DERYCK WHIBLEY On Being In SUM 41 For Three Decades: 'It Prepared Me For Having Children, Because You're Managing So Many Different Emotions'

In a new interview with The Joe Vulpis Podcast, Deryck Whibley of Canadian pop-punk icons SUM 41 was asked how it feels for him to have closed that chapter of his life, having played the band's final gig in January 2025 in Toronto. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It surprisingly feels like it's been a while. It feels longer than a year in some ways, and then some ways… Everything in my life, in my past, it always feels like it's right there. Memories don't feel that far distant, but I don't think about them very often 'cause I'm very much more present and forward thinking. So if I do think about it, it's, like, 'Oh, yeah, it was like just yesterday.' But I don't really spend a lot of time in memory lane."

Asked if he has any emotions like missing having the other guys in the band around him or playing those songs to the crowd, Deryck said: "I do love performing and I loved playing those songs. I don't miss… I mean, I did it for so long that I feel like the touring, the constant being on the road for 10 months a year every year for the past 25 years, it's the travel and all that kind of being away from family and just that — I'm never sleeping. You're always worrying about getting sick, and the whole grind of it I don't miss. But I do miss performing songs. I mean, it's not that I miss — it's that I'll always love performing and playing those songs."

As for what the biggest lesson was that he learned from being in the same band for three decades, Deryck said: "Oh, my God. There's so many lessons. I feel like it's prepared me for so many things. I was just telling somebody that I feel like it prepared me for having children, because you're managing so many different emotions. And a lot of times, the music business and whether it's the band or the music industry, we're all kind of children. And being the leader of the band, I had to kind of manage a lot of that. And there's personalities and emotions. And a lot of times you're on the road, people have things that pop up that feel like tantrums of a child sometimes. So that prepared me, in a way, for kids."

He added: "In the earlier days, we were all just so young and a little bit more carefree and didn't have real lives outside of the band, so much less bothered us. And we didn't have such a big organization around it. It was just kind of us. And we were the kids, and everybody around us were older than us. And then we've been around for a while, and everybody in the band has different lives and different priorities and different wants and needs that you have to worry about and consider and respect. But then you also have people working in the organization that are a lot younger, and it's their early touring… There's things [that] just pop up. There's a lot of personalities on the road, and they're always different because when you go on tour, you don't always have the same people with you. It's like a new touring circus every time."

Asked if announcing SUM 41's final tour was something that he was hesitant to do, Deryck said: "Not when we announced it, but leading up to that decision, yeah, it took a long time for me to mentally allow myself to have those thoughts, because I fought it and I pushed it off. Every time I had this feeling of, 'I don't know if I wanna do this,' I'd go, 'Stop thinking like that. This is what you do. SUM 41's your thing. You created this thing. It's all these songs you wrote. You can't have those thoughts.' And I would bury it. And then six months later I'd have those thoughts again. Like, 'Do I really wanna keep going out there every year after year, 10 months a year?' I'd stop thinking like that. So I did that for, like, two years. And then I finally got to a point where I was, like, 'No, I'm having these thoughts for a reason, because I feel like there might be something else out there that I'd like to do. I don't know what that is, but I'm having that gut feeling.' Then I had to sit with that for about a year before I brought it up to the rest of the band. So it was a long time. So by the time we made that announcement, I was, like, 'Ah, thank God. Now we can finally say it to the public.'"

Pressed about why he chose to not just "let it simmer" and "take two years off" and come back refreshed, Deryck said: "Because that's easy. I don't like easy. There's a famous saying, 'If you wanna take the island, you gotta burn the boats.' There's no going back. So if I'm gonna go and do something — no safety net. You gotta burn the boats. That's the only way that I like to operate. If I just [go], like, 'I'm gonna explore something else,' you'll always go back to just whatever's familiar, whatever's easy. And so as soon as something gets harder, you go, 'Whoa, I got this thing so much easier over here. I'll just go back and do that.' But if you got nothing to go back to, you gotta take the island."

Asked if he has found that next path of where he wants to go since he put SUM 41 to rest, Deryck said: "Not exactly to a point where I'm, like, 'Okay, this is my next thing.' I have been doing things that are enjoyable, working on different projects, being creative. I started a clothing line that's really fulfilling and enjoyable, Walking Disaster, which we just launched right before Christmas, so it's brand new. And that's a whole experiment, in a way. It's something I've always wanted to do. I even trademarked that name in 2008. That's how long ago I started this company, but I had no time to do anything with it. So I'm doing it now because it's something I've always wanted to do, but I also want to find out what I'm made of, because it's a business I know nothing about. I don't know anything about actual business or clothing or creating or designing anything. So, let's try something that I've never done before, find out what I'm capable of. And at the same time, I only wanna work on things that actually contribute to the culture, to society. The thing I loved about making music is that it makes people feel good and you go out on stage and you can see the smiles on people's faces, and there's this thing that you feel like you're contributing to people's lives. Clothing does a lot of the same kinds of things. It's all identity based. It makes people feel confident. It makes people feel good, if they resonate with it, and I like that contribution. So if I can help make people feel great and be a part of something, that's the only thing that I really see myself wanting to do. In whatever I do at this age, it has to contribute, it has to have some sort of positive effect for people. I don't need to have a job for any reason. I don't want to have a job for any reason, so I just wanna do things that contribute to culture and society, in whatever way I can."

On the topic of where he wants to take Walking Disaster in a year or two years, Deryck said: "Everything I do, I want it to be the biggest possible thing I could ever imagine. [Laughs] Now, what that actually is, I don't know. I'm getting into a business I know nothing about, so I'm gonna start to figure out how it all works out and see how things happen and grow. And then just step on the gas."

SUM 41's final album, "Heaven :X: Hell", hit No. 37 on the Billboard Canadian Albums chart and No. 23 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart.

Whibley had known SUM 41 bassist Jason "Cone" McCaslin and lead guitarist Dave "Brownsound" Baksh since his first year of high school. The other two members of SUM 41's final lineup, drummer Frank Zummo and guitarist Tom Thacker, had been with the band for years.

In 2024, Deryck released his memoir, "Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven And Hell", an international bestseller that offers a deeply personal look at his rise to fame, struggles with addiction, path to recovery, and surviving abuse, making for a raw and honest story of resilience, healing, and balance.