Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley responds to former manager Greig Nori denying his abuse allegations

Earlier this month, Sum 41 vocalist/guitarist Deryck Whibley released his new memoir Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven and Hell, in which he says he was sexually and verbally abused by the band’s former manager, Greig Nori. In a response to a phone call from The Globe and Mail, Nori called the allegations “false,” and in a statement to The Star, he added, “The accusation that I initiated the relationship is false. I did not initiate it. Whibley initiated it, aggressively.”

Nori also denied allegations of “grooming” Whibley, saying that “when the relationship began Whibley was an adult, as was I,” and adding, “The accusation that I pressured Whibley to continue the relationship is false. The accusation that I pressured Whibley to continue the relationship by accusing him of homophobia is false. Ultimately the relationship simply faded out. Consensually. Our business relationship continued.”

Now, Whibley has responded back to Nori in a new video. “It’s come to my attention that Greig Nori has now called me a liar,” Whibley said. “I’ll tell you right now, I stand by every word that’s in my book, 100%. I’m not a liar, and I’m gonna speak to you directly, Greig Nori. If you think I’m a liar, there’s only one way to settle this: under oath, in front of a judge, in front of a jury. Any time you want, I’m ready. Whenever you are.” Here’s his full video:

In Walking Disaster, Whibley writes that Nori “passionately” kissed him in a bathroom stall at a rave when he was 18 and tried to convince him that it was worth continuing to explore because “so many of my rock star idols were queer. … Most people are bisexual; they’re just too afraid to admit it.” Whibley says that when he later tried to end their physical relationship, Nori called him homophobic and said that Whibley “owed” him for his help with Sum 41, and that he continued to pressure Whibley for sexual encounters.

Whibley alleges that Nori stopped initiating physical encounters after a mutual friend learned what was happening, but that the psychological and verbal abuse continued to get worse. He accuses Nori of alternating between praising him, berating him, and pitting the rest of the band against him.

After Nori insisted on being credited as a songwriter on most Sum 41 songs, Whibley successfully sued him. Sum 41 fired him as their manager in 2005.