The Haunted’s Ola Englund Understands Why Nickelback is Over the Haters: “How Can You Not Take Offense?”
Hate to Love: Nickelback is a new documentary about the Canadian rockers who have sold a bazillion records yet are still really into having haters. Seriously: Nickelback have sold more than 50 million records worldwide, which makes them one of the most successful Canadian bands ever and no pushover on the worldwide scale. Hell, there was a point in time when it felt like five or six songs from 2005’s All the Right Reasons were on the radio literally constantly.
Despite (and because of) all this, Nickelback have an army of haters that has probably propelled the band to an even higher level. Having sold 50 million records hasn’t deterred the band from talking about it constantly, as evidenced by the existence of their new documentary, which follows their career and touches on their existence as a target for memes and bullying. Some people are more sympathetic to Nickelback’s plight than others—The Haunted guitarist and popular Youtuber Ola Englund is one of the nice ones who says he understands why Nickelback and frontman Chad Kroeger are tired of it.
“How can you not take offense when you hear shit like this day in and day out and day in and day out? I mean, you can have really thick skin, but at some point, it’s just not gonna protect you.”
Englund’s comments match what Kroeger said in a recent interview with People about how he’s tired of having the negativity rubbed in his face all the time.
“If somebody stuck that thing in your face every single day and said, ‘The whole world hates you like this, the whole world hates you. What do you have to say about that? Every single day. Every day. Would there be reluctance on your behalf to talk about it? Would you get pissed off? Would you be over it after a while?
“I’m over it. We made a documentary. Everybody can watch it. And now from this day forward, if anybody asks that question in the press, it’s like that’s the end of the interview. So if you want to end an interview, that’s all you have to say and that will be it.”
Is the documentary the last word on Nickelback? Probably not, but Kroeger can hope.
