Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Well, joining us here at Detroit's Wheels is Mike Kroger
from Nickelback and Mike, this is a crazy festival.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
You guys are involved in.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
The Rock the Country Show is rolling into Hastings, Michigan
June thirteenth through the fourteenth. And you know when I
first saw this, Mike, I looked at it and I said,
this reminds me of kind of like the mid seventies
at the old State fair Grounds when they used to
put like Maha Vishna Orchestra along with Alice Cooper and
(00:32):
then you'd close it out with Marshall Tucker. It was
it was that diverse. And so is this right? How
did you guys get involved in this?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
You know, it's a relationship that one of our managers
has with.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
The people who came up with this idea and.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
They've been talking about it with us for a while,
so we've just been waiting for this opportunity to come up.
But yeah, it's you know, we've done so many festivals
over in Europe and other places of Australia where they
don't they don't just focus on one genre, you know
what I mean, They really mix it up, like you
play with everything from sort of solo female singers songwriters
(01:11):
to you know, old school funk groups to ed m
all mixed up and uh, and it's a really cool
idea because there's a lot of good music out there
and there's no reason why everybody can't have a great
time with different kinds of music.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Boy, I agree.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
And uh, you know, with with Nickelback headlining on Friday
behind you, you've got like Travis Tritt and big and
Rich uh and I love you know, the legendariness of that,
but you've also uh and it certainly looks like have
extended it out to some of the young newer bands.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
And Nickelback has always been known for, you know, the
writing and.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Helping produce, especially your brother with a newer with newer bands.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
So are there any on this.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Uh particular festival that you know have caught your eye
or that you kind of recommended for this?
Speaker 3 (02:07):
We you know what, we just tried to try to
foster as much new talent as we can. And we
you know, we just we may or may not be
fans of these people, but we want to get the
new the new ones a shot at it. You know,
it's a it's cool to see this sort of new
young country.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
Uh sort of world bubbling up with guys that you know,
we know like Josh Ross and Bailey Zeman and Already
and these guys, these you.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Know, they're they're doing really really cool things. And so
we you know, what we noticed is when we play
with those artists, it's it's always our people, you know,
it's our fans are their fans, and their fans are
our fans.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
So it's a really great combo.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, the the new young rock bands or the new
young country bands just have that feel of rock, don't they.
I'm I mean, that's what everybody says, but when you
actually get up up close and up front there, they
really do sort of lend themselves more to rock, I
think than than even country.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
So it's it's yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
It seems like.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
They're the sort of what do you call it, Like
the attitude of new country now is just unapologetically having fun.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
You know, just have a good time. And and uh
that's we've been.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Out all about that for a long time and we're
gonna we're gonna keep that going. Just just have fun,
just spell some beer, have some laughs.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Let's uh, no question about it. It is a red, white,
and Blue party.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
There's you know, you got Leonard skinnered on there, and
and of course kid Rock now with all his connections
to Washington d C.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I mean, when I first looked.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
At this, you know, I said to myself, all right,
well you got big and rich, Travis Tritt, Leonard Skinner,
kid Rock. I said, maybe, you know, maybe Canada is
going to become the fifty first state. I mean, I
don't know how you feel about that, Mike, but you
you are the lone representative.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (04:12):
Well, you know what if if you didn't tell people,
they most of them wouldn't even know. You know, we
we've had that our whole career is you know, people
presuming we're American, just I guess because they think we
sound American. But we're happy with that. I'm the uh uh,
the what do you call it. I'm the the the
American in the group. I'm a naturalized United States citizen,
(04:35):
you know.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
I'm I'm I'm in one of the immigrant stories. You know,
waited in line for for years to get in and
finally was allowed into the Union with my wife and
children years ago, and I couldn't be happier about it.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Well, congratulations on that my friend. Now, that's that's well,
thank you sir. That's the way you do.
Speaker 6 (04:56):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, we we don't want to go anywhere.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
You know.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
I was working here with you know, a work visa,
so you know, as long as that work visa's enforced,
it's all good. But the instant you know, that goes
away or something happened to me, my wife and kids
would be ejected from the country. So I decided I
would pursue becoming a permanent member.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
For the That's awesome. So Hastn's Michigan.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I've driven through Hastings, Michigan before. They are absolutely gonna
love this though, because they're going to be, you know,
making money handing fist.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Through this little town. But it's two days.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Of course, there's camping and hotels and the Expo Center.
The very Expo Center is really fantastic. It's almost brand news.
So you guys have picked a great space here in Michigan.
How many of these Rock the Country.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Fests are there?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I thought I had heard Mike that Michigan was like
number six on the list, So how many are there?
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Do you know? Yet?
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Geez, I don't even know how many there are. I
think we're down for I think we're down for like
eleven of them or ten of them or.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Something like that.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
There.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
I think there might be more than what we're doing.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
But yeah, we're super excited to be uh invited and involved,
and we're looking forward to, you know, having fun with
our people because this is this is very much people.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
It's kind of a fluid festival then, right where bands, Yeah,
I mean.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
The build change up and yeah, they're not all the same.
So you know if you go to one, you know,
the one in Florida and you go to the one
in Michigan, they're probably going to be different.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Oh wow, okay, so uh nickelback.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Have you guys added your own dates and your own
tour outside of this somewhere down the line down the summer.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
No, yeah, I mean there's we're really just focusing on
this stuff. To be honest with you, we do have
we do have a couple of little things where we're
jumping off, but this is basically the extent of our
touring for this year. Nice and easy, just just have
have a few laughs with you all in these festivals.
Like I say, there's a couple of little ones that
we jump off on but yeah, it's a it's a
(07:11):
pretty it's a year of light work. I'd say it's
just gonna be it's just gonna be laughing fun.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Really well, it's perfect.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
And I got a feeling you guys are gonna end
up picking up more dates too, so you could end
up doing you know, close to sixteen dates.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
How many more do you want to do?
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Right?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
So that a pretty much right, and I pretty much
take care of the summer. So a lot of Americana
rock on there. I listened to your last album from
twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
That damn thing is heavy. Okay, it's not like.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
You know, there's some moments You're not doing.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Any Americana rock on there though. I mean that's pretty
heavy out. But I mean there's moments, and there's great moments.
I think the first five songs blew me away. I
loved it. But then I saw you all so did
a live album in Nashville, So there's a little bit
of a connection there.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
How did it Where did you do that? First off?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Because those are such small venues, And when did that
come about?
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Well, we played it in a pretty nice sized one.
It was the bridge Stone Arena where the natural Predators
play Hockey, and we had the show booked and it
was you know, as soon as we put it on sale,
it sold out right away, and there was a whole
bunch of excitement in the Nashville area for our visit.
And then we started to think about inviting friends up
(08:39):
on stage to join us, and in that sort of period,
we started making new friends and more friends. And then
after a while it was sort of like a you know,
half the show is featuring some kind of pal that
would come up and sing with us or whatever, and
it just turned it kind of took on a life
of its own, and we just we wanted to document
(09:01):
it and keep it, so we recorded the audio of it.
That is the album that you know is Live in Nashville,
and there's actually a film coming soon. We shot video
of all that too, so that'll be come in one
of these days.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Maybe I'm not supposed to tell you that. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
I know that's perfect. We love that.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Maybe it's a secret.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Breaking news.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
I know the secret's safe with you. You won't tell anyone, no, you.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Know, hey, listen, who's listening to me?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Right? So, Festival for the People Rock the Country, Kid
Rock Nickelback, Leonard skinnerd and all the rest Hastings, Michigan,
June thirteenth and fourteenth, And just go to Rockthecountry dot
com to get all your accommodations taken care of. I
really thought the website spelled it all out and made
(09:50):
it very easy for people to get their accommodations, whether
it's tense or hotel rooms. So it looks like this
thing is going to be in good shape. Just don't
take any ship from you know, Bob out there about
you know, about being the fifty first.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
We're good with uh, we're good with kid Rocky. He's
a friend from a long.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Long time ago.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
You guys came up.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
We kind of we're kind of go way back.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, you guys kind of came up right around the
same time. Uh yeah, because.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
I remember, you know, you guys hanging around the radio
station and you know, pretty much in the uh in
the same era.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
There, so uh huh yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
And Detroit, you know, area is really good for us
and you know, and and likewise for uh for mister
Bob Richie as well.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Well with that windsor connection for you guys and here,
I mean we were you know, we've never stopped playing nickelback,
so I love.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
It, and I can tell you we all appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, congratulations to you guys on this show. This is
going to be fantastic. Like you said, it's gonna be
a lot of fun, a lot of laughs, a lot
of drinking.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
That's what it looks like to me.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
I think that might be a safe guest.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
It should be.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Uh, it should be a really really fun show. And
uh and great for rock and rolling, great for country.
So congratulations Mike, Thank you so much, brother, and uh,
it's good to talk to you again after all this time.
And uh and hope to uh stay in touch with
you guys going forward.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
But thanks for checking out, all right, buddy, thank you,
and go rock the country, all right,
All right.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Well, joining us here at Detroit's Wheels is Mike Kroger
from Nickelback and Mike, this is a crazy festival.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
You guys are involved in.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
The Rock the Country Show is rolling into Hastings, Michigan
June thirteenth through the fourteenth. And you know when I
first saw this, Mike, I looked at it and I said,
this reminds me of kind of like the mid seventies
at the old State fair Grounds when they used to
put like Maha Vishna Orchestra along with Alice Cooper and
(00:32):
then you'd close it out with Marshall Tucker. It was
it was that diverse. And so is this right? How
did you guys get involved in this?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
You know, it's a relationship that one of our managers
has with.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
The people who came up with this idea and.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
They've been talking about it with us for a while,
so we've just been waiting for this opportunity to come up.
But yeah, it's you know, we've done so many festivals
over in Europe and other places of Australia where they
don't they don't just focus on one genre, you know
what I mean, They really mix it up, like you
play with everything from sort of solo female singers songwriters
(01:11):
to you know, old school funk groups to ed m
all mixed up and uh, and it's a really cool
idea because there's a lot of good music out there
and there's no reason why everybody can't have a great
time with different kinds of music.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Boy, I agree.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
And uh, you know, with with Nickelback headlining on Friday
behind you, you've got like Travis Tritt and big and
Rich uh and I love you know, the legendariness of that,
but you've also uh and it certainly looks like have
extended it out to some of the young newer bands.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
And Nickelback has always been known for, you know, the
writing and.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Helping produce, especially your brother with a newer with newer bands.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
So are there any on this.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Uh particular festival that you know have caught your eye
or that you kind of recommended for this?
Speaker 3 (02:07):
We you know what, we just tried to try to
foster as much new talent as we can. And we
you know, we just we may or may not be
fans of these people, but we want to get the
new the new ones a shot at it. You know,
it's a it's cool to see this sort of new
young country.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
Uh sort of world bubbling up with guys that you know,
we know like Josh Ross and Bailey Zeman and Already
and these guys, these you.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Know, they're they're doing really really cool things. And so
we you know, what we noticed is when we play
with those artists, it's it's always our people, you know,
it's our fans are their fans, and their fans are
our fans.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
So it's a really great combo.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, the the new young rock bands or the new
young country bands just have that feel of rock, don't they.
I'm I mean, that's what everybody says, but when you
actually get up up close and up front there, they
really do sort of lend themselves more to rock, I
think than than even country.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
So it's it's yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
It seems like.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
They're the sort of what do you call it, Like
the attitude of new country now is just unapologetically having fun.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
You know, just have a good time. And and uh
that's we've been.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Out all about that for a long time and we're
gonna we're gonna keep that going. Just just have fun,
just spell some beer, have some laughs.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Let's uh, no question about it. It is a red, white,
and Blue party.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
There's you know, you got Leonard skinnered on there, and
and of course kid Rock now with all his connections
to Washington d C.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I mean, when I first looked.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
At this, you know, I said to myself, all right,
well you got big and rich, Travis Tritt, Leonard Skinner,
kid Rock. I said, maybe, you know, maybe Canada is
going to become the fifty first state. I mean, I
don't know how you feel about that, Mike, but you
you are the lone representative.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (04:12):
Well, you know what if if you didn't tell people,
they most of them wouldn't even know. You know, we
we've had that our whole career is you know, people
presuming we're American, just I guess because they think we
sound American. But we're happy with that. I'm the uh uh,
the what do you call it. I'm the the the
American in the group. I'm a naturalized United States citizen,
(04:35):
you know.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
I'm I'm I'm in one of the immigrant stories. You know,
waited in line for for years to get in and
finally was allowed into the Union with my wife and
children years ago, and I couldn't be happier about it.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Well, congratulations on that my friend. Now, that's that's well,
thank you sir. That's the way you do.
Speaker 6 (04:56):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, we we don't want to go anywhere.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
You know.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
I was working here with you know, a work visa,
so you know, as long as that work visa's enforced,
it's all good. But the instant you know, that goes
away or something happened to me, my wife and kids
would be ejected from the country. So I decided I
would pursue becoming a permanent member.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
For the That's awesome. So Hastn's Michigan.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I've driven through Hastings, Michigan before. They are absolutely gonna
love this though, because they're going to be, you know,
making money handing fist.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Through this little town. But it's two days.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Of course, there's camping and hotels and the Expo Center.
The very Expo Center is really fantastic. It's almost brand news.
So you guys have picked a great space here in Michigan.
How many of these Rock the Country.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Fests are there?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I thought I had heard Mike that Michigan was like
number six on the list, So how many are there?
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Do you know? Yet?
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Geez, I don't even know how many there are. I
think we're down for I think we're down for like
eleven of them or ten of them or.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Something like that.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
There.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
I think there might be more than what we're doing.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
But yeah, we're super excited to be uh invited and involved,
and we're looking forward to, you know, having fun with
our people because this is this is very much people.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
It's kind of a fluid festival then, right where bands, Yeah,
I mean.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
The build change up and yeah, they're not all the same.
So you know if you go to one, you know,
the one in Florida and you go to the one
in Michigan, they're probably going to be different.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Oh wow, okay, so uh nickelback.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Have you guys added your own dates and your own
tour outside of this somewhere down the line down the summer.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
No, yeah, I mean there's we're really just focusing on
this stuff. To be honest with you, we do have
we do have a couple of little things where we're
jumping off, but this is basically the extent of our
touring for this year. Nice and easy, just just have
have a few laughs with you all in these festivals.
Like I say, there's a couple of little ones that
we jump off on but yeah, it's a it's a
(07:11):
pretty it's a year of light work. I'd say it's
just gonna be it's just gonna be laughing fun.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Really well, it's perfect.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
And I got a feeling you guys are gonna end
up picking up more dates too, so you could end
up doing you know, close to sixteen dates.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
How many more do you want to do?
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Right?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
So that a pretty much right, and I pretty much
take care of the summer. So a lot of Americana
rock on there. I listened to your last album from
twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
That damn thing is heavy. Okay, it's not like.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
You know, there's some moments You're not doing.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Any Americana rock on there though. I mean that's pretty
heavy out. But I mean there's moments, and there's great moments.
I think the first five songs blew me away. I
loved it. But then I saw you all so did
a live album in Nashville, So there's a little bit
of a connection there.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
How did it Where did you do that? First off?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Because those are such small venues, And when did that
come about?
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Well, we played it in a pretty nice sized one.
It was the bridge Stone Arena where the natural Predators
play Hockey, and we had the show booked and it
was you know, as soon as we put it on sale,
it sold out right away, and there was a whole
bunch of excitement in the Nashville area for our visit.
And then we started to think about inviting friends up
(08:39):
on stage to join us, and in that sort of period,
we started making new friends and more friends. And then
after a while it was sort of like a you know,
half the show is featuring some kind of pal that
would come up and sing with us or whatever, and
it just turned it kind of took on a life
of its own, and we just we wanted to document
(09:01):
it and keep it, so we recorded the audio of it.
That is the album that you know is Live in Nashville,
and there's actually a film coming soon. We shot video
of all that too, so that'll be come in one
of these days.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Maybe I'm not supposed to tell you that. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
I know that's perfect. We love that.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Maybe it's a secret.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Breaking news.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
I know the secret's safe with you. You won't tell anyone, no, you.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Know, hey, listen, who's listening to me?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Right? So, Festival for the People Rock the Country, Kid
Rock Nickelback, Leonard skinnerd and all the rest Hastings, Michigan,
June thirteenth and fourteenth, And just go to Rockthecountry dot
com to get all your accommodations taken care of. I
really thought the website spelled it all out and made
(09:50):
it very easy for people to get their accommodations, whether
it's tense or hotel rooms. So it looks like this
thing is going to be in good shape. Just don't
take any ship from you know, Bob out there about
you know, about being the fifty first.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
We're good with uh, we're good with kid Rocky. He's
a friend from a long.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Long time ago.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
You guys came up.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
We kind of we're kind of go way back.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, you guys kind of came up right around the
same time. Uh yeah, because.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
I remember, you know, you guys hanging around the radio
station and you know, pretty much in the uh in
the same era.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
There, so uh huh yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
And Detroit, you know, area is really good for us
and you know, and and likewise for uh for mister
Bob Richie as well.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Well with that windsor connection for you guys and here,
I mean we were you know, we've never stopped playing nickelback,
so I love.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
It, and I can tell you we all appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, congratulations to you guys on this show. This is
going to be fantastic. Like you said, it's gonna be
a lot of fun, a lot of laughs, a lot
of drinking.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
That's what it looks like to me.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
I think that might be a safe guest.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
It should be.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Uh, it should be a really really fun show. And
uh and great for rock and rolling, great for country.
So congratulations Mike, Thank you so much, brother, and uh,
it's good to talk to you again after all this time.
And uh and hope to uh stay in touch with
you guys going forward.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
But thanks for checking out, all right, buddy, thank you,
and go rock the country, all right,
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