How Much Money Nickelback Is Really Worth Now

We loathe them. We loathed them all along. And we wish they were far away for oh so long. We keep screaming that Nickelback really needs to go. Stop seething when we don't see them anymore. If you're one of the many millions of people who've purchased Nickelback albums over the years, then you may recognize those opening lines as a parody of the chorus to "Far Away," which appears on the band's 2005 album "All the Right Reasons." There's a very good reason to bring up that album. As the Oregonian reports, in 2017, "All the Right Reasons" reached diamond status, achieving "10 million sales and equivalent streaming plays." 

That milestone placed the band in rare company. As of this writing, Garth Brooks and Adele are the only other artists with albums that have hit diamond status since 2005. But people get lost in Garth Brooks' music almost as much as Brooks gets lost in his alter ego, Chris Gaines. Everyone adores Adele and wants to marry her voice. But people with functioning ears supposedly despise Nickelback. In fact, critics savagely panned "All the Right Reasons," with an All Music reviewer calling the band "unspeakably awful" and Rolling Stone asserting, "'All the Right Reasons' is so depressing, you're almost glad Kurt (Cobain)'s not around to hear it."

Critics must have all the wrong reasons to bash Nickelback because in addition to the diamond album, in 2017, they became the 11th best-selling band of all time, touting more than 50 million album sales since 1995, according to Digital Music News. That's far away from where the band started. Once upon a time in Hanna, Canada, Nickelback called themselves the Village Idiots. The Canadian Encyclopedia describes Hanna as "one of those places in the middle of nowhere with not a whole lot to do." It's home to oil rig workers, farmers, and bored teens who pass the time by passing joints and drinking booze.

Before drinking in all that Nickelback fame, Village Idiot Mike Kroeger served overpriced coffee. He worked as a Starbucks barista, per the Billings Gazette, and would literally coin the name Nickelback from the amount of change customers received from their orders: a nickel. The Idiots weren't entirely unpopular before changing their name, but they gained only minor fame by covering the songs of more famous artists before becoming famous artists that people parody online.

Growing up, Nickelback lead singer and songwriter Chad Kroeger wasn't just a diamond in the rough; he was in a rough situation. Chad's dad abandoned him when he was just two years old, leaving the family in a financial lurch. "Raised in semi-poverty by his single mom," according to the Georgia Straight, Chad raised hell growing up. He ran afoul of the law on numerous occasions. According to All Music he spent time in juvenile detention for breaking into his school to steal money. He also ran afoul of the law by skipping school and stealing a truck.

Looking back on his hell-raising days, Chad would say, "I honestly think if Nickelback hadn't worked out, I'd be in jail, on a charge of grand theft auto or trafficking." But the Canadian bad boy also had a good heart. Hanna resident Tara Davis lived with Chad for a summer and recalled the singer saving her when she was stranded on a highway and punching her ex-boyfriend for mistreating her. Tara's ex would later brag, "I'm proud I got punched out by Nickelback." 

Nowadays, Chad Kroeger can afford to pay other people to punch out bad boyfriends. And in 2012, he could afford to pay a German technician to "stick his johnson in" the whirling blades of a fan, which, according to Chad, elicited a "blood-curdling scream" and "was fantastic." In other, less horrifying words, Chad and the rest of Nickelback probably have probably have more nickels to their name than they know what to do with. How many nickels?

Celebrity Net Worth lists Chad Kroeger's net worth at $60 million, which amounts to 1.2 billion nickels. Keyboardist and guitarist Ryan Peake has an estimated $50 million, or 1 billion nickels to his name. The site didn't provide estimates for Chad's brother, bassist Mike Kroeger, or for drummer Daniel Adair. But in 2018, Mike bought a mansion that formerly belonged to Bela Lugosi for about $3.8 million. Suffice to it say, altogether, Nickelback could probably afford to buy an album made of actual diamonds.