Chad Kroeger and Ryan Peake aren’t keeping count, but here we are—Nickelback’s 10th album, Get Rollin’. “That’s what they’re telling us,” Kroeger laughs. Two and a half decades in, they’re still rolling, still writing, and still figuring out how to keep the fire burning. “Sometimes the songs almost write themselves,” Kroeger says, citing a spontaneous line—Loving you is like surfing on a tidal wave—that instantly shaped the direction of a track.
The vault also plays a role. “We’ll go back to ideas from 12, 14 years ago,” he explains. Case in point: Just Haven’t Met You Yet, a song that had been sitting around since 2007. “It’s fun to resurrect those ideas and see them come to life.” Peake agrees: “Music isn’t like tech—you can pull out something from years ago and it can still work.”
Get Rollin’ delivers the expected Nickelback blend—radio-ready hooks, anthemic rockers, and, as the band teased with San Quentin, some of their heaviest material yet. “It’s heavy, but we’ve done heavier,” Kroeger notes, citing tracks like This Means War and The Betrayal. But with rock’s shifting presence in pop culture, San Quentin stood out. “People are saying, ‘Whoa, Nickelback’s gone heavy!’” Peake says. “I love that. We’re a rock band first and foremost.”
Which brings up a bigger question: Can rock still be dangerous? Kroeger laughs at the notion. “To me, Two Live Crew felt dangerous. Like, if your mom pulled up next to you at a stoplight, you turned that shit down.” But rock? He’s not so sure. Peake remembers the first time an older kid played him You Shook Me All Night Long: “I was like, You can sing about that?”
If danger is up for debate, nostalgia isn’t. Nickelback leans into it hard on Those Days, a full-on time machine to the 80s and 90s. “We all remember when the streetlights came on and we had to be home,” Kroeger says. “We just kept listing things—Elm Street movies, prank calls, VHS rentals.” Would they actually go back if they could? “Do I get to know what I know now?” Kroeger asks. “Absolutely. A million times over.”
Peake is less certain. “I’m a firm believer you can never really go home. But would I try? Yeah, why not. Let’s ruin it.”
With Get Rollin’, Nickelback proves they still have gas in the tank—whether they’re revisiting old riffs, turning it up to 11, or just reminiscing about a time when Beta vs. VHS actually mattered.
Watch the interview above and then check out the video below.
