Hinder drummer Cody Hanson has admitted that he “almost got beat up” by Nickelback‘s Chad Kroeger over a joke about the latter’s nationality.
The post-grunge band’s co-founder appeared in a video interview by content creator Jesea Lee yesterday (December 5).
Hanson began, stating that Nickelback was one of Hinder’s “favourite bands” and they became “buddies” with the ‘Lips Of An Angel’ band.
They spent one summer with Kroeger, and they were accompanied by their crew and “a couple of girls”, who were talking amongst themselves about horses. Hinder’s drum tech had gone over to Hanson laughing, telling him: “Chad says there’s no such thing as quarter horses”, in reference to a type of American horse breed.
Hanson replied to his colleague: “‘Maybe ’cause he’s Canadian and they use the metric system’”.
“Everybody starts laughing. I wasn’t trying to be a dick,” maintained Hanson. “[Kroeger] comes over and wraps his arm around my neck, and I think he’s joking, right? And then I notice he starts really squeezing.”
“So I kinda shove him off and am like, ‘What the fuck are you doing, dude?’ And he’s like, ‘If you wanna make a person from Canada mad, the first thing you do is call him a Canadian.’”
Hanson continued, adding that Kroeger stormed off with his bodyguard, with the drummer following him behind to his tour bus.
“I’m so mad at this point and so upset. I’m yelling at him. He’s yelling at me,” he revealed, admitting that he then broke down in tears. “Being drunk, once you get so mad, your emotions overtake you. I started crying like a little bitch. … I was so embarrassed.”
The next day, Hanson revealed, Kroeger approached him and said, “Wow, the train really came off the tracks last night,” According to Hanson, he gave the drummer and his bandmates a handful of Viagra as a peace offering. “So, that’s the time I almost got beat up by Chad Kroeger and his bodyguard, and I cried.”
Earlier this year, the ‘How You Remind Me’ hitmakers were the subject of a documentary film titled Hate To Love: Nickelback, which focused on their rise in the 2000s and evolution into pop culture targets.
Bassist Mike Kroeger told NME about the film: “With a dearth of real information about Nickelback, it’s been up to the media to compose their own narrative, and this is our opportunity to tell our own story from our perspective.”
“A lot of the negativity around us was our fault for not sharing our truth because we were too busy writing, recording and touring.”
