Deryck Whibley accuses ex-manager/producer Greg Nori of abuse [UPDATED]

Deryck Whibley is currently on a book tour, talking about his memoir, Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven and Hell. In it, he alleges that Greig Nori, the band’s old manager and producer, groomed and abused him for years.

Nori was also part of the band Treble Charger.

The allegations, which came to light through an excerpt of the memoir in The LA Times. The claims are that the abuse started when Deryck was 16 and Nori was 33. It continued until at least 2004, the year the Chuck album (the last Sum 41 album produced by Nori before he was fired in 2005) came out. The Toronto Star also has the scoop.

I quote from the book, which includes details of a trip to New York City to visit record labels with a Sum 41 demo. Deryck and Nori were at a warehouse party where E was ingested.

“We were jammed in a gross bathroom stall and I was talking non-stop, when he reached over, grabbed my face, and kissed me on the mouth passionately. I was very confused. Was that OK? Was I upset? Did I like it? Was he gay? Was he just high and being crazy? So many thoughts were coming at me so quickly that I couldn’t comprehend them.”

He continues:

“It seemed like a cool experiment when I was high, but when I was sober, it felt wrong. Greig kept pushing for things to happen when we were together. I started feeling like I was being pressured to do something against my will. It was a strange feeling because for the most part I trusted Greig completely and still thought he was a great human being, which made it all so confusing.”

Deryck never talked about the incident with his bandmates.

There were other alleged problems, too: Giving up songwriting credits to Nori when they were undeserved; ghostwriting songs (without credit) for Treble Charger and other bands (there was eventually an out-of-court settlement); various occasions involving verbal and psychological abuse.

Nori has stated he has no idea Deryck is talking about and has denied the allegations while also retaining a defamation lawyer. Meanwhile, I highly recommend you read the entire Toronto Star story.