Ryan Peake

Ryan Peake

Ryan Peake is a Canadian rock musician from Brooks, Alberta, born in 1973. He is the lead guitarist and a backing vocalist for Nickelback, and has been in the band since its formation. The other members are Chad Kroeger, Mike Kroeger and Daniel Adair.

Role in Nickelback

Peake co-writes some of Nickelback’s best-known songs and sings most of the band’s backing vocals, with Daniel Adair handling the remainder. He is the second oldest member of the group. He also has a wife and children.

During a transitional period for the band, he fills in as a distributor. He also takes lead vocals on some cover songs in concert, including “Super Bon Bon” and “Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)”. On the Dark Horse Tour in 2009, he also sings a cover of Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody”.

Guitars and equipment

Peake mainly plays Gibson guitars, including Les Pauls, Explorers and Flying Vs. He also uses a modified clear Lucite Gibson-style Flying V for “Figured You Out” in live performance. At times he uses a Gretsch double-neck electric guitar for “Someday”, before Chad Kroeger’s guitar technician Tim “Timmy” Dawson takes over the third guitar part in concert.

Earlier in his career, he mainly plays modified Fender Telecasters with EMG humbuckers fitted in place of the original pickups. He also uses Morgan and Gibson acoustic guitars. For “Photograph”, he uses his father’s old acoustic guitar live; the same guitar appears in the song’s video played by Kroeger.

His live signal chain includes Mesa/Boogie Rectifiers and several effects, and he has also used a JCM Slash 2555 Jubilee Signature amplifier.

Other notes

Peake credits his wife with the concept for Nickelback’s video for “Savin’ Me”.