Chad Kroeger, frontman for Canadian rock band Nickelback, has revealed that everyone has been pronouncing his last name wrong all of these years.
Speaking to Loudwire on a recent podcast, Kroeger explained that his surname is often butchered; people have been saying Kroh-ger, like the U.S. grocery store chain.
However, the Hanna, Alta.-born musician insists it should be pronounced the same as Freddy Krueger, the terrifying Nightmare on Elm Street serial killer.
“It’s Kroo-ger, don’t trust the internet,” the musician said.
He says he’s been slow to correct people because he doesn’t want to come across the wrong way.
“If I just stop and go, ‘Actually, it’s Kroeger,’ I’m gonna look like such a d**k. So I’m just like whatever, I don’t care.”
He told the podcast there are a few people that have gone out of their way to make sure they get it right, including Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell, who corrected a journalist at one point during a joint 2004 interview.
“I sort of looked over at Jerry, and he goes, ‘It’s your name, dude. That is your last name.'”
He went on: “Tell that dude across there how to say it properly so that he stops saying it wrong into that microphone and misinforming people.
“That is your last name, brother.’ And I was like, ‘Wow you really care about this s***!'”
Watch Kroeger explain the name mix-up at the beginning of the clip below.
Kroeger also explained that there’s one band he never wants to follow again, recounting several times Atlanta-based band Sevendust opened for Nickelback.
“I don’t care how many records you’ve sold or how many awards you’ve won or what you’ve done around the world … you don’t ever, ever, ever want to go on after Sevendust, because they will kick your a** and wipe you all over that stage. They are a force to be reckoned with and it is goosebump-worthy.”
Kroeger’s interview coincided with an announcement from the multi-platinum band that its latest album, Get Rollin’, will be released in November.
Comments