The origin of the name "Nickelback"

I assume Wikipedia is never wrong about anything, so they can't be wrong about the origin of the name "Nickelback."

There's such hype about the pride Chad and the band members have in the band, and how deep the lyrics are, and how awesome at life their fans are, but, did you ever stop and ask yourself, "Why, self, do I think they chose the name 'Nickelback' for such an incredibly awesome [at sucking] rock band?"

The answer lies with Starbucks. That's right, Starbucks. The frilled-up coffee place.

Turns out Mike Kroeger used to work at Starbucks serving what were no doubt some of the deepest, most thoughtful lattes this side of France. (Mike, by the way, for those of you who have too much of a life to care about these things, is the half brother of Chad Kroeger and bass player for this talented menagerie.) While working at Starbucks, Mike found that he would often have to provide the customer with 5 Canadian cents in change. 5 Canadian cents, when placed into one coin, is also called a nickel. (Similar to the US but at 70% of the value.) Apparently, during this transaction, he would frequently find himself saying "Here's your nickel back."

Long story short: Mike served crappy, over-priced coffee, gave people nickels, formed a crappy band and should now technically owe Starbucks all sorts of royalties. Thank God he didn't have to give people some sort of other change back or ever say anything else to any customers on a routine basis, like "Here's your penny back," or "Here's your receipt ma'am." Those would have been horrible band names.

Santana + Nickelback = GENIUS

I've been waiting for a power duo like this for much of my adult life. Santana is widely respected and recognized as one of the greatest guitar players around. He's teamed up with some musical legends and is still kickin' it after all these years.

I always thought there was something missing from Santan's career though. What was missing? The sweet melodic, yet gravely, tone of Chad Kroeger's voice!

Who's Chad Kroeger? You're kidding right? If you listen to pop radio you've no doubt been graced by the soothing sounds of one of the greatest bands of our, nay ANY, generation: Nickelback!

When Chad allowed Santana to play guitar with him for this song he knew he'd have to exclude the rest of his band. I mean you can only have so much rock in one song.

Without further delay, here's the latest single and soon to be greatest song on the Earth. It's "Into the Night" by Santana featuring Chad Kroeger, although for my money it should be labelled "powered and rocked out by Chad Kroeger with minimal help from some Spanish guy."

Some things to look for: Chad's sweet shades and the best lyrics I've ever heard: "Oh way oh, oh weey oh way." (Repeat several hundred times):




Some actual comments left on this video's YouTube page by adoring Nickelback fans:

"Chad have an awsome voice and santana is really talented in guitar"

"Awesome song and great video!"

"oh my god what an awesome song and the video too !! dem santana you the man"

"lol, Chad is good and so is Santana... together they are freakin awesome"

"1 of the best songs atm!"

Nickelback is awesome. At sucking.

This will be the first blog of potentially many. Please leave as many comments as you would like, both pro and con Nickelback. Pro Nickelback comments will be subjected to hazing and deletion.

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