Rockstar (Nickelback song)

"Rockstar"
Song

"Rockstar" is a country rock song by the Canadian rock band Nickelback from their 2005 fifth studio album All the Right Reasons. It was only released in the U.S. and Canada, and has since been re-released worldwide.

Release and Re-release

It was originally released as the fifth single off the album in the U.S. and Canada, around the same time as the fourth U.S. single "Far Away". During the song's original release "Far Away" was more successful on the U.S. Hot 100 and U.S. Pop charts, while "Rockstar" instead found moderate success on the rock charts. It peaked at #4 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, and #37 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. It entered the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #54, during its original run. Because the song was released so close together with "Far Away" the band opted to shoot a video for "Far Away" and a video for "Rockstar" was not made originally.

The song was re-shipped to radio for adds on June 5, 2007, and a video was made to accompany the re-release. Since its re-release, the song has experienced great mainstream success, and has become active on most charts again,reaching new peaks on numerous charts like The Hot 100, the Adult Top 40, and Pop 100. It has also registered on charts it didn't the first time, such as the Pop 100 Airplay. The song has so far climbed as high as #3 on iTunes top 100 selling songs.

As of September 12, 2007, "Rockstar" has reached a new peak of #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking higher then "Far Away" did, and becoming Nickelback's third Top 10 hit from "All the Right Reasons", their fifth career Hot 100 Top Ten overall.

Song meaning

The song details the stereotype that most people have about the life of a rockstar. The lead singer, Chad Kroeger, assumes the role of a person wanting to get to that life. It also features many clichés and popular beliefs of what fame can get one, such as:

"I want a brand new house/ on an episode of Cribs/ And a bathroom I can play baseball in/

And a king size tub big enough/ for ten plus me/

I’ll need a credit card that’s got no limit/ And a big black jet with a bedroom in it/ Gonna join the mile high club/ At thirty-seven thousand feet/ I want a new tour bus full of old guitars/

My own star on Hollywood Boulevard."

Spoken-word vocals between each verse are provided by Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. Gibbons assumes the role of the rock star who has already made it, asking challenging questions to the would-be newcomer. Others have interpreted his lines as the devil egging the narrarator on to sell his soul for the rockstar lifestyle, (i.e. "Tell me watcha want","Ah, so watcha need? "). It is also mentioned that Billy Gibbons character is not an aged rocker. As he is offering not just advice to the new rocker it is possible that Billy's character may be the devil.

Music video

When the song was first released in August 2006, a music video was not made for the single. On June 7, 2007 it was reported on VideoStatic.com that a video was being planned. Dori Oskowitz, who directed the band's "If Everyone Cared" video, returned to direct the music video for the song's re-release.

The video features celebrities and non-celebrities lip synching to the lyrics. The non-celebs are often filmed in front of a city's iconic landmarks, such as Chicago's Marina City buildings, Raleigh's acorn sculpture and London's Tower Bridge. Celebrities starring in the video are Dominique Swain, Billy Gibbons (who voices his lines in the song), Jenna Jameson, Nelly Furtado, Kid Rock, John Rich, Gene Simmons, Ted Nugent, Taryn Manning, Eliza Dushku, The Naked Cowboy, pornstar Daisy Marie, Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell, Jerry Cantrell, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Paul Wall, Wayne Gretzky, Washington, DC area DJ Elliot Segal, Federico Castelluccio, Grant Hill, Lupe Fiasco, Twista, and the crew from American Chopper among numerous others. Sometimes the lyric they are lip synching to directly relates to themselves. For example, Playboy Playmates Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson (from The Girls Next Door), are shown singing along with the song during the lyric "Get a front door key to the Playboy Mansion". At the end of the video Nickelback is shown playing live on stage; this shot was filmed in July 2007, at a show in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

A recent thread on Yahoo Answers kicked off an attempt to list everyone in the separate shots in the video. Here are all identified participants so far (includes many additions from other sources):

001. Larry Tong at baseball field
002. Lindsey Shaw at Chicago's Cloud Gate
003. unknown man in front of the Flatiron Building in NYC
004. Cindy Taylor on pool float
005. old lady front of St. Paul's Cathedral in London
006. Billy Gibbons of ZZ top
007. Hockey player Wayne Gretzky
008. three girls in street
009. Kendra Wilkinson from the Girls Next Door in front of Playboy Mansion
010. NYC policeman
011. Gene Simmons
012. Paul Wall
013. Billy Gibbons again
014. unknown woman in front of Chicago's Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park
015. Dominique Swain in tub
016. 3 guys at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin
017. Twista
018. man in Grand Central Station
019. Holly Madison in the grotto
020. unknown girl
021. unknown street musician
022. unknown street performers
023. Three unknown girls on the bank of Chicago River, in front of Marina City
024. Gene Simmons again
025. Paul Teutul, Sr. of Orange County Choppers
026. Billy Gibbons again
027. John Rich on pool table
028. unknown girl in street
029. Chuck "Iceman" Lidell
030. unknown man in Chinese restaurant
031. two Daisy Duke wannabees
032. group of kids in front of Sydney Harbour Bridge
033. Wayne Gretzky again
034. parking valet
035. British man in front of Houses of Parliament
036. Daisy Marie in bikini
037. Kid Rock
038. Twista again
039. unknown girl in Grand Central Station
040. Eliza Dushku
041. NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
042. Taryn Manning
043. Paul Wall
044. two girls in street
045. Unknown man under Chicago's El tracks in front of Double Door, Chicago
046. Liam Lynch
047. Nelly Furtado on tour bus
048. unknown man
049. unknown man in street
050. unknown women , Heather and Cathy Grand Central Station
051. Chuck Liddell with unknown guy in headlock
052. unknown kid in grocery store
053. Paul Teutul, Jr., Paul Teutul, Sr., and Mikey from Orange County Choppers
054. unknown man in front of Marina City in Chicago
055. Elvis impersonator
056. Federico Castelluccio
057. Chuck Liddell again
058. Grant Hill of the Phoenix Suns
059. unknown man
060. Billy Gibbons again
061. Paul Wall again
062. two unknown people on street
063. Ted Nugent
064. unknown man & unknown woman in front of the Cloud Gate again
065. Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson
066. unknown guy in front of the Flatiron Building in NYC
067. two unknown guys in Washington Square Park
068. Billy Gibbons again
069. the Teutuls again
070. unknown couple in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin
071. Jordan Carlos
072. guy in front of NYSE
073. Unknown Man on bench
074. Lupe Fiasco on table
075. unknown woman in front of Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany
076. unknown woman in front of the Chicago Theater
077. two unknown girls on beach
078. Taryn Manning again
079. Eliza Dushku by pool
080. unknown girl in front of Sydney Harbour Bridge
081. three unknown girls
082. Gene Simmons again
083. Dominique Swain again
084. Lupe Fiasco again
085. Chuck Liddell again
086. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. again
087. unknown young girls on Times Square
088. Unknown man in front of Beverly Hills High School
089. Eliza Dushku again
090. Federico Castelluccio again
091. Riki Lindhome at the beach
092. Kid Rock again
093. a steel worker
094. John Rich again, smashing guitar
095. three unknown girls in street
096. Te'DeVan Kurzweil
097. Lupe Fiasco again
098. son of Chad Kroeger at control board
099. Victoria Beckham
100. unknown guy on street in Chinatown, New York, NY
101. unknown kid on street corner on Argyle street in Uptown, Chicago IL Neighborhood
102. unknown guy in front of The Big Acorn in Raleigh, NC
103. "Daisy Duke" wannabees
104. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. again
105. The Naked Cowboy in Times Square
106. girl in bikini on beach
107. kid in street
108. Cindy Taylor in a pool wet
109. unknown girl in front of Chicago's Buckingham Fountain
110. Grant Hill again
111. unknown man on street
112. Ted Nugent again
113. Holly Madison in the grotto
114. Bridget Marquardt in pink
115. Kendra Wilkinson in front of mansion
116. kid in front of London's Tower Bridge
117. Nelly Furtado again
118. two girls in front of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge
119. Kid Rock again
120. Ted Nugent again
121. John Rich again
122. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. again
123. Street Worker in front of Marina City in Chicago
124. Wayne Gretzky again
125. Kendra Wilkinson in front of mansion again
126. Nelly Furtado again
127. Gene Simmons again
128. Nickelback fans at Hershey, PA concert / Chad Kroeger / Mike Kroeger and Ryan Peake

• Most of the scenes on the street were filmed on Davie St. in Downtown Vancouver.

Charts

Chart	Peak position
Canadian BDS Airplay Chart	13
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	6
U.S. Billboard Pop 100	6
U.S. Billboard Pop 100 Airplay	10
U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks	37
U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks	4
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Top 40	6
U.S. Billboard Hot Digital Songs	3
U.S. Billboard Hot Ringtones	3
ARC Weekly Top 40	5
Austrian Top 40	17
German Singles Charts	30
Swiss Singles Top 100	43
United World Chart	15
VSpot Top 20 Countdown	1

• "Rockstar" has sold 959,156 downloads in the U.S. as of September 8, 2007.
• It was voted "Best Comeback" on the Billboard Hot 100 music charts for Week 27, 2007.

Pop Culture References

The song makes several references to popular culture. For example, the song's narrator wants a house on MTV Cribs (Chad Kroeger, the band's frontman, actually did appear on an episode of the show). Several Playboy references are made. The song also alludes to anorexia in the line, "We'll all stay skinny, 'cause we just won't eat." The song also refers to Hollywood's Walk of Fame, saying that a spot between James Dean and Cher (line sung by Gene Simmons who once dated Cher) (who, interestingly, does not have her own star but does share one with her late ex-husband, Sonny Bono) would be "fine for [him]." (Nickelback is on the Canadian Walk of Fame)The song also references Chad wanting "a new tour bus full of old guitars" which the band's guitarist owns.

External Links

• Nickelback - Rockstar Music Video at KOvideo.net