What a difference a year makes. Last April, Sum 41 rocker Deryck Whibley was in a medically induced weeklong coma when his kidney and liver failed as a result of his excessive drinking habits. Fifteen months later, on July 23, Whibley showed off his healthier, happier self during a Los Angeles outing with fiancee Jocelyn Aguilar.
"I'm glad it happened now and not when I'm like, 50, because my body wouldn't have been able to handle it…However, now I'm feeling better than I've ever felt," Avril Lavigne's ex-husband, 35, told told Vice's music channel, Noisey, in April of his near-death experience. "I'm healthier. I'm in the best shape of my life."
As Whibley explained, he had to be sedated for a full week in intensive care. "I do look back and think about how much worse it could have been," he told Vice. "I could have had way more health problems than I had, but my liver is fine! Everything shut down before any more damage could happen. To walk out of there alive, without cirrhosis or needing transplants, you know, it could have been worse."
During his recovery, Whibley made the decision to swear off alcohol, which he used in his twenties to cope with his band's sudden success and nonstop schedule.
"I drank to wake me up and get that fake energy. There were a lot of times I didn't even want to drink, but I was so tired that shots of Jack were all I could do to get onstage. . . If I literally hadn't done it to death, I might feel like I'll be missing something, but I'm not missing anything," he shared of drinking. "I'm done with it."
