like [Nirvana frontman] Kurt Cobain or whoever would get really famous and say, ‘I don’t understand why this is happening to me,’” Kroeger told Bloomberg Businessweek. “There is a mathematical formula to why you got famous.” He added that getting famous “isn’t some magical thing that just started happening. And it’s going to move exponentially throughout your career as you grow, or can decline exponentially if you start to fail as an artist.”

Kroeger says that although there’s a “mathematical formula” to getting famous, that doesn’t mean he would ever do something just for financial gain. In fact, he wouldn’t. “When you are writing a song for something else, if you are doing something for money, I always think that’s bad luck,” he said.

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Cat Badra

Meet the expert - Cat Badra is a music writer for Audio Ink Radio and a range of other music, sports and lifestyle publications. She's a graduate of Michigan State University with a master's degree in theater and speech. Contact her at cat@audioinkradio.com.