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One Ottawa councillor is over the moon that his favourite band is coming back to Bluesfest this summer.
Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney reacted to Bluesfest’s lineup announcement Thursday by posting a selfie showing his recent tattoo.
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The word Nickelback, in thick capital letters, stretches along his left forearm, placed so that onlookers can see it and immediately know that he is not among the legions of music fans who profess to dislike the superstar rockers from small-town Alberta.
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“If you don’t know, I’m a crazy person for Nickelback so it’s awesome they’re actually coming back,” Tierney said in an interview. “I’m the ultimate fan.”
Yes, the tattoo is real, an idea prompted by an encounter with Bluesfest director Mark Monahan at last year’s CityFolk festival, which is run by the same team that organizes Bluesfest. Tierney says he “begged” Monahan to bring Nickelback back this summer, to which Monahan jokingly replied, “OK. Get a tattoo and we’ll see.”
That was all the encouragement Tierney needed. About five months ago, well before the show was confirmed, he went under the needle of tattoo artist Mariah Landers at Centretown’s Obscura Tattoo, documenting the session on X.
The permanent expression of fandom is the latest move in a Nickelback obsession that started when Tierney was in his teens, growing up in Constance Bay.
“I was your typical teenager,” he says. “I drove an IROC-Z (Chevrolet Camaro) and I liked rock music. There were always fights about Nickelback not being real rock music, but now I think it’s proven they are. It’s a lot of good tunes that get you pumped up.”
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The band’s 2001 breakthrough album, Silver Side Up, and its massive single, How You Remind Me, was what grabbed him in the beginning. Tierney says he was an early adopter; his friends didn’t become fans until Photograph and Rockstar hit the airwaves a few years later.
But as the band grew in popularity, a backlash began to form, too, triggered not only by the constant repetition of their formulaic songs on radio in the early 2000s, but also their overuse of sexist tropes in lyrics and videos. For years, they were the most hated band on the planet (a phenomenon explored in the 2023 documentary, Hate to Love: Nickelback).
Tierney never subscribed to the haters’ attitude. In fact, the last time Nickelback played Bluesfest, in 2012, he had a blast finding the supposed Nickelback haters in the crowd, and calling them out on social media. “It became a bit of a challenge,” Tierney says with a laugh.
At home, his wife and three children, now adults, also had to put up with his limited playlist. “They’ve had to endure my love of Nickelback for years,” Tierney says. “Back when we had CDs, if we went to a cottage out east, I’d put on Nickelback and go through all the albums. The kids were ripping their hair out. ‘Is it Mom’s turn yet?’ ”
Today, although rock music has lost ground to hip hop, pop and country, the tide is turning on the loathing of Nickelback, thanks in part to the support of celebrities like Ryan Reynolds, and the industry’s recognition of their remarkable success, with more than 50 million albums sold around the world and billions of streams. Nickelback was inducted last year into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.
As for his political career, Tierney says the tattoo has not alienated constituents. In fact, it’s been a great conversation starter, he says, inspiring people to share stories about their favourite concerts and songs.
Of course, his schedule is already cleared for July 5, and the countdown is on. “I’ll be insufferable for 127 more sleeps,” Tierney said Thursday.
Bluesfest runs from July 4-14 on the grounds of the Canadian War Museum at LeBreton Flats Park.
lsaxberg@postmedia.com
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