Nickelback's Nashville concert heralds hard rock's country inspired revival with surprise guests

50 million-album-selling Canadian rock act Nickelback's headlining set at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena put a spotlight on an increasingly-democratized music landscape defined and led by a fiery, raucous, unapologetic and rock-driven pop-country sound.

At a time when guitar-driven and dive-bar beer-soaked mainstream country rules American popular music unprecedentedly, the concert (featuring openers Josh Ross and Brantley Gilbert) was an incredibly timely event.

"They've been trying to cancel us for twenty... years," stated Nickelback's lead singer Chad Kroeger before launching into a prolonged rant against "snowflakes" and "keyboard warriors."

He followed by leading the band into 2003's "Figured You Out."

A song achieving gold-selling Billboard Mainstream Rock chart No. 1 status isn't a cancellable offense.

Surprise guest: Jason Aldean appears with Brantley Gilbert at Nashville Nickelback concert

Pieces of Nickelback's 27 top-10 single (eight No. 1s) laden catalog, was not cat-called in anger were met with a roaring singalong from the sold-out Bridgestone Arena crowd.

The most profound takeaway from Tuesday night's event was that a catalyst that helped push pop music into its most countrified evolution ever was a quartet of Canadian rockers.

Sounds that felt unfrozen and as vital as they were in the first decade of the 21st century -- when joined by guests representing two decades of mainstream country and rock mega-hits like Jason Aldean, Chris Daughtry, Ernest, Brantley Gilbert, Hardy, Jelly Roll and Bailey Zimmerman -- offered a bizarre hope for pop's country-led future.

Nickelback's retro-fitted revolution

Twenty years have elapsed since multiple rock singles have existed in Billboard's year-end Hot 100 countdown of pop singles of the year. This era overlaps with one in which Nickelback achieved ten top-10 Mainstream rock chart hits.

In the 20 years that have transpired since rock's last era of dominance, Joey Moi -- the architect-producer behind 80 percent of Nickelback's album sales -- has moved from Vancouver to Nashville and after working with enormously popular crossover country duo Florida Georgia Line, co-founded mega-successful country label Big Loud Records. There, he's produced acts including Morgan Wallen, Ernest and Hardy, among many others.

Couple this with the notion that the domestic music industry sold more physical units between 1995-2005 than in any other decade. Thus, any act -- including Nickelback -- that achieved acclaim in this period benefitted from greater mainstream accessibility than most any other act in music history.

For those shocked to hear that a band frequently lampooned can still blow away a capacity crowd of thousands, consider that they have released five albums and maintained rock chart relevance since 2005. Their musical legacy continues as their producer now works with artists who were largely impressionable children having Nickelback's inspiration imprinted on them at the band's previous musical height.

At one moment during Nickelback's two-hour set, a searing tower of flame shot forth as the quartet played their No. 1 rock hit "Animals." It unleashed a primal scream from the crowd that felt as if the irony surrounding loving Nickelback was being burned from our collective memory, plus 20 years of pent-up rock-to-crossover fervor was being unleashed.

Time will tell what, if anything, it yields, but it was a decisive moment.

Jason Aldean appears, hailed as a keeper of the flame

Country music's most politically and socially polarizing performer of the moment, Jason Aldean, appeared onstage alongside his frequent creative collaborator -- and Nickelback opener -- Brantley Gilbert.

Alongside "My Kinda Party," he performed his breakout song, the 2008-written "Dirt Road Anthem." In and of itself, the latter song makes him historically relevant to rock's ability to stay semi-revived until Tuesday night's full-fledged revival in the fire-kissed spotlight.

Jelly Roll, Hardy and Ernest appearances kick country's rockstar moment into hyperdrive

Jelly Roll's closing Tuesday night "Backroad Baptism" tour set was only three hours away from Nashville in Huntsville, Alabama. Ernest, Hardy and Bailey Zimmerman were on an off night from supporting Morgan Wallen on the perennially chart-topping of late country star's "One Day At A Time" tour.

Jelly Roll walked out to duet with Gilbert on their 2022 collaboration "Sons Of The Dirty South."

In one of the many poignant moments of star-power transference during the evening, when Jelly Roll referred to Gilbert as "an original outlaw and one of the greatest songwriters in the history of Nashville," the veteran performer looked at the plus-sized Antioch-native born Jason DeFord and laughed.

It wasn't that he was grateful; it was more that he wanted Jelly Roll -- who has achieved three multi-genre No. 1 singles in two years after spending the prior decade as an independent rapper to know that he deserved to share the spotlight he had just offered Gilbert.

ERNEST appeared stunned when invited onstage to perform a verse and chorus of his 2022 hit "Flower Shops." Not stunned -- but instead fully understanding the assignment -- was Zimmerman, who, like Jelly Roll, is on the verge of achieving three No. 1 hits in two years.

Springing forth from on top of Nickelback's stage set, he joined Kroeger for a particularly spirited take on 2005's "Rockstar." While singing in a key an octave higher than the Nickelback lead singer, Zimmerman "leapt around onstage like Kid Rock in 1999" (as Kroeger joked). The moment didn't identify the 48-year-old singer as aging gracefully as much as it highlighted that a countrified youth movement filled with hip-hop swagger would be present in this iteration of rock's revival.

And finally, Hardy's best breakout to date as rock's next superstar occurred at Bridgestone Arena. Backed by Nickelback, he lurched and hurled himself with unrepentant glee into a crowd-beloved version of his 2022-released smash "SOLD OUT." It was the evening's most comfortably convincing rock moment.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nickelback concert in Nashville features guests Hardy, Jelly Roll