Volbeat's “Die To Live” has topped Billboard's Mainstream Rock Songs airplay chart, making it the Danish/American band's eighth Number One on the survey. That sets a new record for Volbeat, who were tied at seven with Irish act U2 for the most chart-toppers by an act based outside of North America since the chart debuted in 1981.
With its total of eight Mainstream Rock Number Ones, Volbeat now share that spot on the list with Five Finger Death Punch, Foo Fighters, Linkin Park and Nickelback. Shinedown and Three Days Grace lead the total tally with 15 chart-toppers each.
“Die To Live” is taken from Volbeat's seventh album, Rewind, Replay, Rebound, which was released last August. Volbeat's first Number One was 2010's “Heaven Nor Hell,” which was followed by “Still Counting,” “The Hangman's Body Count,” “Lola Montez,” “The Devil's Bleeding Crown,” “Black Rose” and last year's “Last Day Under The Sun.”
Frontman Michael Poulsen told us how the band's singles get chosen for the U.S. market: “The singles that get plucked here in the U.S. is not always the same singles that get plucked in Europe. We have an American team, you know, American management who are really good at figuring out what they think is the right songs here in America, and we will always be very surprised, like 'What?' So we trust them. So they pick out the songs, they think it's the right songs for the American media and, you know, so far they've been right.”
Volbeat is supposed to begin a North American tour on April 4th in Tempe, Arizona, but the current pandemic situation is likely to impact the trek. The band wrote, “While we do not yet have a definitive answer we wanted to let you know that we are diligently working around the clock with the promoters and venues to make sure that any impacted show will be rescheduled.”