Dale Earnhardt Jr. was one of the most popular motorsports athletes in the world back when he was in his prime. He was on global magazine covers, he starred in brand commercials, and he appeared in talk shows and whatnot. One such venture was when he featured in the Canadian band Nickelback’s song, Rockstar. Dale Jr. was alongside many other celebrities including ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky in it.
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The icon spoke about his experience shooting for the song that topped music charts worldwide on his podcast “Dale Jr. Download” recently. He said, “Those were the days. That was peak Budweiser No. 8. We are running well, we are in other music videos. We did Three Doors Down. I mean… we were having a lot of fun.” Shooting for Rockstar had been particularly easy since he didn’t have to sweat it a lot.
He noted that the shoot happened right on his property and took less than 15 minutes. “They just had me sing a couple of lyrics. Just this little block of lyrics and we were done,” he added. The song was the fifth single of Nickelback’s fifth album, All the Right Reasons. It was released in the United States and Canada in 2006 but was later re-released worldwide.
Dale Jr.’s portion in the song arrives at the 1:21-minute mark. He is also then seen at 2:38, 3:21, and 3:58. The shoot happened at the famous race car graveyard he owns. Though the song was a hit and sold multi-million copies over the years, it has always sat uncomfortably with critics. The Guardian said in 2008 that it “made no sense and was the worst thing of all time.”
In 2012, Buzzfeed named it the second-worst song ever written. Other celebrities who were a part of the song included UFC fighter Chuck Liddell, actress Eliza Dushku, and Playboy model Kendra Wilkinson. Thankfully for Dale Jr., his legacy in music videos won’t be known just by Rockstar. The popular driver has starred in other such songs from Jay Z’s Show Me What You Got to Kid Rock’s Warrior. But Rockstar might just be the easiest buck that he ever made.
