Earlier this week a British man named Craig Mandell launched a crowdfunding campaign to permanently ban Nickelback from performing in the United Kingdom.
With 22 days of fund raising left, the Don’t Let Nickel Back campaign has only amassed $281 off 55 backers at press time — that’s just over $5 a donation. It’s tough to predict if it will reach its goal of $1,000, which Mandells says will go to charity, but what it has generated so far were chuckles around the world, cute punny headlines from here to London, and more jokes about the Canadian rock band.
And frontman Chad Kroeger is enjoying every second of it, even suggesting that it’s the hate that’s keeping them together.
“I love it. More controversy that surrounds either myself, my personal life, the band, whatever — I think it’s hilarious,” Kroeger tells The Pulse Of Radio, via Metal Hammer.
“All these critics, they’re just tireless. They keep ragging on the band. If they had stopped writing all this stuff about us, there would be no controversy left in the band and we probably would have died out years ago.”
He then went for the jugular: “They don’t know that they’re still responsible for us being around today.”
In case you were wondering, Nickelback’s eighth studio album, No Fixed Address, drops November 3.