As Sum 41’s days together come to an end, Deryck Whibley leaves everything behind on stage.
The frontman has a new memoir, Hiking disaster: my life through heaven and hellin which he details his extreme highs and lows since entering the music scene with his Canadian punk rock band in the 2000s. Amid stories of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, Whibley accuses Sum 41’s first and former manager, Greig Nori, of physical and verbal abuse.
Nori has since strongly denied the allegations, saying it was a “consensual sexual relationship.”
What does Whibley claim happened?
In the book, Whibley, 44, claimed he was groomed and sexually and verbally abused by Nori in the band’s early days. He claims the grooming started when he was 16 and Nori – who is also the frontman of Canadian punk band Treble Charger – was 34.
Whibley said Nori “had one requirement to be our manager: he wanted total control.” Boundaries were crossed early, he claims, and he said Nori was the first person to give him alcohol. Whibley claimed he was 18 when they were in the bathroom together at a rave, taking ecstasy, when Nori “passionately” kissed him without his consent.
Whibley wrote that Nori then “kept pushing for things to happen” and told him they had a “special bond.” The singer felt “that I was being pressured to do something against my will.” He wrote that Nori called him homophobic when he tried to end the physical relationship. He said Nori told him he “owed” him for launching his career, and accused him of allowing the relationship to develop.
According to Whibley’s book, the physical relationship ended after four years when a mutual friend found out about it. However, Whibley claimed that Nori continued to verbally and psychologically abuse him. He said Nori would make sure the band credited him as a song co-writer. Sum 41 fired Nori in 2005 and Whibley said he never spoke to him again.
Whibley wrote that he kept what happened a secret, even from the band members. When he started dating Avril Lavigne, to whom he was married from 2006 to 2010, in 2004, he confided in her and she helped him cope with the alleged abuse. He said he told his story to his current wife, Ariana Cooper, whom he married in 2015.
“I always thought I would take this to my grave and not say anything,” Whibley said Rolling stone. “When I started the book, I thought, ‘How can I not be honest?'”
He added, “Once I get around to that [Nori] things, I was like, ‘Am I talking about this?’ But how could I not? It has been intertwined with everything for seven years. I’d be lying if I didn’t.”
How does Nori respond to the accusations?
Nori, now 61, told the Toronto Star that Whibley entered into a so-called consensual relationship.
“The accusation that I started the relationship is false,” Nori said in a statement to the newspaper. “I didn’t start it. Whibley has taken the initiative, in an aggressive way.”
Nori also denied grooming Whibley.
“When the relationship began, Whibley was an adult, just like me,” the statement continued. “The accusation that I pressured Whibley to continue the relationship is false. The accusation that I pressured Whibley to continue the relationship by accusing him of homophobia is false. Ultimately, the relationship simply faded away. With consent. Our business relationship continued.”
What else does Whibley write about in his memoirs?
In addition to some rock star exploits, he describes his decade of sobriety after addiction caused kidney and liver failure in 2014. Highlights include:
Is Sum 41 really breaking up?
Last year, the band – which also includes Dave Baksh, Jason McCaslin, Tom Thacker and Frank Zummo – announced that they were splitting up. It’s a big farewell as the band has released their eighth and final album, Heaven :x: Hell, in March, and are in the middle of the ‘Tour of the Setting Sum’, which will last most of 2024. Their final show is scheduled for January 30, 2025 in Toronto.
About the split, Whibley said last year, “I’ve been in this band since I was in the 10th grade. … I’m getting to a point where I’m thinking, I’d like to put some focus and energy into something else. And I felt that this is probably the best record we’ve ever made. And I think this version of the band is the best we’ve ever experienced live. And I thought, what a way to just go out on this one.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, help is available. RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline is here 24/7 for survivors with free, anonymous help at (800) 656-HOPE [4673] And online at rainn.org.
