Greig Nori has denied that he had a non-consensual relationship with Sum 41 singer Deryck Whibley, claiming instead that it was Whibley who initiated what became a consensual relationship between two adults.
“The accusation that I initiated the relationship is false,” Nori wrote in a statement provided to the Star on Thursday. “I did not initiate it. Whibley initiated it, aggressively.”
The statement comes days after Whibley accused Nori — Sum 41’s former manager and the frontman for the Canadian rock band Treble Charger — of coercing him into a sexual relationship when Nori was in his 30s and Whibley was a teenager.
Nori did not respond to the Star’s multiple requests for comment earlier this week.
The allegations were detailed in Whibley’s memoir “Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven and Hell,” which was published this week.
“For the longest time, I never thought I would ever speak about this stuff,” Whibley told the Star during an interview about the memoir. “It was a deep, dark secret I was going to take to my grave.”
The allegations by Whibley, now 44, sent shock waves throughout the Canadian music industry.
During the 2000s, Nori, now 61, was an established figure in the country’s rock scene. He was a host of the MuchMusic reality show “Disband,” and produced music for Canadian rock acts including Hedley and Marianas Trench.
In Whibley’s memoir, he wrote that Nori pressured him into a “toxic” relationship that was all-consuming. Whibley wrote that Nori offered advice, gifted him with musical equipment and allegedly introduced him to ecstasy.
In the statement shared on Thursday, Nori denied that he “groomed” Whibley prior to the beginning of the relationship.
“When the relationship began Whibley was an adult, as was I,” Nori wrote.
“The accusation that I pressured Whibley to continue the relationship is false. The accusation that I pressured Whibley to continue the relationship by accusing him of homophobia is false. Ultimately the relationship simply faded out. Consensually. Our business relationship continued.”
