“It’s finally hitting me that it’s coming to an end.” Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley reflects as band bids farewell

Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley says the realisation that the band will call time on their career in a little over a month is finally starting to hit home.

The pop punk giants’ last ever shows will take place in their native Canada in January 2025.

And while Whibley isn’t usually one to look back, he admits the looming farewell is playing on his mind.

He tells HeartRadio Canada: “The weird thing for me is I don’t ever really look at particular shows or single dates. For the first time, this is actually hitting me that the Canadian run is gonna be the last run.

“So I look at it as a whole rather than just certain dates. And everything up until this tour has felt like, ‘Well, we’ve got so many more tours still ahead, so many more legs of the tour to do, so many more shows.’

“Whereas now there’s only four more weeks left, and this is the final run. So it’s finally hitting me that it’s coming to an end.”

The band announced their intention to draw the curtain on their career back in 2023 and have been on a lengthy farewell world tour.

Their last show will take place at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena on January 30.

Whibley has been sober on the tour, as he has been since almost dying from alcohol-related organ failure in 2014.

This year, doctors were worried about his heart’s ability to cope after he was diagnosed with pneumonia.

But he has been able to play most of the scheduled dates.

Asked how he feels about touring sober, Whibley says: “I prefer being sober now. The things that you enjoy, you actually feel more, whereas when you were drinking, yeah, there are a lot of wild stories and there’s a lot of crazy nights, but there were so many nights that we were just drinking for no reason, too.

“There were so many boring nights that you just spent drinking a bottle of Jack or whatever that we all stayed up till six in the morning, just driving on the bus, talking about dumb stuff that is just kind of pointless.

“But they’re just different lifestyles. I don’t regret any of those years, but I’m glad I don’t do it anymore.”