Deryck Whibley, the lead singer of the Canadian punk-pop band SUM 41, has accused his former manager of grooming and sexual abuse. In his recent memoir, Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven and Hell, Whibley alleges that Greig Nori coerced him into sexual encounters during their time working together.
Nori has vehemently denied these allegations, calling them false. Whibley claims the abuse began when he was a teenager and Nori was in his early thirties.
At the age of 18, Whibley claims that Nori offered him ecstasy and kissed him, subsequently coercing him into a non-consensual sexual relationship.
Whibley asserts that Nori verbally abused him and accused him of homophobia whenever he tried to end the relationship. Even after it concluded—when a mutual friend recognized it as abuse—Whibley alleges that the verbal and psychological abuse persisted.
It took Whibley years to fully comprehend what he had gone through. He recognized the power imbalance when he turned 35, the same age Nori was when they first met. The rise of the Me Too movement also aided him in understanding his experiences, as he began to hear similar accounts of grooming and abuse.
Up until now, Whibley had only shared his story with his wife, Ariana Cooper, and his ex, Avril Lavigne. Even his bandmates in SUM 41 were unaware of what had occurred between him and Nori.
Although the physical encounters ceased, Whibley claims that Nori persisted in verbally abusing him and grew envious of SUM 41’s success, even going so far as to turn the band members against one another. Whibley states that Nori was dismissed as their manager in 2004.
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