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Walking Disaster
WALKING DISASTER is a riveting story of excess lived in the limelight, told with candour, humility and a thoughtful introspection rarely found in rock memoirs.
An unlikely rock and roll success story, Derek is an unassuming, intelligent, sensitive and insightful creative who is most at home in Sum 41's ecosystem, bringing their high-energy shows to crowds around the globe on marathon tours that typically last a year or more. He isn't the fame-seeking type, but he has had to contend with an unexpected degree of tabloid and paparazzi attention throughout his career due to two high profile relationships, one with Paris Hilton and the other, his four-year marriage to pop singer Avril Lavigne.
His life prior to the band is just as compelling. Raised in a single parent household under difficult circumstances, Whibley found solace and an avenue for his musical gifts in punk rock. Deryck's father abandoned him and his mother just after he was born, after which his mother remarried. His stepfather, who worked in construction and dealt drugs, was violent and abusive. When Deryck's mother eventually fled with her son and filed for divorce, they were forced to live at a campsite in Western Canada for a year, hiding from his stepfather who had vowed to kill them both.
Introspective and revealing, in WALKING DISASTER Derek discusses the evolution of his music, fame, his own story cheating death, as well as the radical societal changes that have taken place since he began his career - culminating in a phenomenal rock and roll story and artfully capturing the nineties and noughties era.
An unlikely rock and roll success story, Derek is an unassuming, intelligent, sensitive and insightful creative who is most at home in Sum 41's ecosystem, bringing their high-energy shows to crowds around the globe on marathon tours that typically last a year or more. He isn't the fame-seeking type, but he has had to contend with an unexpected degree of tabloid and paparazzi attention throughout his career due to two high profile relationships, one with Paris Hilton and the other, his four-year marriage to pop singer Avril Lavigne.
His life prior to the band is just as compelling. Raised in a single parent household under difficult circumstances, Whibley found solace and an avenue for his musical gifts in punk rock. Deryck's father abandoned him and his mother just after he was born, after which his mother remarried. His stepfather, who worked in construction and dealt drugs, was violent and abusive. When Deryck's mother eventually fled with her son and filed for divorce, they were forced to live at a campsite in Western Canada for a year, hiding from his stepfather who had vowed to kill them both.
Introspective and revealing, in WALKING DISASTER Derek discusses the evolution of his music, fame, his own story cheating death, as well as the radical societal changes that have taken place since he began his career - culminating in a phenomenal rock and roll story and artfully capturing the nineties and noughties era.
- GenresMemoir
273 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 8, 2024
11 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 27, 2025
I’ll be honest: I have never heard one song by the band Sum 41 (my nephew is a big fan and even saw them in concert recently). But something compelled me to purchase this autobiography. I’d say it was the blurb.
First, you do not need to know the music or be a fan of the band to enjoy what the author says. This is an excellent autobiography that delves deep into the author’s life from his childhood up to his present status.
Read more here: https://wp.me/p12iNR-d5M
First, you do not need to know the music or be a fan of the band to enjoy what the author says. This is an excellent autobiography that delves deep into the author’s life from his childhood up to his present status.
Read more here: https://wp.me/p12iNR-d5M
January 13, 2025
He gets into some dark territory here and it's commendable that he was able to finally write about all of it. A good book, even if, like me, you only know a couple of Sum 41 songs. Also, he says that Sum 41 is over, but like 3 days after this book was released, they were playing concerts.
November 7, 2024
Such a beautifully written life story of one of my favourite bands! Love hearing about recovery journeys like this one! Congrats Deryck!!!
January 8, 2026
A lot better than I thought. Deryck had an awful lot of hardship, was very insightful
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews