Sum 41 savors landmark stop on farewell tour at Welcome to Rockville 2024 in Daytona

When Sum 41 takes the stage at this year’s Welcome to Rockville at Daytona International Speedway, it will be a milestone for the band and its longtime fans.

After 27 years, the Canadian pop-punk stalwarts are breaking up, offering a farewell on the globetrotting “Tour of the Setting Sum” that stops for a 9:10 p.m. set on Sunday, May 12, on Rockville’s Vortex Stage.

The tour caps a remarkable run for a band that arrived on the pop-punk wave of the late 1990s that also included Blink-182, Simple Plan, Good Charlotte and Avril Lavigne.

Powered by hits such as “Fat Lip” and “In Too Deep,” the band’s music was a fixture on MTV’s “Total Request Live” as well as film soundtracks for “Spider-Man,” “Dude, Where’s My Car?” and “Bring It On.”

Now, Sum 41 is taking its final bow behind a well-received double album, “Heaven :x: Hell,” which has yielded a hit single, “Landmines,” and a newly released music video for “Dopamine.”

In addition to vocalist Deryck Whibley, the group’s lone remaining original member, the current lineup includes guitarists Dave Baksh and Tom Thacker, bassist Jason McCaslin and drummer Frank Zummo.

During a recent tour break, Baksh, who has played with Sum 41 for much of its existence, answered a few questions about the final tour:

Why did Sum 41 decide to break up?

This past fall, lead singer Whibley explained to heavy-metal outlet Loudwire.com that after nearly 30 years, it was just time to move on.

"I've been in this band since I was in 10th grade, and ... I'm getting to a point where I'm thinking, I'd like to put some focus and energy into something else,” he said. “And I felt this (the band’s new double album “Heaven :x: Hell”) is probably the best record we've ever made. And I think this version of the band is the best we've ever been live. And I thought, what a way to just go out on this one."

By phone from his home outside of Toronto, Baksh added that the split was absolutely amicable.

“The chemistry in this band is such a beautiful thing,” he said. “I’ve played in so many bands, but I’ve experienced nothing like this with other musicians.

“It takes a lot of guts to go out while you’re on top. I don’t think any of us when this all started envisioned a reality that it would come to an end with us having a hit song (“Landmines”) and a record that’s doing really, really well after only a few weeks of release.

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“We all care so much about each other. That’s part of the reason why we also sit at a point where we’re still going to walk away the best of friends. It’s unbelievable. It’s hard to feel anything but awesome.”

Are emotions more intense at these final Sum 41 shows?

“Every place where we go, that ends up being our last time there, so I think we all take a second, especially after the shows. We take a second to really reflect on the years. Places like Florida have been amazing to us since the beginning of our career. Those were our first tours in the United States.”

Do you get to see other bands at Welcome to Rockville?

“This festival is pretty unbelievable, if you look at the talent that’s been curated for it. As soon as I wake up, I get food in me as fast as I can, and I walk around and see as much music as I can that day because I get to catch up on all these shows I’ve missed while I’m out touring.

“I get very inspired, and I feel very proud of the bands when they are playing and doing really well. It’s a hard thing to explain. What it all boils down to is a massive amount of inspiration.”

What’s it like playing at Daytona International Speedway?

“I grew up in a family of absolute car nerds, so we’re talking about the Speedway, someplace I’ve seen in pictures and on TV since I was a young kid. I can’t wait to walk a little bit of the track and play out there.

“The crowds are there to have a good time. When we first started the band, that was the whole outlook, to have a good time. We always feel the presence of a Florida crowd.”

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Sum 41 takes a bow at Welcome to Rockville 2024 in Daytona Beach