Nickelback bassist Mike Kroeger recently discussed whether the band has ever considered retirement, sharing insights during an interview with Hive magazine.
The discussion focused on whether Kroeger and his bandmates have ever had a conversation about how long they could keep performing before calling it quits.
“No. I think I tried to bring it up once and it just didn’t go anywhere,” Kroeger said. “It was more, like, ‘Nah, we’re just gonna keep going. We’ll worry about…’ We don’t look back ever, and we don’t look too far ahead. We kind of pay attention to the task at hand and worry about that. That’s kind of the way we work.”
He also reflected on the band’s achievements, including being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and receiving nine Grammy Award nominations.
“Well, we had a really great run, obviously. The statistics you were talking about, they are really awesome things, and we’re really grateful to have gone through those and got those accolades or whatever,” Kroeger continued. “I think now the goal is just to keep going — to keep making records, to keep going on tour — and as long as the people keep turning up for the rock shows, we’re into it. We wanna keep going, having fun.”
Kroeger’s comments fit a band whose history has always pointed forward rather than toward an ending. The accolades he mentioned are well documented, and the group’s plans for the years ahead suggest the “keep going” mindset is more than talk.
Those accolades include a Canadian Music Hall of Fame induction in 2023, which took place during the JUNO Awards ceremony in Edmonton, Alberta. Nickelback has earned nine Grammy Award nominations, three American Music Awards, twelve JUNO Awards, and a place in Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2007, where the institution also named them Billboard’s “Top Rock Group of the Decade.”
The band’s origins trace back much further. Nickelback formed in 1995 in the blue-collar town of Hanna, Alberta, started by brothers Chad, Mike and Brandon Kroeger alongside guitarist Ryan Peake. The group issued its debut album Curb in 1996 and followed it with the self-released The State in 1998 before signing with Roadrunner Records in 1999.
The breakthrough arrived with “How You Remind Me,” the lead single from 2001’s Silver Side Up, which topped the charts in both Canada and the United States. Nickelback went on to sell an estimated 50 million albums worldwide, making them one of the most commercially successful Canadian groups in history.
Rather than winding down, the band is moving into a busy new chapter. Nickelback’s eleventh studio album, Everything Under the Sun, arrives October 30 via Virgin Music Group, following 2022’s Get Rollin’. The record will be supported by the 2027 “Everything Under the Sun” world tour, which the band announced with nearly 65 million albums sold worldwide, billions of streams, and more than 50 million monthly listeners.
The band continues to focus on their current projects and live performances. Let’s see what comes next.
