Nickelback rocker Chad Kroeger has taken a swipe at Justin Bieber by insisting the reformed bad boy should be "ashamed" of his wild antics.

Bieber has faced a string of legal woes in recent years, including a vandalism conviction for pelting a neighbour's house with eggs, and he recently apologised for his bad behaviour and swore he is a changed man as he attempts to revive his flagging music career.

Kroeger has now waded into the debate over Bieber's comeback, and insisted the Baby singer is the latest in a long line of former child stars who go off the rails.

He tells Australian radio station Nxfm, "I think that he's going to look back at this time in his life and he's going be ashamed of the things that he's done, it's really too bad because he is talented and it's just a bit of a let down.

"You've got to be careful when you're handing someone that young the keys to the kingdom and when you give someone that young that much money... to do whatever you want to do, things are going to run amok and we're all going to get to stand back and watch the wheels fall off the train. I really wanted him to turn into kind of a Justin Timberlake; very funny, very caring, a really good person."