Nickelback marathon under way for charity

A man from the US is listening to Nickelback constantly for a week to raise cash for charity.

Jesse Carey started the marathon session on Monday and will stop this coming Sunday – and he says he’s received messages of support from across the world for his “ultimate test of human endurance.”

He tells the Relevant podcast: “I want to lift the confidence of what a human being is capable of. It’s the feeling I get after I watch a David Blaine special, and he’s been locked in a block of ice upside down for reasons that were never made clear. All you need to know is that he did it.

“People have been kind enough to leave messages of encouragement. Somebody even said there’s a darkness to the music and I’ll have to do some sort of hot yoga cleanse after this – people are concerned for me spiritually, emotionally and even physically.

“No one knows what the brain will do when subjected to this type of Nickelback.”

The serious side to Nickelbackathon is Carey’s drive to generate funds for the charity Water (opens in new tab), which aims to build wells and give people across the world access to safe, clean water.

He set his target at $10,000 but now, in the middle of his listening session, he’s broken the $20,000 mark. (opens in new tab)

And among the top donors so far is Chad Kroeger with a pledge of $666 – although there’s no confirmation it’s the actual Nickelback frontman.

Carey, who says the keys to success are frequent stretching, hydration and psychotic breakdown avoidance, is updating his progress via Twitter.

The band have received their fair share of internet hate over the years, but Kroeger recently revealed no one laughed at the group more than themselves.

He said: “We are one of those bands that a lot of people think take themselves seriously. And no one — and I know this is hard to believe — can make as much fun of us as we make fun of ourselves.

“If you think the internet’s rough, you should sit in a van with us. We make up the best alternate lines to our songs – and this is some top-shelf stuff.”

Nickelback released eighth album No Fixed Address last year via Republic Records and head out on the road across the UK with support from Monster Truck in November.

Tour dates

Nov 13: Sheffield Motorpoint Arena

Nov 14: Glasgow SSE Hydro

Nov 16: Newcastle Metro Radio Arena

Nov 17: Manchester Arena

Nov 19: Liverpool Echo Arena

Nov 21: Birmingham Genting Arena

Nov 22: Nottingham Capital FM Arena

Nov 24: London Wembley Arena

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers and magazines as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. After initially joining our news desk in the summer of 2014, he moved to the e-commerce team full-time in 2020. He maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott grew up listening to rock and prog, cutting his teeth on bands such as Marillion and Magnum before his focus shifted to alternative and post-punk in the late 80s. His favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Drab Majesty, but he also still has a deep love of Rush.