On Tuesday (Oct. 8), Deryck Whibley of Sum 41 shares his first memoir, Walking Disaster. The pop-punk frontman chatted with the LA Times to celebrate the publication, and he discussed the book’s allegations of sexual abuse against the band’s former manager Greig Nori, who also fronts fellow pop-punk group Treble Charger.

Whibley claims Nori groomed and sexually and verbally abused him for years, beginning when he was 16 and Nori was 34. Nori had served as a hometown hero to Whibley, and the relationship began when Whibley snuck backstage at a Treble Charger show to invite Nori to a Sum 41 gig. Nori gave Whibley his phone number. They would talk on the phone for hours, and Nori got Whibley and drummer Steve “Stevo32” Jocz their first drinks.

Nori became Whibley’s mentor and Sum 41’s manager, booking them studio sessions, inviting them to parties and raves, aiding them with networking. “We couldn’t talk to anyone but him, because the music business is ‘full of snakes and liars’ and he was the only person we could trust,” Whibley writes in Walking Disaster.

When Whibley was 18, Nori allegedly grabbed his face and “passionately” kissed him in the bathroom of a rave while they were in a stall doing ecstasy. Whibley writes that he was stunned and hadn’t thought of Nori like that prior. Afterward, Nori persuaded Whibley into exploring what they had because “so many of my rock star idols were queer. … Most people are bisexual; they’re just too afraid to admit it.” When Whibley tried to end things, Nori would allegedly accuse Whibley of homophobia and list reasons why he “owed” him for helping the band’s career.

Whibley told LA Times that he’d never opened up to anyone about his relationship with Nori. When he started dating Avril Lavigne in 2004, he confided in her and she said, “That’s abuse! He sexually abused you.” His current wife, Ariana Cooper, had the same reaction.

Nori eventually stopped instigating the unwanted sexual encounters with Whibley when a mutual friend discovered what was happening and deemed it abuse. However, the psychological and verbal abuse worsened, with Nori going back and forth between lavishing Whibley with praise and berating him. Nori also insisted on being credited as a songwriter on most of Sum 41’s songs, saying the music industry would take them more seriously if he was involved; in 2018, Whibley won back the songwriting share of Sum 41’s publishing credits after filing a lawsuit against Nori.

“He wouldn’t let our parents know anything,” Whibley told LA Times about Nori. “He tried to keep them away all the time. Now it makes more sense. Because he was the same age as our parents, and we didn’t know that at the time. He knew they would get suspicious of the way things were running. … He would always be like, ‘You can’t have a relationship with your parents and be in a rock band. It’s not cool. It’s going to hurt your career.’”

The group fired Nori in 2005 for being unreachable, not responding to important requests, missing opportunities, and showing up to a Sum 41 concert high on ecstasy. Whibley had not yet revealed to his bandmates the relationship.

Nori has not yet addressed the allegations.

UPDATE: Nori tells The Globe And Mail that “these are false allegations” and that he has retained a defamation lawyer.

If you or someone you know is undergoing sexual abuse, please visit rainn.org or contact the National Sexual Assault Helpline at 1-800-656-4673.