Nickelback Talk 'Too Bad,' Don't Stink On Ice
12.05.2001

"Too Bad," the second single off Nickelback's Silver Side Up, deals with parental relationships within a broken home, and it was written by frontman Chad Kroeger from personal experience.

"The song deals with the fact that my parents split when I was two or three," Kroeger explained during a tour stop in New York City. "I never really developed a relationship with my father until I was in my teens ... I wanted a father around to teach [me] how to hit a baseball or teach [me] how to fight — all the stuff that you kind of need a father around to do.

"It's becoming commonplace all over North America, just so many kids growing up in a single-parent home, so a lot of people can identify with [the song]."

Despite the song's pessimistic title, Kroeger managed to reconnect with his father "when I got into my teens and [was] able to make my own decisions," he said.

"You get old enough to hop in a car and drive a few hours and go see him," Kroeger explained. "Just say, 'Hey, do you want to go fishing this weekend?' That's not always possible when you're young and you have to have your mother drop everything to coordinate things with your father. When you're old enough to make your own decisions, it makes it a lot easier."

The melodic rockers recently filmed a video for "Too Bad" with director Nigel Dick in Canada, with performance footage shot in their Vancouver stomping grounds and Toronto-set narrative bits depicting a rebellious teen's familial turmoil (see "Vancouver's Nickelback Are As Hot As Montreal's Expos Are Not"). The clip is expected to surface in January, a band spokesperson said.

The band, which is touring with Saliva and Default, has already chosen "Never Again" as the follow-up to "Too Bad," though it's not known when that song would hit airwaves. Nickelback are familiar with getting ahead of themselves; they began writing the platinum Silver Side Up while still touring for last year's The State, and they've already penned eight songs for their fourth album.

"It's just [a matter of] keeping ourselves entertained, because you always like the new stuff," guitarist Ryan Peake said of the band's forward-thinking philosophy. "If you always have something new on the backburner, it kind of gets you through the next day. Things might start to feel stale, just playing the same old songs every night. It kind of breathes a new life into the band."

While The State is metaphorical and Silver Side Up is personal, Kroeger described the new material as expressive storytelling, and Peake said he's learning how to play new instruments to diversify the music. They haven't played any of the new songs on tour, but it's only a matter of time before they begin.

"We're going to start working them in [the set] right away," Kroeger said. "This is actually the first time where we started a new tour and haven't had four brand-new songs, where everyone's sort of like, 'Hey, what's this?' It's good to test them on the crowd."

In other Nickelback news, the band members got the chance to live out a lifelong dream as they strapped on their skates and hit the ice with the New York Islanders during their stay. After they watched the team practice on Thursday, goalie Chris Osgood approached them and said, " 'Come on, boys, throw on some skates,' " Kroeger recounted. " 'This is real, this isn't MTV.' "

It was a golden opportunity for a band who grew up around the game. "We all used to play hockey at one point," Peake said. "I think every kid in Canada used to play hockey at some point. And to play with an NHL team doesn't happen every day, so when somebody tells you to put some skates, you just do it."

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