AC/DC’s Back In Black is the biggest selling rock album of all time – and for many, the greatest rock album of all time.
It has also been an inspiration to numerous rock musicians.
“Back In Black saved rock ’n’ roll in the ’80s,” said Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash.
And another famous star in love with that album is Chad Kroeger, the singer, guitarist and principal songwriter in Nickelback.
In an interview with Classic Rock in 2022, Kroeger named a handful of his favourite albums, among them Metallica’s … And Justice For All and Pantera’s Vulgar Display Of Power.
And he explained why Back In Black has a special place in his heart.
“All those songs that get you going with the involuntarily head-bob,” he said. “They had it down to a science. And I love the lyrics in Have A Drink On Me. ‘I’m trying to walk a straight line on sour mash and cheap wine!’ Just brilliant. All that fun and simplicity, but it’s got that edge to it - like, argh!”
Back In Black was the second of three albums that AC/DC made with producer Mutt Lange. And when Nickelback worked with Lange on the band’s 2008 album Dark Horse, Kroeger couldn’t resist asking Lange for stories about the making of AC/DC’s 50-million-selling classic.
What Lange remembered best, and with no small amount of pleasure, was an incident when, in the pursuit of perfection, he was pushing AC/DC’s singer Brian Johnson to the limits of human endurance.
As Kroeger related the story: “Brian Johnson was screaming. I mean, we’ve all the record, right? Brian would finish screaming these songs and he’d come into the studio and collapse. His head was killing him. You can’t go that hard and have your skull feel nothing.
“And one time, a producer who was working in the studio right next door came in and said: ‘We can hear the screaming through the soundproof wall!’ He looked at Mutt and said, ‘You’re gonna kill him!’ And Mutt said, ‘Yeah! But doesn’t it sound great?’”
As for what Lange brought to Nickelback’s album, Kroeger was full of praise.
“I learned so much from working with Mutt,” he said. “His ability to know what’s right and when it’s not quite there yet is impeccable. It’s astounding what he can hear and focus in on.
“Before we started Mutt said, ‘You’re not having a hard time selling records, and you’re not having a hard time writing songs. But hopefully I can take you in directions you normally wouldn’t have gone in on your own.’ And that was perfect for us.”
Lange is famously reclusive, but as Kroeger revealed, a close friendship developed between them during the recording of Dark Horse, which led to a rather surprising arrangement .
At that time, Lange was in the process of separating from his wife and muse Shania Twain.
“When Mutt and Shania were splitting up, he moved into my house for five months,” Kroeger said. “So I got to know him pretty well.”
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