Nickelback initially didn’t make any money with “ How You Remind Me Of Me ”
Although the album’s “How You Remind Me” Silver side Really changed things for Nickelback in terms of commercial success, Chad Kroeger says the band initially didn’t make any money from the song or album.
Kroeger and his lawyer Jonathan Simkin reflected on the group’s early days during a new Sticks and stones podcast episode. Simkin recalled a time he and Kroeger spent in New York City when they negotiated a deal for their own label, 604 records – that they had written on a napkin.
“We had dinner, kind of a weird Roadrunner dinner. So they gave us a limousine, ”he recalls. “And there’s Chad and I, driving through Manhattan. And I remember it was silent. Like, we’re just both sitting there. And one of us looks at the other and says, ‘What ‘did that shit just happen?’ We say to ourselves, “We are rich. We are rich! We are rich! “And we kiss.”
He then clarified that they were not really, in fact, rich. While you might think that when a rock band gets smash hit, they’re automatically rich, but that’s just not the case.
“Back then, for us, I didn’t think we made a ton of money. I don’t think I saw a dollar with the proceeds of ‘How You Remind Me’ or the record sales of Silverside Up, “ Kroeger intervened. “And all the tours we were doing, we were probably just breaking the threshold because you have to pay for the bus, you have to pay for the employees. At no time had we seen a check that looked like, “Huh! What do you want to buy? I just remember thinking, ‘I’m moving.
Later in the podcast, they discuss an NSFW incident when they were looking for a private place to sign a contract, the couple accidentally received the key to the wrong hotel room and when they opened the door they found a man having fun with an adult movie.
Listen to the full episode below.
Nickelback signed to Roadrunner Records in 1999. By then they already had two studio albums under their belt – 1996’s Pavement and 1998 The state. Silver side was their first outing on Roadrunner, and it peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200.
