Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger has laughed off a London resident’s recently launched campaign to see the Canadian group banned from playing the England capital. Speaking recently in an interview, the singer said he sees the humour in the campaign and claimed critics are what sustains the popular group.
“I love it,” Kroeger told The Pulse of Radio (via Blabbermouth) of Craig Mandell’s well-publicised crowdfunding campaign. “I hope the money goes to charity and not in this guy’s pocket. More controversy that surrounds either myself, my personal life, the band, whatever — I think it’s hilarious.”
“All these critics, they’re just tireless,” he added. “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. They don’t know that they’re still responsible for us being [laughs] around today.”
Mandell has since responded to Kroeger’s statement, taking to his campaign’s Tilt page to issue an update. “Chad Kroeger has responded to this campaign, saying he loves it.’ We therefore expect all Nickelback fans to immediately contribute, as it will make him very happy,” writes Mandell. “If you don’t support our efforts to ban Nickelback, you’ll be going against Nickelback. Is that what you want?”
Mandell launched his campaign earlier this month, writing that he hopes to raise $1,000 that will go to keeping Nickelback out of London for the foreseeable future. “We are attempting to ensure that Canadian ‘rockers’ Nickelback do not come to London, England to play a gig. With your help, we can ensure that the band do not schedule any gigs here, do not attempt to come here – nor even phone here,” he wrote.
However, the campaign, which was inspired by the recent raft of crowdfunding efforts aimed at luring Foo Fighters to play a gig in a given town and which at press time has raised only $282 from a total of 56 backers, has received a wave of backlash online, with many labelling it “dumb” and “pointless”.
The response forced Mandell to issue an update via his campaign page in which he assured backers that the campaign “is not about personal profit” and that all proceeds will go to charity. Mandell claims that each pledge will see a stern email sent to the band’s management on the contributor’s behalf.
