Sum 41 to be inducted into Canadian Music Hall of Fame

Sum 41 are set to be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, just weeks after they play their final ever show.

• READ MORE: Sum 41 tell us about “aggressive” final album ‘Heaven :x: Hell’: “It’s the perfect way to go out”

The pop-punk band were formed in Ajax, Ontario in 1996, and earlier this year, they announced they would be breaking up after the release of their eighth studio album ‘Heaven :x: Hell‘, and its subsequent accompanying world tour.

The album arrived in March, and the final dates of the tour see the band tour their home country throughout January, with a final date at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena on January 30.

Now, it has been revealed that at the 54th annual JUNO Awards in Vancouver on March 30, they will become the latest inductee into the Hall of Fame.

“We’re excited to be back at the JUNOS and to receive this recognition,” the band have said. “We’ve come so far as a band since we first started and we look forward to celebrating in Vancouver with our fans and fellow Canadian artists.”

Sum 41 will join the likes of Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Alanis Morissette, k.d. lang, Shania Twain and Nickelback in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, which was established in 1978 by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, who also present the JUNO Awards.

In December 2023, frontman Deryck Whibley spoke to NME about the band’s decision to stop making music. “I feel really good about this album, which is why I felt it should be the last one. We didn’t know we’d be splitting up when we were making it, but I’ve been making records and touring with this band since I was 15,” he said. “I’ve had this feeling for a long time now that I want to do something different and it just feels like the right time. This album feels like the perfect way to go out.”

Whibley recently published his memoir Walking Disaster, in which he accused the band’s former manager Grieg Nori of grooming him, as well as sexually and verbally abusing him for years.

Nori responded to the allegations, describing them as “false”, and claiming that Whibley initiated the relationship “aggressively”.

Whibley has in turn replied to Nori, saying he “stands behind every word” and said he is willing to go to court over the issue: “If you think I’m a liar, there is only one way to settle this: under oath. In front of a judge, in front of a jury, anytime you want. I’m ready whenever you are,” he said.

Earlier this summer, guitarist Dave Baksh and bassist Jason “Cone” McCaslin touched upon how the band have become “stronger” in recent years, following health issues faced by Whibley.

“We took about two years off for Deryck to figure out his health problems and then when we got back together with Dave it just seemed [right]” Cone said. “When everything got back together it felt really good. It’s been a rollercoaster for our whole career so it feels good to be playing these big festivals and higher up on the bill now.”