Nickelback, Canada’s beloved (or, depending on who you ask, maligned) hard rock outfit, came agonizingly close to having drum virtuoso Mike Portnoy, take over the sticks for the band’s appearance in a Vancouver festival in the spring of 2022. While the collaboration ultimately didn’t materialize, today we can get a glimpse of what Portnoy could have sounded like (if he was given some freedom), thanks to the Drumeo series.
“I got a call from Nickelback in the spring of ’22. Their drummer was having surgery and they asked me to play a show with them. It was for a festival in Vancouver, Canada and the festival ended up getting canceled. Chad Kroeger sent me the setlist, and my daughter and my wife were, like, ‘You’re gonna know every one of these songs,’ and I was, like, ‘I’ve never heard any of these songs.’ I don’t listen to the radio, so I don’t know any Nickelback songs.” Portnoy explains.
In the video, Drumeo also asked Portnoy to play Nickelback‘s song “Burn It To The Ground”, which he confesses to having never heard before. He plays the song in a single take after analyzing a drumless track, with lots of double bass and his signature drum fills all over. Check out the proggiest version of Nickelback you’ll ever get to listen to, via the video below.
