Credit: Richard Beland Nickelback‘s been looking for a soul to steal for some time.
Earlier this month, the Canadian rockers shared their spin on the Charlie Daniels Band classic “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” But as bassist Mike Kroeger tells ABC Audio, they first recorded the cover about 12 years ago, but never felt it was the right time to release it.
“We would come to a place where we’re making a record and be, like, ‘Hey, should we put ‘Devil Went Down to Georgia’ on there?’ ‘Hm, no, let’s just hold it back, hold it back,'” Kroeger explains. “We were just waiting for the right opportunity, and the right opportunity never really came.”
Flash forward to 2020, with their summer tour canceled due to COVID-19, Nickelback felt they could finally release the cover as a treat for fans. They even reached out to Charlie Daniels himself, who Kroeger says responded with “enthusiastic permission.”
“He was, like, ‘Yes, this is great, go ahead, do it,'” Kroeger recalls. “He approved it himself.”
With that, Nickelback was gearing up to finally release the cover when Daniels unexpectedly died in early July at age 83.
“In the spirit of good taste and sensitivity, we just didn’t wanna show any kind of disrespect to his legacy,” Kroeger says. “So we decided to hold it until the dust settled and the family had time to grieve in peace, and then we decided to come out with it.
Reactions to the cover have mostly marveled at how heavy it is, but Kroeger feels those who truly know Nickelback’s music won’t be too taken aback.
“The people that are surprised clearly haven’t listened to our records,” he says. “We’re a hard rock band, and we can be a heavy metal band…at times.”
By Josh Johnson
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(Video contains uncensored profanity.)
