Metal Anarchy

Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley has taken to social media to celebrate his 10th year of sobriety. The singer/guitarist chose to get clean after previously being hospitalized with kidney and liver failure related to his battle with alcohol addiction.

Whibley said the following:

“10 years of sobriety.

This post is a little late for two reasons. One, I’ve never counted the days of my sobriety. There’s nothing wrong with counting. It just didn’t suit me. And two, I rarely know what the actual date is, ever!

10 years ago on April 15th, I went into the hospital with liver and kidney failure due to what had become excessive drinking. My drinking didn’t start out that way, it usually doesn’t. But eventually I crossed the invisible line and went from functional and in control, to addicted and dependent. Most of you know, I was in pretty bad shape.

So today, I couldn’t be happier to be able to say that I haven’t picked up a drink since that fateful day and now have a full decade of being sober, healthy, physically and mentally strong and most importantly really happy.

With a ton of work, and the huge help from my friends, family, fans and as always @sum41 mum I’m in the best place I’ve ever been in my life. I have the love and support of my amazing wife @aribarbara and we have two incredible children together to share our love and happiness with.

And I couldn’t be happier and more proud of what we’ve done in Sum 41. The band is in the best place we’ve ever been. 10 years ago we were at our lowest point personally and professionally. Not on speaking terms and couldn’t even be in a room together. Members gone and quitting, tours not selling and no prospects of being played on the radio anymore and the future looking less than zero.

As I laid in that hospital bed looking at the tatters my life had become, I vowed that if I survived this mess I created for myself and got out of here, I was going to fight, work and scrape our way back to the top again. I was determined not let the story end there.

Today, our song ‘Landmines’ went #1 on Billboard in both the U.S. and Canada across multiple formats making it our highest charting single, beating out ‘Fat Lip’ and ‘In Too Deep’. Our record ‘Heaven :x: Hell’ came out and beat all of our old chart records in countries everywhere. Our shows are selling out all around the world and in some cases we’re adding 2nd nights in multiple cities.

I write this not to brag, but to recognize and be grateful for the moment. I’m glad it was hard to get here. I’m happy it took a lot of work and wasn’t easy. And most of all I’m thankful for all the help.

My younger self would’ve thought this moment was ‘cool’ and just moved onto the next. My present self understands how incredibly lucky I am.

“I really want to thank the few people who really helped me out at the very beginning and made me feel like I was not alone. @tommylee @iggypopofficial @mattsorum @duffmckagen @johnfeldy”