Sum 41's Derrick Whibley accuses former manager of sexual assault in new memoir

Derrick Whibley opens up about alleged abusive experiences at the hands of Sum 41's first manager. In his memoirs A walking disasterOut Tuesday, the Sum 41 frontman claimed he was groomed and sexually and verbally abused by the band's first manager, Greg Norrie, during the early stages of the band's career.

“I always thought I'd take it to my grave and not say anything,” Whibley says The Rolling Stones. “When I started reading the book, I was like, 'How can I not be honest?'”

In memoirs, per Los Angeles TimesWhibley discusses how Sum 41 began working with Norrie — who fronted the Canadian punk band Treble Chargers — when Whibley was 16 and Norrie was 34. Whibley complained that the manager was the first person to serve him and his bandmates alcohol, and Norrie slowly left. Music mentor to controlling and abusive boss.

Whibley claims that during a rave, Norrie asked Whibley, who was 18 at the time, to come to a restroom stall to party with him. Inside the restroom, Nori grabbed her face and kissed her “passionately,” Whibley wrote in the book. Whibley said he was shocked and Norrie claimed he never had same-sex attraction and that the two of them were “very special”.

In time, Whibley wrote that he tried to push away a physical relationship with the former manager, and Norrie responded by calling him homophobic, saying Whibley “hated” him for helping launch their careers.

per timesA mutual friend of hers and Nori's ended up having sex after she found out what he had done. Although the sexual aspect of the abuse ended, Norrie continued to accuse the group of being abusive, forcing the band to identify him as a co-writer of the song, and failing to respond to requests. The band fired him in 2005, and Whibley says he never spoke to him.

“Once I got that Greg Norrie stuff, I thought 'Do I talk about this?' But how could not? It involved everything for seven years,” says Whibley The Rolling Stones. “I'd be lying if I didn't.”

Nori did not immediately respond The Rolling StonesRequest for comments.

Whibley kept the allegations away from everyone and didn't hear what he described as abuse until he dated Avril Lavigne. In the book, he writes that Lavigne exclaimed, “This is abuse!” When she confided in him and said, “He sexually assaulted you.”

“I went through a long period where I didn't think about it anymore. I realized it was self-defense,” she says The Rolling Stones. “I realized later that I didn't want to think about it or have any feelings of being a victim. I didn't want to get into victim trouble.”

Whibley says she doesn't say she went through “abuse” in the book. When asked if, today, he sees what he went through as “abuse,” Whibley said he's still in the “early stages” of processing what he went through.

“This is the first time I'm dealing with this and I don't know what to think about it. I can't deny that it was very manipulative, but I didn't really understand what a lot of it was about,” says Whibley. “It didn't occur to me until I was in my mid-30s, when I was a teenager. He was a hero so to see that power in motion, you see how you can manipulate a 16-year-old kid.”

Whibley says that in the book he simply wrote his truth and allowed “the reader to decide” what he did. “If that's what people think, that's fine,” he said of what he called “abuse.” He added, “I've always called it 'some dirty stuff that gave away'.”

In the book, Whibley also claims that Norrie insisted on getting credit for songs he didn't write, telling the band it would give them more credibility. He further informed times Norrie “tried to keep” his and his bandmates' parents away from the band.

“It makes more sense now. Because he was the same age as our parents and we didn't know it then. He knew they would be suspicious the way things were going,” he said. times. “He was always like, 'You can't have a relationship with your parents and be in a rock band. It's not cool. It will damage your career.'

Whibley was inspired to come forward with the allegations after conducting a joint interview with his wife, Ariana peopleIn which he came forward about the suicide attempt. “I saw his bravery in it and it inspired me,” Whibley said. “I became a different person where I felt the importance of just being open.”

Although he didn't talk to his bandmates about the allegations at the time, Whibley said he sent them memoirs. “He's become a bad guy to all of us,” Whibley added. “We never talked about him collectively.”

Overall, Whibley states in his book, Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven and HellThe details of the personal inspiration behind the lyrics ultimately underpin Sum 41's music, both good and ugly.

“Everything on the record is coming from my personal experience, even if it's obscured in the lyrics,” says Whibley. “When I started writing, I said to myself, 'Don't try to calm yourself down. Just write real stories.' And I never stopped. It all came out.”