Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley is doubling down on his claims that he was sexually abused by his band’s former manager.
Whibley claims in his memoir, “Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven and Hell,” published earlier this month, that producer-musician Greig Nori “groomed” and “sexually abused” him for years, starting when he was 16 and Nori was 34.
Nori has since denied that he “pressured” Whibley into anything, telling the Toronto Star last week: “The accusation that I initiated the relationship is false. I did not initiate it. Whibley initiated it, aggressively.”
He continued that “when the relationship began Whibley was an adult” and that over time, the pair’s bond “simply faded out. Consensually.” Nori did not directly address the grooming or sexual abuse allegations.
Whibley responded to Nori’s statement in a Tuesday video on X, saying: “It’s been an extremely heavy week for me.”
“It’s come to my attention that Greig Nori has now called me a liar. I’ll tell you right now, I stand behind every word that’s in my book, 100%,” he said, insisting that he is “not a liar.”
Whibley continued: “I’m going to speak to you directly, Greig Nori. If you think I’m a liar, there’s only one way to settle this: under oath. In front of a judge, in front of a jury, anytime you want. I’m ready whenever you are.”
Nori and a representative for Whibley did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.
In “Walking Disaster,” Whibley describes first meeting Nori at one of his Treble Charger shows, when the young musician sneaked backstage to invite his fellow Canadian to one of Sum 41’s upcoming performances.
Nori went on to become Whibley’s vocal coach, then Sum 41’s manager. At first, according to Whibley, Nori seemed to be helping the band get off the ground, but gradually, “he wanted total control.”
“We couldn’t talk to anyone but him, because the music business is ‘full of snakes and liars’ and he was the only person we could trust,” Whibley told The Times earlier this month, ahead of his memoir’s publication.
Whibley was 18 when Nori made his first move on his junior musician, Whibley said. Jammed together in a bathroom stall, Whibley writes in his memoir, Nori grabbed his face and “passionately” kissed him.
Whibley said Nori justified his actions as an exploration of queer identity, something he said many rock stars at the time were “afraid” to confront, according to the book. When Whibley eventually attempted to end their physical encounters, he said Nori became enraged, calling Whibley “homophobic” and saying he “owed” him for kick-starting his music career, according to the memoir.
The pair’s sexual interactions finally ended when a mutual friend learned what had happened, Whibley says in his account. That friend, as well as Whibley’s former partner, Avril Lavigne, and his current wife of 10 years, model Ariana Cooper, told him what he’d gone through was “abuse.”
Years later, Sum 41 finally parted ways with Nori, Whibley said. But the vocalist never told his bandmates about the alleged abuse. They found out as everyone else did — through the memoir.
When Whibley first began writing “Walking Disaster,” he said he feared people would tell him, “This is your own fault,” he told The Times. But in the end, he “didn’t hold back.”
“I kind of got to a point where I’m like, ‘I don’t care what people take away from it.’ That was the only way I could write the book,” he said.