Sum 41 frontman and guitarist Deryck Whibley writes in his new memoir, Walking Disaster, that the band's former manager, Greig Nori, sexually abused him as a teenager, per The L.A. Times. Whibley also states that Nori verbally abused him and accused him of grooming.
Nori denied the allegations to The Globe And Mail. "These are false allegations," Nori said. He has retained a defamation lawyer.
In Walking Disaster, Whibley writes that when he was 16, he met Nori as a fan of Nori's band Treble Charger. Desperate to get out of his Toronto suburb, Whibley attached himself to Nori, who was 33 or 34 when they met and who introduced the teen to alcohol. Nori would become Whibley's mentor, acting as the band's manager and helping the nascent Sum 41 move up the music industry ranks. However, Nori required "total control," saying "he was the only person we could trust" in the music business.
When Whibley was 18, Nori gave him a hit of ecstasy and "passionately" kissed Whibley. "We were jammed in a gross bathroom stall and I was talking non-stop, when he reached over, grabbed my face, and kissed me on the mouth passionately," Whibley writes. "I was very confused. Was that OK? Was I upset? Did I like it? Was he gay? Was he just high and being crazy? So many thoughts were coming at me so quickly that I couldn't comprehend them."
Confused, Whibley writes that Nori attempted to convince him that their "special" connection brought out a same-sex attraction that was new to Nori, too, while telling Whibley that they were exploring their sexuality in a way that would aid his creativity. Whibley alleges Nori convinced him to continue the relationship by telling him so many of his "rockstar idols were queer" and that "most people are bisexual; they're just too afraid to admit it." When Whibley tried ending things, Nori would tell him that Whibley "owed" him for his success in music and would blame Whibley for starting the relationship.
"Greig kept pushing for things to happen when we were together," he writes. "I started feeling like I was being pressured to do something against my will."
Eventually, a mutual friend found out about the situation, and Nori stopped pursuing Whibley in this manner but continued to criticize him, verbally and psychologically abusing Whibley.
Whibley kept the abuse from the rest of the band but urged them to fire Nori. Nori allegedly attempted to turn the rest of the band on Whibley, saying the singer had "gone Hollywood" after he began dating Avril Lavigne. When Lavigne heard about what Nori was doing to Whibley, she said, "That's abuse! He sexually abused you." Later, Whibley's wife, Ariana Cooper, would tell him the same thing. The band fired Nori in 2005.
Walking Disaster: My Through Heaven And Hell is in stores now.
