"I'm just as much a businessman as I am a musician," says Nickelback singer and Sammy Hagar look-alike Chad Kroeger. "I love knowing how to play the game, because information is power. I might even lean a little more toward the business side. I love the business of it."

That's Kroeger talking to the Edmonton Sun in 2000, and anyone interested in the music industry should pay attention. One year on, Nickelback are North America's reigning rock lords, sniffing at Staind's airplay with the stop/start anthem "How You Remind Me," and debuting second only to Jay-Z with their third record, Silver Side Up. Without question, they've become Hanna, Alberta's most famous sons.

Call them destiny's children. Having made Hanna's music scene their own after their 1996 formation, Nickelback relocated to Vancouver and released the Hesher EP. By the end of 1997 they had recorded their debut album, Curb, made a video, and toured with Stabbing Westward and Twisted Sister. In 1998, hungry to move up from Vancouver bars, they sacked their manager and became their own bosses.

Kroeger pestered radio stations about his band's "Leader of Men," an ode to magic mushrooms that he wrote while swimming. Brother and bassist Mike Kroeger took on Curb's distribution. Guitarist Ryan Peake worked with a booking agency to keep their calendar packed with gigs.

"We would go into the stores and make sure the records were on the racks," explains Chad, who likens getting a song on the radio to his old job of selling advertising for a soccer mag. "If it was completely sold out, we'd go up to the front and make sure they restocked it. That's been a hard habit to break!"

Nickelback planned carefully for the future, investing $30,000 in recording their second album, The State. It went on to sell 400,000 copies worldwide. "Leader of Men" topped the Canadian and American rock charts simultaneously after arduous treks in the company of Creed and Fuel. The last Canadian band to do that was the Guess Who.

With the 2001 Best New Artist Juno under their money belts, Nickelback entered the studio with Pearl Jam producer Rick Parashar to cut their most personal album yet. Silver Side Up casts family dysfunction, spousal abuse, and that old standby teen angst as bruising rockers, culminating in the epic "Good Times Gone." Then there's "How You Remind Me," written in 10 minutes and currently playing on a radio near you.

"We just like writing good songs with good melodies that you'll sing at our shows and remember when you walk away," says Ryan. Chad isn't so sure. "I've got my ticket for the roller coaster," he smiled to VH1. "I'm ready to get on."