Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley and his wife, fellow musician Avril Lavigne, celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary on July 15.
On the morning after Avril's double wins at the MuchMusic Video Awards on June 18, a proud Whibley told Sun Media why Lavigne burst into tears as she accepted her second award.
"It was because it was the fan choice award," he said. "It's a funny misconception with her. People always think she's really angry and she's really mad and she really hates everyone, and doesn't care about anything, when the thing she cares about most is her fans and her music ... She's so blessed by fans, and that's the only thing she cares about, really, with this whole thing.
"I mean, she was crying -- and she cried afterward, too. It was something that was so important to her. She has sold 30 million albums and she gets so much negativity thrown at her. Like anybody, the bigger you are the more people want to tell you they hate you, and the more people try to rip you apart. So when you get stuff like the fan choice award, and not the critic choice award or something like that, that's the one that means something."
Whibley, along with his Sum 41 bandmates drummer Steve Jocz and bassist Cone McCaslin, introduced Lavigne's MMVA performance with all eyes on the couple. Whibley called her "Mrs. Whibley."
"She calls herself that all the time," he says with a smile.
The couple have now settled in a home in tony Bel-Air. Whibley said this locale, although wildly different from both of their humble beginnings, suits them.
"It's great because we both come from not having anything," Whibley said. "So we understand it. People have said to me before, 'How you can you say, "Underclass hero?" (the name of the new Sum 41 album) or claim that and live in Bel-Air and be from Ajax?' And I'm just like, 'You have no f---ing idea of what I've gone through. It's like, I know what I've gone through and I appreciate everything that's ever happened to me.
"I'm glad we made the move. Not because I don't like Canada, but I was here for 24 years or something and I was just kind of bored and I just needed a different thing. And it wasn't because Canada couldn't offer me what I wanted. It was more about the people I was around and stuff. I just wanted to get a new perspective and a new life, away from all the people I knew here ... We hang out alone most of the time, 95% of the time."
Personal life aside, the couple recently found themselves working together when Whibley produced two tracks on Lavigne's latest album, The Best Damn Thing.
He said it came about because he was already at the same studio producing Sum 41's latest record.
"She was in the studio down the hall, and she had these two songs that she wrote and she was like, 'Can you do these, I think they'd be perfect for you.' And I was like, 'Yeah. sure.' I had everything set up already. I was in the studio. And I just said. 'Steve, learn these songs' ... Then I put the guitar and bass on them. And then she sang two takes and then I picked the best one, and then that was done ... It was the easiest thing I had ever done, to be honest, in music."
