On October 8, 2024, Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley launched his official memoir, Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven and Hell. In it, he shares photos and a variety of anecdotes about his childhood, experiences in the pop-punk scene, details of high-profile relationships, and near-death experiences. He also outlined the sexual and verbal abuse he allegedly suffered at the hands of the band’s former manager, Greig Nori. Now, both Nori and Whibley are suing each other in a court of law.
According to documents obtained by SooToday, a digital newspaper covering local news in Ontario, Canada, Nori is suing Whibley and book publisher Simon & Schuster for libel and a “breach of confidence, intrusion upon seclusion, wrongful disclosure of private facts, and placing the plaintiff in a false light.”
Read more: Sum 41 Cancels Australian Tour Due To Deryck Whibley Health
Also, Whibley is counter-suing over “defamation and placing the plaintiff in a false light.” Per the SooToday report, these court documents were filed in early January 2025.
Shortly after the release of the book in 2024, Nori released a statement to media outlets such as SooToday, where he said, “The accusation that I initiated the relationship is false. I did not initiate it. Whibley initiated it, aggressively.”
After Nori called Whibley a liar upon the book’s publication, Whibley took to Instagram On October 15, 2024, to stand behind his book and experience and said he would take this to court.
In an October 2024 interview with The Aquarian, Whibley detailed how he came to terms with the abuse. He told the site, “It took longer than I wish it did. Part of that was because he was my hero for years when I was young. When I got older, it really started to get bad, but slowly.”
He continued, “You just feel like, ‘I don’t see how there is a way out of this. How the fuck do you get out? He’s our manager, our producer, he’s like the fifth member of our band. We can’t function without him,’ is what you start to feel like. You finally just reach a breaking point.”
He concluded, “Once the band got to the same realization professionally, that we couldn’t function with him, finally it was a collaborative decision to let him go. It wasn’t just up to me anymore.”
Recently, Sum 41 canceled their Australian tour due to Whibley’s poor health.
