In an episode of Drumeo, Mike Portnoy played a Nickelback song with double bass.
In the video, Drumeo asked Portnoy to play Nickelback’s song ‘Burn It To The Ground.’ He hadn’t heard it before. After listening to the song and making notes, he played it how he thought it should be done. Then he listened to the original version with Daniel Adair on drums.
Portnoy realized he might have added an extra bar at the start and realized that there was no double bass in Adair’s version, just a pump and kick drum. He played it with a lot of double kicks. After adding double bass to the song, the drummer joked that it would have gotten him ‘fired immediately’ from Nickelback.
Mike’s Comments On The Song
In the later part of the conversation, Portnoy said the following about the song:
“This is why they’re rich and famous and I’m just a f*cking prog guy.”
Mike also noted after playing the track:
“That was a good song, man. I could fine-tune that and make a really cool drum part, but I think it’s better just the first impression. I’m sure if I ever did end up touring with them it would be the most fun shows ever in my life. So yeah, I kind of regret that that gig didn’t happen, but there’s a little taste of what that could have been right here on Drumeo.”
The rocker also revealed that he nearly joined Nickelback as the drummer in 2022:
“I got a call from Nickelback in the spring of ’22. Their drummer [Daniel Adair], I guess, was having surgery and they asked me to play a show with them. And I said, ‘Yeah, that’d be a fun gig.’ I was all set to play this gig with Nickelback — it was for a festival [in Vancouver, Canada] — and the festival ended up getting canceled. But I was this close to playing a gig with Nickelback.”
Portnoy also said he didn’t know any Nickelback songs because he doesn’t listen to the radio. He also mentioned that, despite being disliked, Nickelback is very loved. He respects them for their connection with Pantera.