If you’re wondering about the difference between Devin Townsend and Chad Kroeger, well, you’re in luck because Townshend recently chatted with Ultimate Guitar to tell us what separated him from the Nickelback frontman. The singer also discussed how it was working with Chad on his album, ‘Empath.’
“Chad’s brilliant,” Devin Townsend said as he recalled teaming up with Kroeger. “Chad is a phenomenally intelligent human being. But he’s a rockstar, too, on levels that you and I will never participate in. And so there’s gonna be a disconnect just based on that. You only have a few things in common, and then, after a while, you run out of things to talk about.”
He continued, “I think it was flattering for me at first, too. But again, [the] guy’s got a very complex life, and I can’t understand a lot of it. How could I? it’s not within the realm of my world. But I think he’s exceptionally talented. I think he’s phenomenally intelligent. And I think that there’s a certain degree of intensity to his life that I just can’t hang with, man.”
The everyday life of a rock star was too much for Devin to handle. The musician noted, “It’s too much for me. For every hour of social activity, I need two hours on my own to recover. And there’s other people, and a lot of them are the people that end up being at that level of success that are never enough.”
So, Townsend preferred to have a much quieter life after playing for hours on stage. He said, “You play a concert in an arena, and then you go to a club, and then you go parasailing, and then you drink all night. And I’m like, ‘I can’t do it.’ I hate it. Even if I respect and care for people, after a certain amount of time, again, I have to tap out. I’m like, ‘Dude, I can’t hang with this.’ I’m in bed by nine, usually.”
The vocalist also added, “I don’t want to listen to Pantera at four in the morning, you know? And that’s not a character flaw at all; it’s just a different frequency that folks like that exist on. I’m not like that. But sometimes, it takes experiences with folks like that to know that. Maybe you think you can hang, and then you get there.”
Even though they had different lifestyles, Devin still loved and respected Kroeger very much. Townsend shared, “And I mean, with Chad, I remember being at his house a couple [of] times, and just being, ‘Wow, this is so intense, man.’ He had a stage set up, and it’s metal all night. And I’m thinking like, ‘Man, you are so much more of a metalhead than I am.’ But I do care for him. And I think he’s brilliant.”
So, the primary difference between Townsend and Kroeger was that while the former preferred a quieter life with a routine, Chad loved a fast rock and roll lifestyle. So, even though the life of a rock star wasn’t for Devin, the Nickelback frontman indeed has fun.
