NICKELBACK's CHAD KROEGER And RYAN PEAKE Open Up About 'Heavy' New Single 'San Quentin', Upcoming Studio Album

Guitarist Ryan Peake and guitarist/vocalist Chad Kroeger of Canadian rockers NICKELBACK spoke to Robyn Lane of the WRAT radio station about the band's upcoming tenth studio album, which is due in November. Regarding why it took so long to produce the follow-up to 2017's "Feed The Machine", Chad said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, we should have been making a record a lot sooner, with all that time off [due to the coronavirus pandemic]. But it's weird to say this, but for 25 years it feels like someone's been standing behind us with a cattle prod and telling us, 'Hey, the record's gotta be done at this time. We're gonna tour at this time. We're gonna do Australia and then we're gonna go do Europe and then we're gonna come back. We'll go across Canada. We'll hit America.' Just like every other band that has to do this stuff, you wanna get a chance to see your fans all around the world. But with this, we were, like, 'We'll get to it when we get to it.' [Laughs] And yeah, we took our time with it, which was just a wonderful luxury, to be able to sit back and [go], 'No. I'm gonna play this guitar solo 40 more times for another three days and make sure it's just exactly how we want it as opposed to deadline, deadline, deadline."

In recent weeks, NICKELBACK has been teasing a new single, "San Quentin", which will arrive on September 7. Asked about some fans' initial reaction that the 10-second clip is trailering what sounds on initial listen like the heaviest song the band has ever written and unlike anything NICKELBACK has done before, Ryan said: "It's funny. We've been hearing that quite a bit. It's actually interesting because I think NICKELBACK fans would know for sure [that it's us once they heard the full song]. I don't think it's unusual… It's a heavy rock song, and if you've seen us live, you would definitely get it. But I kind of like that people are feeling like it's a surprise that we can have rock songs like that in the repertoire."

As for whether "San Quentin" is representative of the musical direction of the rest of the album, Chad said: "All of our records are all over the map. We don't have one record that really sort of sounds the same in terms of songwriting from top to bottom. I mean, they're all all over the map, and I absolutely love that. I don't know how we sort of did that and how we got the acceptance from our fans to be able to do that, but we're very lucky because we don't have to record the same kind of music thinking to ourselves, 'Well, the fans are expecting this, so we've just gotta give 'em a whole album of that.' We can kind of do whatever we want. It's so all over the map, and it's fulfilling as an artist to be able to get in, and as a songwriter, for us to be able to get together and go, 'Let's do something completely left field. Let's try something heavier than we've ever done. Let's try something lighter than we've ever done.' Whatever we're feeling that day, we just do it."

Chad also talked about the lyrical inspiration for "San Quentin", saying: "I met the [San Quentin prison] warden at a party. And I couldn't believe how young he was. I was, like, 'There's just no way that you're the warden of San Quentin,' and everyone was, like, 'Yup. He is.' Guy Fieri's [American restaurateur, author and Emmy Award-winning television presenter] a buddy of mine, and I was at his birthday party a few years back. And the entire time we were talking, I'm, like, [laughs] I'm speaking to this guy, but in my head all I could think about was, 'I'm gonna write a song called 'San Quentin'. That's it.' And I stuck it in my notes in my phone. And then once the riff was down, I think I screamed out this line, 'Can somebody please keep me the hell out of San Quentin?' And we just took it from there."

A music video for "San Quentin" was filmed on Tuesday (August 30) at the Simon Fraser University Convocation Mall in British Columbia. The clip will make its online debut by mid-September.

According to CTV News, hundreds of NICKELBACK fans attended the shoot, including one fan who one fan traveled all the way from Edmonton.

NICKELBACK will embark on a U.S. tour in support of its new album in the summer of 2023.

Peake said in April 2020 that NICKELBACK's documentary — which has been in the works for at least a few years — was "very close to being released."

In August 2020, NICKELBACK released a music video for its cover version of THE CHARLIE DANIELS BAND classic "The Devil Went Down To Georgia". Honoring Daniels, who passed away in July 2020, NICKELBACK invited guitarist Dave Martone to join them on a cover of the infamous classic story — paying homage to Daniels's influence on their careers and the legacy left behind.

NICKELBACK's "All The Right Reasons: 15th Anniversary Expanded Edition" was released as a two-CD set in October 2020. The collection featured a newly remastered version of the original 2005 album, a selection of B-sides and a 2006 live concert recording.

Since forming in Alberta, Canada in 1995, NICKELBACK has cemented itself as one of the most commercially viable and important acts of the past three decades. NICKELBACK's success includes worldwide sales of more than 50 million units, solidifying their status as one of the top-selling acts of all time.

With more than 23 chart-topping singles and fans spanning the globe, NICKELBACK boasts twelve consecutive sold-out world tours, playing to well over eight million diehard and adoring fans.