Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley Apologizes to Australian Fans For Missing Final Shows: ‘I Can’t Say Sorry Enough’
Sum 41 singer Deryck Whibley offered up his sincerest apologies to the pop punk band’s Australian fans in a video posted this week after the group were unable to play what were slated to be the final-ever shows Down Under in December due to his illness.
“This is the part that I hate… The fact that we had to miss shows, miss festivals, all I can say is I’m so sorry,” Whibley said in the video after Sum 41 had to pull out of a headline slot at the three-city Good Things Festival along Australia’s East Coast in late 2024 as well as some oft their own stand-alone shows. According to RS Australia, after landing in the country the band had to cancel their first planned show on the Tour of the Setting Sum outing in Brisbane on show day as well as the three Good Things gigs and headliners in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.
At the time, they explained that due to Whibley’s latest battle with pneumonia, “It is will deep sadness and regret that we announce our 2024 Australian tour is unable to proceed.”
In the new apology video, Whibley added, “I’m so sorry for all the places that we couldn’t get to and for the shows that we couldn’t make. There were festivals in Australia, Mexico, and Canada… we tried everything we could. In Australia, it was very public. I had pneumonia. I was there, I did my best. I made it there. Unfortunately, we couldn’t move any of those shows because they were festivals. All I can say — and it’s still not enough — but, sincerely, I’m so sorry because we really wanted to play. It really just really fell out of our control and I can’t say sorry enough. But I’m truly sorry.”
The Canadian band’s year-long farewell tour in support of their eighth and final LP, Heaven 😡 Hell, brought an end to their nearly 30-year career with a final, final show on Jan. 30 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. Though they’re done performing now, the group that formed in Ajax, Ontario in 1996 and scored a No. 1 single on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in 2001 with “Fat Lip” will be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame during the 54th JUNO Awards on March 30.
Check out Whibley’s apology (slide 7) below.
Gil Kaufman
Billboard
