The Ongoing History of New Music, episode 867: The Sum 41 story as told by Deryck Whibley (Part 2)

Being a rock star isn’t a normal kind of job. You live in a bubble about as far removed from the regular 9-to-5 Monday-Friday thing as possible.

You spend a lot of time away from home, living in hotel rooms or on buses. There’s a lot of downtime between gigs which can get really, really boring. And your working hours are almost completely opposite to your natural circadian rhythms.

A lot of people end up coping with bad food, drugs, alcohol, and any number of self-destructive behaviors. Anything to relieve the boredom, the pain, the loneliness, or the insecurities.

And there are few guardrails, people who will tell you to smarten up and sort out your life. In fact, your bad behavior is more likely to be encouraged than policed.

It can even be worse when you get off the road. Suddenly, any day-to-day structure you had on tour is gone. All that’s left is you, alone in your place with all your bad habits.

I bring this up because this is where we’re going to pick up the story of Deryck Whibley and Sum 41. The band burned very hot and very bright from 1996 through to about 2005 before something finally had to give. And it did.

This is part two of the Sum 41 story.

Songs heard on this show (all by Sum 41)

1. Some Say
2. Walking Disaster
3. Underclass Hero
4. Screaming Bloody Murder
5. Fake My Own Death
6. War
7. God Save Us All (Death to POP)
8. Over My Head (Live)
9. 45 (A Matter of Time)
10. With Me

The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on the following stations:

• 102.1 The Edge/Toronto – Sunday at 7 pm
• Q107/Toronto – Sunday at 9 pm
• Live 88-5/Ottawa
• 107.5 Dave-FM/Kitchener – Sunday at 8p pm
• Big Kingston – Saturday and Sunday at 11 pm
• The Wolf, Peterborough – Sunday at 8 pm
• FM96/London – Sunday night at 7, Monday night at 11
• Power 97/Winnipeg – Sunday at 8 am
• Sonic 102.9/Edmonton
• The Zone/Victoria
• The Fox/Vancouver – Sunday at 11 pm
• WAPS/WKTL The Summit/Arkon, Canton, Cleveland, Youngstown The show runs at 11 am Sunday. This, by the way, is a great option for American listeners who are prevented from listening to the show live because of geo-blocking,

We’re still looking for more affiliates in Calgary, Kamloops, Kelowna, Regina, Saskatoon, Brandon, Windsor,  Montreal, Halifax, Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton, and St John’s and anywhere else with a transmitter. If you’re in any of those markets and you want the show, lemme know and I’ll see what I can do.

If you ever miss a show, you can always get the podcast edition available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your on-demand audio.