Sum 41’s former manager Greig Nori has spoken out about band member Deryck Whibley’s allegations against him.
Nori has denied allegations that he sexually abused Whibley, made by Whibley in his new memoir, Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven and Hell.
“These are false accusations,” Nori told Globe and letter while also revealing that he has hired a lawyer.
In the excerpts from the book obtained by Los Angeles TimesWhibley alleged that he was verbally and sexually abused by Nori while at Sum 41. Whibley said that the alleged abuse occurred when he was 16 years old and Nori was 34 years old.
In one incident, Whibley alleged that Nori cornered him in the bathroom during a wild party and kissed him “passionately”. He wrote that he was surprised by Nori’s actions and had not thought of Nori that way before the incident.
From there, Whibley alleges that Nori convinced him to explore things deeper, saying, “Most people are bisexual; they’re just too scared to admit it.”
He went on to allege that when he tried to cut ties with Nori, Nori accused him of being homophobic and listed off ways that Sum 41 “owed” him for helping his career their prosperity.
“Greig had one request to be our manager – he wanted total control. We couldn’t talk to anyone but him, because the music business was ‘full of snakes’. and lies’ and he was the only one we could trust,” Whibley wrote in the book.
Although he kept the alleged abuse private for years, he shared that he confided in Avril Lavigne — his ex-wife — about what happened to him and that she was the one told him that what he experienced was abuse.
“That’s abuse! [Nori] sexually abused you,” she told him, according to the excerpt.
Whibley also credited the Me Too movement for helping him understand the alleged abuse and what happened to him.
“It all became so obvious. Then about a year later, the Me Too thing started happening. I started hearing stories about grooming, and it all started to make sense,” he wrote in the book. .
Card Sum 41, Avril Lavigne