Joe Nichols Used To Cover Nickelback’s “Rockstar” As A Country Song And Somehow, It Just Works

Now I need to see a CMT Crossroads with these two.

Joe Nichols is one of the most underrated artists in country music. Aside from his incredible catalog of hits from the early 2000s like “Brokenheartsville,” “She Only Smokes When She Drinks” and “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off,” he’s still putting out some of the best stone-cold country music you’ll ever find – even if you won’t find it on the radio.

Well Joe is gearing up to hit the road with Justin Moore this summer, and ahead of their run of shows together Joe’s tour manager, Mike Nash, stopped by The JR the Handler Podcast to chat with Justin’s tour manager. And one of the topics of conversation was the most famous person Nash has in his phone.

Nash revealed that the biggest phone number he has is Chad Kroeger, the lead singer of Nickelback – and as it turns out, Kroeger is a big Joe Nichols fan:

“Chad really was a fan of Joe Nichols years ago. We hung out with him a few times, and Nickelback used to do “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off” at times, they would cover it in their show.”

But apparently the feeling is mutual – and Nash also revealed that Nichols used to cover Nickelback’s “Rockstar.”

Well naturally I had no choice but to immediately turn to YouTube to try to find a video of Joe Nichols, one of the most stone-cold country guys out there, singing a Nickelback song. And I was in luck.

There are several videos of Nichols singing “Rockstar,” but Joe put his own country spin on the song, adding a mandolin and steel guitar and turning it into a true blue country twanger.

And it works.

Now, the lyrics might not be the most country, but believe it or not it’s actually a pretty good country song.

Take a listen for yourself:

Of course Nickelback has dabbled in country before, and just a year or so ago teamed up with HARDY for a CMT Crossroads special. But now I think they missed an opportunity by not doing one with Joe Nichols too, because way back in 2010 Nichols joined Nickelback during a show in Nashville to perform “Rockstar” and he was a natural – even though it wasn’t in the country style that he performed it in himself.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find any great videos of Nickelback singing “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off,” but there are a couple of clips floating around out there. All the more reason for these two acts to get back on stage together: I need the video of Kroeger making the Joe Nichols classic into a rock song now.

I know Joe is excited about his upcoming tour with Justin Moore, but maybe after they wrap up we can get him on a tour with Nickelback. It might sound crazy, but based on the videos, I think it just might work.

If you want to check out the full conversation between Justin’s tour manager JR and Joe’s tour manager, you can watch the full episode of The JR the Handler Podcast here:

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