Book Review: Sum 41's Deryck Whibley Gets Candid In 'Walking Disaster' Memoir

Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven and Hell
By Deryck Whibley
Release Date: October 8th, 2024
Publisher: Gallery Books

Review by Jared Stossel

The first time I ever saw Sum 41 was in 2012 on the Does This Look Infected? anniversary tour. As it’s recounted in frontman Derek Whibley’s new memoir, this was not a good time for the band. From the second that Whibley became visible on stage, I became concerned for his well-being (and I don’t even know the guy). Two years later, Whibley landed in a coma, due to his liver and kidneys failing from excessive alcoholism. He would awaken a changed man. Two years after that, he would be back on stage, sober and revitalized; the band that was inches away from falling apart was suddenly putting itself back together. To this day, they are one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen.

Walking Disaster, the new memoir from Whibley whose name is taken from the band’s popular song on the album Underclass Hero, is an incredibly candid retelling of the past forty-four years of his life. The subtitle of the book is no joke; Whibley has indeed been to hell and back over the last forty-odd years, detailing his upbringing in vivid detail, from growing up in the Toronto suburbs with a single mom to the time he snuck backstage and gave his contact information to a band in the hopes they would come to see him play. This isn’t another vapid celebrity tell-all; yes, some stories indulge readers in his relationships with celebutante Paris Hilton and pop-punk superstar Avril Lavigne, but they aren’t out to expose dirty details or humiliate anybody; they are simply there to accentuate Whibley’s story.

The memoir details the extreme highs (multi-platinum records, world tours, marriage) as much as the extreme lows (being sexually abused and groomed from the age of seventeen, divorce, falling into alcoholism), but Whibley backs away from nothing and leaves everything out on the table. It is maybe one of the most telling memoirs released thus far from anyone in the “pop-punk” genre, and I couldn’t put it down once I picked it up. It sounds cliché, but it’s true; I looked at the clock, and before I knew it, 1 AM.

Much like Blink-182, the name Sum 41 has become synonymous with the term “pop-punk”. Even as their music skewed more towards the heavier side of the “punk” spectrum, indulging in metal stylings on albums like Chuck and Does This Look Infected?, Sum 41 has been a fixture in the genre since bursting onto the scene in the early 2000s. Whibley provides readers with insight into how he’s written for Sum 41 over the years, how influences like hip-hop and metal played a huge part in the creation of All Killer No Filler, and how he was able to find his place in pop-punk once more with the creation of their stellar new album, Heaven x Hell. Walking Disaster is a must-read not just for Sum 41 fans, but for any fans who genuinely love this kind of music, have found themselves battling with anxiety and/or depression, and anyone whose baked out in the sun for twelve hours during a scorching hot day at the Vans Warped Tour in the hopes of getting a glimpse at their favorite band. Don’t sleep on this one.

Purchase a copy of Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven and Hell by clicking here.