Los Angeles: The singer of Canadian hard rock band Nickelback, Chad Kroeger, was forced to stop the band’s Mississippi tour after he developed throat problems that rendered him unable to sing.
A footage of the band went online when Kroeger stopped singing while in Missouri after he complained about throat problems, but people were only quick to mock him.
The band is on a North American tour, heading off from Columbia to Mississippi, Tennessee and then Texas.
Stopping the track ‘Animals’ midway, Kroeger could be heard saying in the video, “I can’t do this. I cannot sit here with a f***** absolutely destroyed throat and try to make it through this show and pretend like there’s nothing f***** wrong and take your f***** money, ’cause that is wrong.”
He added, “I’m having a hard time hittin’ f***** notes. The doctor just jabbed me in the hip with some prednisone, and we all crossed our fingers backstage hoping this was gonna work. But I cannot, in good conscience, stand up here and sing these f***** songs and have my voice crack and everything sound like s***. It’s driving me f***** nuts. So, I’ll tell you what. I could give it my best. I could keep just trying and we could just pull the f*** around if you want to.”
While the band was able to power through the rest of the show, completing over 15 songs in total with Kroeger receiving praise for his attitude, the band was not exempt from mockery, Kroeger in particular.
Netizens took to trolling the band on X (formerly Twitter), with people calling him an “absolute j*****” and a “clown who can’t hit proper notes to save his life”.
One netizen wrote: “It took this idiot so long to realise he has a bad throat! Lmao! Should have realised it way back when he started, at least would have spared rockers this abomination called Nickleback.”
Another wrote: “Okay, better late than never. All jokes apart, Chad should simply retire now, good attitude but he’s never been able to sing. The most punchable ‘singer’ with the most f***** annoying voice I’ve ever heard.”
Yet another user wrote: “Well this a****** at least realised he can’t sing worth a damn penny. This incident should be his cue, that pls f***** stop already. Your d********* is giving every hard rocker a bad name.”
Nickelback is famous for being the most hated rock band in the world with only Creed rivaling them. The band has been widely derided for its Pearl Jam rip-off style, and claiming to be a hard rock band when most of their music is just pop mixed with heavy riffs.
They have also been criticised for their formulaic style never changing things up, with their lyrical themes almost always consisting of fame, money, girls, strippers, booze, sex, partying and even drugs.
This has made the Alberta-based band a butt of jokes and memes, though they to date remain one of the best selling rock bands of all time having sold over 60 million records worldwide and are well-known for tracks such as ‘Rockstar’ and ‘How You Remind Me’.
–IANS