Nickelback’s Mike Kroeger Had Trouble Keeping Up With Pantera’s Partying

Nickelback's Kroeger brothers, singer Chad and bassist Mike, have shared stories about their run-ins with Pantera before. Namely, Mike has previously talked about the times they spent drinking with late Pantera siblings Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul Abbott. More recently, however, the Nickelback bass player remembered how hard it was to even keep up with Pantera's hard-partying ways.

Indeed, during one occasion when the Nickelback kin knocked back some drinks with Dime and Vinnie, Mike checked out early without saying goodbye. But his brother Chad stayed around and finished the job, as the Nickelback bassist recollected in an August podcast interview.

"They were closest with Chad because … Chad was willing to run with them and tried to keep up the alcohol consumption pace, which if you are partying with those guys, you know what that means," Mike recalled to Talkin' Rock With Meltdown, as transcribed by Ultimate Guitar.

The Nickelback member continued, "I only had the misfortune once of getting mixed up in a 'party situation' with them where Dime was bartending, and oh boy. Honestly, I ran away like a coward. I got to the point where my legs didn't work anymore, I couldn't see, and I just did the Irish goodbye, and I just never came back. I was like, 'These guys are gonna kill me, man.'"

Of course, in addition to their music, Pantera are undoubtedly remembered for that no-holds-barred partying lifestyle. But how were the two Abbotts able to put back so much alcohol in such a short time?

"They had, both brothers — Dime especially — had this magnificent tolerance," Mike explained. "They could just drink this stuff like water and they just kept getting funnier and funnier — or maybe I got more and more drunk. Then you would start to notice that your motor skills are going, and that's when they really pull it on to really get you over the finish line, so to speak."

He added, "I remember reaching that threshold where I was like, 'This is gonna be bad.' … My wife was actually on my bus with the kids and everything, and I would not want to see a video of me getting on that bus and kind of stumbling and crashing into stuff on the way to bed, crawling into the bed."

And just what happened to Chad, Nickelback's frontman, as the evening wore on? Was he able to satisfactorily keep pace with Pantera's parting? It seems fans will have to get that part of the story at another juncture.

"I'm not gonna tell Chad's story," Mike said, "but let's just say he reached the target zone that Dimebag and Vinnie were looking for. They finished him off really good."

Nickelback's relationship with Pantera extended beyond libations. Following Dimebag's 2004 death, the guitarist's family let Nickelback use one of his unreleased riffs on their track "Side of a Bullet." Before he passed away, the two parties collaborated on a cover of "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting."

Listen to Mike Kroger's full Meltdown interview below.