Brantley Gilbert isn’t mincing words when it comes to his excitement level about being on tour with Nickelback.
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Though he’s carved a lane for himself in country music with his hard-edged sound, Gilbert has been known to blend hard rock and hip-hop with country music. This has allowed his music to translate to a wider audience, with Gilbert spending the last two months of 2022 out on the road on Five Finger Death Punch’s arena tour. The two acts also teamed up for a cover of blues artist Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s 1998 single “Blue on Black” in 2019, a cover that also featured Shepherd himself and Queen guitarist Brian May. The multi-genre rendition hit No. 1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart.
Gilbert is once again stepping into rock territory as the supporting act on Nickelback’s 2023 Get Rollin’ Tour in support of their 2022 album of the same name. Gilbert was first pitched the idea of touring with the “Rockstar” singers through his manager, Aaron Keiser, and was immediately intrigued by the concept.
“Right off the bat [I] was like, ‘This could be cool,'” Gilbert recalls to American Songwriter. “The more conversations we had with their team, it just became a no-brainer.”
Gilbert observes that because they operate in two different genres of music that a sense of competition between the two acts has been eliminated. Gilbert says that Nickelback and their team have been nothing but supportive of Gilbert’s part of the show.
“We’re in such different worlds that I feel like there’s a competitive thing that kind of got washed out, similar as when we were on tour Five Finger Death Punch,” he explains. “That line in the sand’s been blurred a little bit and they’re just super cool guys.”
The “Country Must Be Country Wide” hitmaker is set to release the deluxe edition of his 2022 album, So Help Me God, on April 21. The project features his single, “Heaven By Then,” featuring Blake Shelton and Vince Gill, which is currently climbing up the top 30 on country radio. Gilbert says that the timing of the Nickelback tour aligns with the latest chapter of his career, promising that fans won’t be disappointed by the show they have in store.
“Right now, we felt that we were at a chapter in our careers, and I think they’re in a similar place, where we really want to deliver–it’s almost like a second go around I think for them and for us,” he expresses, describing the show as a “powder keg.”
“It really is going to be something that I think people are going to show up and [be] like, ‘Holy shit, I was hoping it was going to be good.’ … I’m not just saying this because I’m on this tour, this thing’s going to leave a damn crater wherever it touches down. It’s serious business.”
Nickelback and Gilbert embark on the Get Rollin’ Tour on June 12 in Nickelback’s native Canada in Quebec. They will traverse across Canada and the U.S. until August 30, when it wraps at UBS Arena in Belmont Park, New York.
Photo by Brian Vaughn/Courtesy of Essential Broadcast Media
