“I think I have 11 counts of breaking and entering on my criminal record": How Nickelback's nostalgic Photograph spawned a flood of memes and the unwanted attention from a soon-to-be-impeached American President

Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger holds a framed picture in a still from the band's Photograph video — (Image credit: Roadrunner Records)

If you want to write a hit song, write one about a photograph. Ever since the French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce started messing around with bitumen-coated plates two centuries ago, the idea of thumbing through snaps is like premium catnip for people of a certain age.

It worked for Def Leppard in 1983 (Photograph) and Weezer in 2001 (also titled Photograph). There are others.

For Nickelback, their offering is a nostalgic nod to growing up in a small Canadian town called Hanna, which has a population of 2,394 according to the 2021 census. It’s the sort of place where everyone sort of knows each other’s business. And for their fifth studio album, All the Right Reasons, they chose the song as the lead single and inadvertently shone a light on the small Albertan farming community.

"It's just nostalgia, growing up in a small town, and you can't go back to your childhood," frontman Chad Kroeger told CBC. “Saying goodbye to friends that you’ve drifted away from, where you grew up, where you went to school, who you hung out with and the dumb stuff you used to do as a kid, the first love – all of those things. Everyone has one or two of those memories that they are fond of, so this song is really just the bridge for all that.”

'Look at this photograph', Kroeger positively implores the band's fans at the beginning of the song. Hard to do with a CD, stream, record or tape, admittedly, but the video – directed by Nigel Dick – was shot on their Hanna stamping ground. The photograph he's so desperate for you to see features the singer and his friend Joey Moi and held proudly at the start of the video. The image which inspired the song, features the album producer wearing a shiny champagne bucket during a messy New Year’s Eve party.

Nickelback - Photograph [OFFICIAL VIDEO] - YouTube

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After that, it’s a flood of Kroeger’s memories of his teenage years: sneaking out of the second floor of his childhood home, the old arcade which later burned down and singing along to the radio in a car. Then he divulges that he has a criminal record for breaking into the J.C. Charyk High School numerous times.

“I think I have 11 counts of breaking and entering on my criminal record,” said Kroeger. “God, I was a bad kid. If [Hanna] was an island, they would have either drowned me or I’d have been voted off real quick.”

Nickelback during Nokia UNWIRED Concert Series - September 27, 2005 at Nokia Theater in New York City — Nickelback in 2005 (Image credit: Theo Wargo/WireImage)

The song was a hit, reaching the top of the Canada Hot AC Top 30, US Mainstream Rock and US Pop 100. Its Spotify streams are in the region of 381 million and counting.

The single also enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, thanks largely to the video's opening shot being turned into a meme.

In October 2019, President Donald Trump posted a clip of the video on his Twitter feed, with a digitally altered scene featuring Kroeger holding a framed pic of then-Pesidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter with two unnamed men. Trump was subject to a potential impeachment inquiry at the time and felt a meme featuring a Canadian rock singer was a suitable diversionary tactic.

The video was removed within 12 hours due to a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) complaint and Trump was impeached two months later.

I will absolutely die if @Nickelback issues a statement on Trump's tweet.October 2, 2019

Nickelback didn't respond publicly to Trump's tweet and Yashar, thankfully, lived to tell the tale.

The following year, however, Google teamed up with the four-piece for a campaign promoting the search engine's Photos app. In the video, the 2005 promo is parodied with the band poking fun at themselves with myriad memes and brand new lyrics including 'Falling down the photo rabbit hole, is it my hair or just a ramen bowl?'

“Fifteen years ago, we had no idea that the photos on our mobile devices would become such a ubiquitous part of all of our lives,” said Kroeger in a statement. “When Google approached us with the idea about marrying the song with Google Photos, we felt like it would be a fun and nostalgic way to give the song a lyrical refresh and share some of our favourite memories.”

While the renumeration package for this 2020 collaboration was not publicly disclosed, Google aren't short of a Canadian dollar or two. Let's just leave it at that.

Google Photos - Look at your photographs - YouTube

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Born in 1976 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Simon Young has been a music journalist for over twenty-six years. His fanzine, Hit A Guy With Glasses, enjoyed a one-issue run before he secured a job at Kerrang! in 1999. His writing has also appeared in Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Prog, and Planet Rock. His first book, So Much For The 30 Year Plan: Therapy? — The Authorised Biography is available via Jawbone Press.

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