DEVIN TOWNSEND Says NICKELBACK's CHAD KROEGER Is 'A Real Person' Who Is 'Exceptionally Talented'

Canadian musician and producer Devin Townsend has praised NICKELBACK's Chad Kroeger, calling him "a real person" who is "exceptionally talented."

Even though NICKELBACK has sold over 50 million records worldwide since it formed in 1995 in Alberta, Canada, the band that peculiar dichotomy of simultaneously being one the world's most despised and popular acts.

While the Canadians appear broadly hated by a large, vocal portion of the Internet, they are praised by their fans for writing well-crafted, catchy pop-rock songs.

Townsend, whose solo albums are a mix of hard rock, progressive metal, ambient and new-age, offered his views on Kroeger in a series of tweets, crediting the NICKELBACK frontman with helping him when he "needed help."

Devin wrote: "As you progress in any field, eventually the 'lifers' in a profession find they have a lot more in common than they may have anticipated.

"For years, I was critical of NICKLEBACK for a number of reasons, not the least of which jealousy and falling into the negative public sentiment. In part, I had heard through the grapevine that the singer (who came up in the same scene I did) was critical of me as well, so when he and I unexpectedly became friends, I took some time to reflect on my thoughts on his band. I saw them play a few years back and it was great.

"Over the past few months, him and I have spent some good times together, hanging out, playing guitar, and talking. He became a big help to me in that there's no competition between us, and a lot of things I was struggling with professionally, there's no real resource for advice.

"Chad is a real person. He's exceptionally talented at what he does and he's above all a good dude who helped me when I needed help. He gets a ton of shit, but I have immense respect for the guy now. In fact, I've met very few brilliant people in this industry, but he's one of them

"We tried writing together a bit but it seems we're on very different planets from each other musically, same passion, but it's coming from a different place. Regardless, whatever anyone may think of the guy, he's not full of shit in my opinion and I'm glad to know him. Respect."

Kroeger admitted a while back that the group has never been a critical favorite. "I think we actually used to pay a little bit of attention to that, and we just kind of accepted it's, like, nope, we are never going to be one of those bands, we are never going to be the critic's darlings, and we're okay with that," he said. "Even a lot of critics are kind of, like, 'We've done our best to try and get the word out there that as many people as possible should hate this band because we hate this band.' And they've just sort of gone, 'You know what? We can't do it. We cannot convince anybody else to hate this band as much as we do.'"

The second part of Devin's "ERAS" vinyl collection will be released on August 31. This set includes the much-sought-after albums "Ocean Machine", "Physicist", "Terria", "Synchestra" and "Infinity", all in gatefold sleeves across eight pieces of vinyl, contained inside a sturdy two-piece box with an extensive LP booklet containing liner notes and comments from Devin himself. All the albums have been mastered for vinyl for the optimal listening experience.

NICKELBACK has released nine albums, six of which have gone platinum. The band is the 11th best-selling music act and second best-selling foreign act in the U.S. in the 21st century behind THE BEATLES. "How You Remind Me" was named Billboard's top rock song of the decade and reached No. 4 on the Top 10 songs of the 2000s list.

Besides nine Grammy Award nominations, the band has received three American Music Awards, a World Music Award, a People's Choice Award, twelve JUNO Awards, seven MuchMusic Video Awards and induction into Canada's Walk Of Fame.