Sum 41
Canada, 1996–2025
Ontario band led by Deryck Whibley, formed in 1996. All Killer No Filler ('Fat Lip', 'In Too Deep') made them pop-punk stars, before Chuck and later records pushed into thrash and heavy metal, blending Maiden-and-Priest riffing with punk hooks.
MusicRoots documents 10 artists who influenced Sum 41 and 0 artists Sum 41 influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.
Who influenced Sum 41?
- Pennywise — Whibley dates the band to the Warped Tour in the summer of 1996, where NOFX and Pennywise are what sent him home wanting to start one.
- Green Day — The record that made the format commercially possible, and one Whibley names among the punk bands that shaped his writing.
- Bad Religion — From the Epitaph run he describes going down a rabbit hole of, and still played in the car twenty years later.
- The Offspring — The other Californian band on the same radio in the same years, and the one whose sense of a hook Sum 41 took furthest.
- Megadeth — The thrash half that surfaced fully on Chuck — Sum 41 are a metal band that learned to write punk songs first.
- Iron Maiden — Sum 41 grew up worshipping metal — 'Fat Lip' name-checks 'Maiden and Priest, the gods that we praised' — and Iron Maiden's twin-guitar heroics shaped their later metal turn.
- NOFX — NOFX's fast, snotty skate-punk is among Sum 41's core early influences, feeding their pop-punk speed and humour.
- Metallica — Deryck Whibley has named Metallica a main influence on Sum 41's heavier material, audible from Chuck onward.
- Beastie Boys — The rap half of Sum 41's early rap-rock, heard clearest on All Killer No Filler.
- Judas Priest — 'Maiden and Priest were the gods that we praised' — the band's own line in 'Fat Lip'.