Deryck Whibley

Last updated
Deryck Whibley
2023 Rock im Park - Sum 41 - by 2eight - ZSC3217 (Cropped).jpg
Whibley performing in 2023
Born
Deryck Jason Whibley

(1980-03-21) 21 March 1980 (age 44)
Other namesBizzy D
Gunner
EducationExeter High School
Occupations
  • Musician
  • singer
  • songwriter
  • record producer
Spouses
  • (m. 2006;div. 2010)
  • Ariana Cooper
    (m. 2015)
Children2
Musical career
Genres
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • guitar
Years active1993–present
Labels
Member of Sum 41

Deryck Jason Whibley [2] (born 21 March 1980), [1] nicknamed Bizzy D, [3] is a Canadian musician, best known for his work as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, keyboardist, main songwriter, producer, founder and only constant member of the rock band Sum 41.

Contents

Recording career

Sum 41

Whibley performing in 2008 Sum41 Deryck Whibley.jpg
Whibley performing in 2008

Whibley formed Sum 41 with bassist Grant McVittie. [4] They were originally called Kaspir,. [5] [6] After several lineup changes, the band consisted of Whibley, Steve Jocz, Dave Baksh and Jason McCaslin. In 1999, the band signed an international record deal with Island Records. [7] The band released their debut EP, Half Hour of Power in 2000, then an album, All Killer No Filler , in 2001. [7] [8] The band achieved mainstream success with their first single from the album, "Fat Lip", which reached number-one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and remains the band's most successful single to date. [9] All Killer No Filler was certified platinum in the United States, Canada and in the UK. [10] The band has since released six more studio albums: Does This Look Infected? (2002), Chuck (2004), Underclass Hero (2007), Screaming Bloody Murder (2011), 13 Voices (2016), Order in Decline (2019), and Heaven :x: Hell (2024). The three albums before Screaming Bloody Murder have been certified platinum in Canada.

Whibley performing in 2017 Sum 41 - 2017154162559 2017-06-03 Rock am Ring - Sven - 1D X II - 0944 - AK8I8786 (Cropped).jpg
Whibley performing in 2017

The band often performs more than 300 times each year and holds long global tours, most of which last more than a year. [11] They have been nominated for seven Juno Awards and have won twice (Group of the Year in 2002 and Rock Album of the Year for Chuck in 2005). [12] [13] Their fifth studio album, Screaming Bloody Murder , was released on March 29, 2011. [14] During the Screaming Bloody Murder Tour, the band added Whibley's cousin Matt Whibley on keyboard.

Solo work

Besides Sum 41, Whibley developed a professional career in the music industry as producer and manager. He was part of Bunk Rock Music, a music management and production company. He produced for No Warning with the company as well. Since parting ways with Greig Nori, he sold his part of the company in early 2005.

During the Sum 41 hiatus in 2005 and 2006, he worked with Tommy Lee on guitar and backing vocals for his album, Tommyland: The Ride , and A Million in Prizes: The Anthology with Iggy Pop.

He worked as the producer of We Have an Emergency , the debut album by Sum 41 co-member Jason McCaslin's side project The Operation M.D. In 2007, he mixed the debut album of the band Permanent Me. He was also involved with the Avril Lavigne album, The Best Damn Thing , where he produced and played guitar. [15]

Besides his musical career, he has worked on occasion as an actor. He portrayed the character Tony in the movie Dirty Love , and himself as a guest character in King of the Hill .

In November 2007, Whibley suffered a herniated disc while drumming on the song "Pain for Pleasure". This happened while Sum 41 was on tour with Finger Eleven, and the remainder of the Strength in Numbers Tour was canceled although Finger Eleven did travel to Winnipeg, Manitoba to play the show with Die Mannequin and Inward Eye in replacement of Sum 41. [16]

On the Operation M.D.'s second album Birds + Bee Stings , which was released on June 29, 2010, Whibley mixed one track entitled "Sick + Twisted". He also played keyboard and piano on the same track. He also joined the band live, playing guitar on this song, on December 21, 2010, at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto.

Whibley contributed some guitar to Tommy Lee's side project Methods of Mayhem's second album A Public Disservice Announcement which was released on September 21, 2010.

He co-wrote the songs "Broken Pieces", "Over and Out" and "Lost in Reality" with 5 Seconds of Summer, which appeared on their She's Kinda Hot EP.

He was featured on "No Defeat for the Brave" by While She Sleeps in 2021.

On February 18, 2022, Whibley released a collaboration track with  Simple Plan  called "Ruin My Life". [17]

He released his first book, a memoir titled Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven and Hell, on October 8, 2024. [18] The book's title is a nod to the Sum 41 song "Walking Disaster", and their eighth and final studio album Heaven :x: Hell (2024).

Instruments

Whibley uses a black customized '72 Fender Telecaster Deluxe live with his well-known red X's for decoration and good luck. [19] He has also put out a signature guitar with Squier, a sub-brand of Fender. The signature Squier comes in black and Olympic white, sports the two red X's and has one humbucking pickup in the bridge position, which is a Seymour Duncan Designed HB-102. It also has his signature "Deryck" written on the headstock. [20] Whibley has used many Gibson guitars such as the Flying V, Les Paul, SG and a Gibson Marauder, which was his first guitar given to him by his mother, and has been used in some of the band's videos such as "Fat Lip" and "In Too Deep". According to the October 2007 issue of Rock Sound magazine, he also uses '59 Les Paul Reissues, '52 Telecaster Reissues, Telefunken and Neumann mics, Plexi 100 watt Marshall Heads and Cabinets and Spectraflex cables. [21] In March 2023, Whibley began selling items from his collection of instruments. [22]

Personal life

Whibley was born in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, raised in Ajax, Ontario, and attended Southwood Park Public School. He grew up in a single parent household. Whibley has an interest in architecture and has said he would like to design houses if he was not a musician. [23] As a teenager, he attended Exeter High School. It was there that he and his bandmates were discovered while playing at their War of the Bands. [24] In high school, Whibley was the captain of his basketball team. [23]

Whibley married fellow singer Avril Lavigne in 2006. The couple occasionally performed together and have spoken about their relationship in interviews. Whibley and Lavigne began dating when she was 19 years old, after being friends since she was 17. [25] The wedding was held on July 15, 2006. About 110 guests attended the wedding, which was held at a private estate in Montecito, California. [26] After a little over three years of marriage Lavigne filed for divorce on October 9, 2009 and the divorce was finalised on November 16, 2010. [27]

On August 30, 2015, Whibley married model Ariana Cooper in Los Angeles. [28] Their first child was born in March 2020. [29] Their second child was born in March 2023. [30]

On October 8, 2024, Whibley released a memoir, Walking Disaster. [31] In the memoir, Whibley alleged that the former manager of Sum 41, Greig Nori, psychologically and sexually abused him for several years, and had "groomed" him. [32] According to Whibley, he met Nori at age 16, when the latter was 34. He alleged that the manager offered him drugs and accused him of homophobia when he attempted to end their relationship. Nori, who has denied the allegations, hired a defamation lawyer in response. He was fired as the band's manager in 2005, at Whibley's request. Nori is the lead vocalist of Treble Charger. [33] [34] [35]

Health issues

Whibley has chronic back pain due to a series of back injuries, starting with a slipped disc during a 2007 concert. [36] On August 5, 2010, Whibley was hospitalized after he was attacked in a bar in Japan late at night by three unknown individuals. [37] After an MRI scan, it was revealed that Whibley herniated a disc in his back for the 14th time. [38] Although advised against performing, Whibley rejoined the band on August 8 in Osaka for the Summer Sonic Festival. [39] The back injuries, alongside severe anxiety, caused Whibley to self-medicate with alcohol. [36] Whibley again injured his back in April 2013, causing him to miss shows. [40]

On May 17, 2014, Whibley announced that, a month earlier, he had been hospitalized for alcoholism with severe liver and kidney damage. [41]

On September 15, 2023, Whibley's wife Ari announced that he was in the hospital with pneumonia and COVID-19, which led to heart failure. He responded sufficiently to treatment and was released the following day. [42]

On July 31, 2024, Sum 41 cancelled several tour dates after Whibley had again injured his back. [43]

Discography

With Sum 41

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sum 41</span> Canadian rock band

Sum 41 is a Canadian rock band from Ajax, Ontario. The band was formed in 1996 and currently consists of Deryck Whibley, Dave Baksh, Jason McCaslin, Tom Thacker, and Frank Zummo.

<i>Half Hour of Power</i> 2000 EP by Sum 41

Half Hour of Power is the debut extended play by Canadian rock band Sum 41. It was released on June 27, 2000 on Big Rig Records, a subsidiary of Island Records, and Aquarius Records (Canada). The cover features the band's then-drummer Steve Jocz aiming a Nerf gun up in the air and standing in front of an explosion in the background. Though officially an EP, Half Hour of Power may also be considered the band's debut studio album. Most of the songs featured on the EP were included as bonus tracks on Sum 41's actual debut studio album All Killer No Filler (2001), which featured a re-recorded version of Half Hour of Power's sixth track "Summer". This is the second of three times that this song was featured on a Sum 41 album. It first appeared on their 1998 demo tape. The group originally planned to include different versions of the song on each of their albums as a joke, but scrapped the idea after All Killer No Filler, as they felt that it would annoy their fanbase.

<i>Does This Look Infected?</i> 2002 studio album by Sum 41

Does This Look Infected? is the second studio album by Canadian rock band Sum 41. It was released on November 26, 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Jocz</span> Canadian musician

Steve Jocz, also known as Stevo32, is a Canadian-Australian drummer and YouTuber, best known as the original drummer for the Canadian rock band Sum 41.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Baksh</span> Canadian musician (born 1980)

Dave Baksh also known by his stage name Dave Brownsound, is a Canadian musician, singer and songwriter best known as the lead guitarist of rock band Sum 41. Baksh quit Sum 41 in 2006 to pursue his own career in his heavy metal/reggae project Brown Brigade. He rejoined Sum 41 in 2015 and has released three subsequent studio albums with the band. He also plays guitar for Organ Thieves, with two of his fellow Brown Brigade members and the Canadian deathpunk four-piece Black Cat Attack. In 2019, Baksh co-founded the merchandise company Loud & Immortal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason McCaslin</span> Canadian musician (born 1980)

Jason "Cone" McCaslin is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer, serving as the bassist and backing vocalist of the band Sum 41. He and frontman Deryck Whibley are the only two members of the band to appear on every studio album.

Greig Andrew Nori is a Canadian producer and musician from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and is well known as the frontman, co-lead vocalist and guitarist of the pop punk band Treble Charger. In the late 1990s, he began working as a producer with Sum 41 and was their in-house producer and manager until 2004. In 2007, Nori went back to the studio to produce for the pop punk bands Cauterize and Hedley, for their albums Disguises and Famous Last Words, respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fat Lip</span> 2001 single by Sum 41

"Fat Lip" is a song by Canadian rock band Sum 41. It is the fourth track on their debut album, All Killer No Filler (2001), and was released as the lead single in April 2001. It is the band's most successful single to date, topping the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. It peaked at number 66 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and at number eight on the UK Singles Chart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">In Too Deep (Sum 41 song)</span> 2001 single by Sum 41

"In Too Deep" is a song by Canadian rock band Sum 41. It is the seventh track on their debut studio album All Killer No Filler (2001), and was released as the second single in September 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hundred Million</span> 2002 single by Treble Charger

"Hundred Million" is a song by Canadian rock band Treble Charger. It was released as the lead single from the band's fourth album, Detox. The song features backing vocals by Deryck Whibley and percussion by Steve Jocz, both from Sum 41. The song received a CASBY Award for "Favourite New Single" in 2002. The song peaked at No. 49 on the Radio & Records Alternative chart in 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Underclass Hero (song)</span> 2007 single by Sum 41

"Underclass Hero" is the first single from Sum 41's fourth studio album of the same name. The song impacted radio on May 15, 2007. The song in its entirety was leaked on April 23 from a 91X podcast interview with Deryck Whibley. It was confirmed on Sum 41's official site that this would be the opening track for the album. The song was used in the EA Sports video game Madden 08 and Sony's NBA 08. It is the band's first single since the departure of guitarist Dave Baksh.

Cross the T's and Gouge Your I's is Sum 41's second DVD. It was released in 2002, as the bonus DVD for the US and UK editions of their hit album Does This Look Infected?, and as a separate DVD worldwide.

<i>All the Good Shit</i> 2008 greatest hits album by Sum 41

All the Good Shit: 14 Solid Gold Hits 2000–2008 is a greatest hits album by Canadian rock band Sum 41. The Japanese version was released on November 26, 2008, and the worldwide version was released on March 17, 2009. This is the band's first greatest hits album. It includes singles from each of the band's studio albums, as well as a previously unreleased song, "Always". The release also includes a bonus DVD with all of the band's music videos.

<i>All Killer No Filler</i> 2001 studio album by Sum 41

All Killer No Filler is the debut studio album by Canadian rock band Sum 41, released on May 8, 2001. It was certified platinum in the United States, Canada, and in the UK.

<i>Screaming Bloody Murder</i> 2011 studio album by Sum 41

Screaming Bloody Murder is the fifth studio album by Canadian rock band Sum 41, released on March 29, 2011, after many delays. It is the band's second album produced by frontman Deryck Whibley. It is the band's last album to be released on Island Records before they had fulfilled their contract with the major label in 2016 and their first album not to be released on Aquarius Records, which they left in 2010. The album has received mixed reviews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Screaming Bloody Murder Tour</span> 2010–13 concert tour by Sum 41

The Screaming Bloody Murder Tour is a concert tour by rock band Sum 41, taking place between 2010–11 and resuming again in 2012, in support of their fifth full-length studio album Screaming Bloody Murder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Screaming Bloody Murder (song)</span> 2011 single by Sum 41

"Screaming Bloody Murder" is the first single from Sum 41's fifth studio album of the same name, officially released on February 7, 2011, although originally slated for release in August 2010. This is Sum 41's first single to feature guitarist Tom Thacker. The song's working title was "Panic Attack" and it was written by Thacker for the album Muertos Vivos by his other band Gob, though it did not make the album, then reworked, rearranged and re-recorded by guitarist Deryck Whibley. Although written by Thacker, all guitars on the song, as well as on the rest of the album were recorded by Deryck Whibley by himself.

<i>Underclass Hero</i> 2007 studio album by Sum 41

Underclass Hero is the fourth studio album by Canadian rock band Sum 41. It is the first of two albums by the band recorded without guitarist Dave "Brownsound" Baksh since he left a year earlier to focus on Brown Brigade. It was first released on July 18, 2007, in Japan by Island Records and distributed worldwide by Aquarius Records, the band's final album on the label. In comparison to the heavy metal-inspired punk style of their previous album Chuck (2004), Underclass Hero marked a return to the band’s pop-punk sound.

<i>13 Voices</i> 2016 studio album by Sum 41

13 Voices is the sixth studio album by Canadian rock band Sum 41, released on October 7, 2016. It is the first of two albums by the band to be released through independent label Hopeless Records. It is also Sum 41's first album to feature drummer Frank Zummo, who replaced original drummer Steve Jocz, and their first album to feature guitarist Tom Thacker. The album also features the return of longtime lead guitarist Dave "Brownsound" Baksh. The album is also their first as a five-piece band. On May 11, 2016, the band announced that they had signed to Hopeless Records to release the crowd-funded project.

"Fake My Own Death" is the lead single from Sum 41's sixth studio album 13 Voices, which was released on October 7, 2016. The song was the third track on the album. The song was released on June 28, 2016, along with an accompanying music video, through Hopeless Records' official YouTube channel.

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Vocalist for Sum 41
since 1996