Sum 41 call it quits: ‘Thank you for the last 27 years’

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Canadian rockers Sum 41 have announced that they are calling it quits.

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“Being in Sum 41 since 1996 brought us some of the best moments of our lives,” the band wrote in a message shared with fans on social media Monday. “We are forever grateful to our fans both old and new who have supported us in every way. It is hard to articulate the love and respect we have for all of you and we wanted you to hear this from us first.

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“Sum 41 will be disbanding,” the band continued. “We will still be finishing all of our current tour dates this year, and we’re looking forward to releasing our final album Heaven :x: Hell, along with a final worldwide headlining tour to celebrate. Details will be announced as soon as we have them.

“For now, we look forward to seeing all of you skumf*** on the road and are excited for what the future will bring for each of us. Thank you for the last 27 years of Sum 41.”

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Fronted by Deryck Whibley, who was once married to singer Avril Lavigne, Sum 41 was formed in Ajax, Ont., in 1996. The band’s 2001 debut, All Killer No Filler, went platinum in the U.S. and Canada. Subsequent releases, Does This Look Infected? (2002), Chuck (2004) and Underclass Hero (2007) were also well received, but the band’s popularity dwindled as Whibley struggled with alcoholism and nearly died as a result of his addiction in 2014.

“The reason I got so sick is from all the hard boozing I’ve been doing over the years,” Whibley wrote in a post on his website that showed him in hospital. “It finally caught up to me.”

“It was touch-and-go there for a while,” Whibley reflected in an interview with Spin last year. “The doctors were very open and honest, it was a 50/50 chance that I would survive it. I knew if I ever got out of there that I wasn’t going to let it go. It puts into perspective what you really care about, and all I could think about in the hospital was music.”

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In 2019, Whibley spoke about how the band had forged a new path with politics infusing some of the songs that appeared on their seventh studio LP, Order in Decline.

“I tried to stop it and tried to fight it,” Whibley told The Canadian Press. “I tried to change the words, and it just felt really disconnected. After about a week, I said, ‘Well, f*** it. It is what it is, I’m just going to write words and we’ll figure it out.”‘

The two-time Juno Award winners are currently comprised of Whibley, lead guitarist Dave Baksh, bassist Jason McCaslin, rhythm guitarist Tom Thacker, and drummer Frank Zummo.

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