The boys of Blink-182 have endured more than their fair share of brutal trials and tribulations.
From lawsuits to firings and crashed planes, this is the tragic real-life story of one
of modern rock's most influential bands.
Blink-182 didn't intend to kick off that weird turn-of-the-century trend that attached meaningless
words to equally meaningless numbers.
After briefly trying on and discarding other names like Duck Tape and Figure 8, they were
simply called "Blink."
That moniker stuck for a while through early club appearances throughout Southern California
and some mini tours in the San Diego area.
In fact, 1994's Buddha, the band's first notable release, bore the name Blink on it.
It wasn't until 1995's Cheshire Cat that the group had to make a name change.
As it turned out, an Irish band also called Blink had caught wind of the San Diego punk
outfit and threatened to sue.
Unwilling to go to legal war over something so silly, Blink's label, Cargo Music, demanded
that the band change their name, or they'd change it for them.
So someone then slapped a meaningless "182" to the end of the name, and the rest is history.
The original lineup of Blink-182 consisted of bassist-singer Mark Hoppus, guitarist-singer
Tom DeLonge, and drummer Scott Raynor.
But only Hoppus and DeLonge would stick around long enough to enjoy the band's titanic commercial
success.
Cheshire Cat had earned them some interest from major labels.
All three members were fully willing to ditch Cargo Music, which they perceived as ambivalent
and unable to support them as their popularity grew.
However, the members couldn't agree about which label to sign with.
Raynor had a particular affinity for Epitaph Records, but when the band overruled him and
went with MCA for 1997's Dude Ranch, he began to lose interest in the band entirely.
There's a bizarre lack of verifiable details out there regarding what exactly went down.
One rumor says that Raynor was fired in the middle of the Dude Ranch tour for alcohol
abuse.
Another claims he simply left to go back to school.
No matter what exactly happened, the band was rid of him by 1998, with Travis Barker
in his place.
As legend has it, Barker was only asked to fill in for a set or two, but he then proceeded
to master the songs in less than an hour and knock the gig out of the park that same evening.
He was hired full time shortly after, and the band never looked back.
"Dammit," the lead single off Dude Ranch, earned the band some serious industry buzz,
and it's since become a staple of rock radio.
But it was 1999's Enema of the State that turned blink-182 into verifiable superstars.
It blew the lid off the pop punk genre, and it's gone on to sell over 15 million copies
worldwide.
It's since cemented a legacy as one of the most influential rock albums of the past few
decades, as it paved the way for the success of groups like Paramore and Fall Out Boy.
Blink-182's follow-up, 2001's Take Off Your Pants And Jacket, served as the nose cone
of the rocket, as it went on to sell 14 million copies worldwide
By the time the group wound down from that release, they were one of the most popular
bands around and had effectively run out of accomplishments to chase.
Furthermore, all three members were almost 30 and had become fathers.
DeLonge was torn between the band, his new duties as a dad, and his desire to grow creatively
through other projects, like Box Car Racer, the short-lived band he formed with Barker.
But not everything was all sunshine and roses.
Hoppus was apparently stung by being left out of Box Car Racer, and the attached-at-the-hip
relationship he and DeLonge had enjoyed up to that point took a serious hit.
Recording sessions for Blink-182's 2003 self-titled album were tense.
After all, Tom DeLonge wanted to veer away from the group's characteristic pop punk tone
and comedic lyrics and pursue heavier, more experimental sounds.
It's hard not to notice when you listen to the record.
Critics loved the band's newfound maturity, and fans lapped up the hit single "I Miss
You."
However, the album largely didn't live up to expectations commercially, especially compared
to their previous albums.
As is the case with any new release, an extensive, grueling tour was scheduled.
DeLonge, already suffering from chronic back pain and wanting desperately to spend more
time with his new family, asked the group for a half-year break.
But the rest of the group pushed back, understandably not wanting to risk the band's momentum with
such a long pause.
DeLonge later said that he felt like they were forcing an ultimatum on him.
Unwilling to choose the band over his family, he pulled away, and all future plans were
scrapped on the spot.
So in February 2005, to the devastation of long-time fans, Blink-182 announced that they
were going on an "indefinite hiatus."
In August 2008, Jerry Finn, a friend and producer of Blink-182, died of a sudden cerebral hemorrhage
at the age of 39.
Barely a month later, Travis Barker was one of just two survivors of the 2008 South Carolina
Learjet 60 crash.
He spent weeks recovering in the hospital, suffering from third-degree burns and PTSD.
"I honestly thought it was gonna be lights out."
"Yeah."
"Like I was just, you know, my biggest fear in my whole, you know, world was coming true."
In a 2008 blog post, Hoppus described the back-to-back tragedies as "the hardest times"
he could remember.
He and DeLonge both visited Barker in the hospital and frequently saw each other there.
It was the first time they'd spoken since the band split.
Once Barker was discharged, the group stayed in touch and met at Hoppus and Barker's studio
in Los Angeles that October.
According to Hoppus, the trio had a couple of heart-to-heart conversations in which they
all spoke at length about the events leading up to their 2005 split and the resulting pain.
DeLonge then broached the subject of a reunion by asking where everyone's head was at.
Hoppus responded,
"I think we should get back on the road and back in the studio and do what we love doing."
Blink-182 announced their official reunion at the 2009 Grammys before embarking on an
extensive and star-studded reunion tour that would feature opening acts like Fall Out Boy
and Weezer.
In 2010, they sat down to record Neighborhoods, the long-awaited followup to their 2003 self-titled
album.
Without the late Jerry Finn at the helm, who'd produced their last three records, the group
decided to self-produce.
Alas, this proved problematic.
The lack of authority and structure caused the album's release to be repeatedly postponed,
and tensions immediately began to resurface.
Rather than blocking out a few weeks to tackle the album, the band decided to do it in spurts.
They'd fit recording sessions around their personal lives and side projects, like DeLonge's
ongoing Angels & Airwaves commitments and Hoppus' Fuse TV show, Hoppus on Music.
Hoppus even interviewed Angels & Airwaves on one episode during this period.
Tensions were clearly visible, though they were played for laughs.
"I'm here now with the band that Tom DeLonge is cheating on me with.
Please welcome Angels and Airways!"
DeLonge later said of the album's recording process,
"We weren't even in the same room.
We were barely talking; we were in different studios.
No one really commented on each other's parts, no one pressed anyone's buttons.
Everyone was on eggshells."
Neighborhoods was released to widespread excitement in 2011.
Critics lightly praised blink's creative growth spurt, but fans were more lukewarm about the
dark lyrical content and lack of stand-out pop punk anthems.
Singles like "Up All Night" and "After Midnight" did reasonably well on rock radio, but they
had a limited splash on Billboard's Hot 100, with "Up All Night" peaking at number 65.
The album itself debuted at number 2, with first week sales of 151,000 units.
For comparison, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket debuted at number 1 in 2001 with sales in
excess of 350,000 in its first week.
Neighborhoods quickly tumbled out of Billboard's top 20.
While discussing the downsizing of Interscope Records' rock music department in response
to waning public interest, Tom DeLonge told Billboard,
"The label itself has no resources or capital to do what they used to."
Despite their rocky reunion, blink-182 continued to tour throughout the early 2010s.
They embarked on the 2011 Honda Civic Tour with My Chemical Romance, headlined the Reading
and Leeds festival in Great Britain, and celebrated the ten year anniversary of their 2003 self-titled
album with a handful of shows.
Behind the scenes, however, Tom DeLonge once again began to distance himself from the band
and recommit to other projects, including an ongoing obsession with conspiracy theories
and UFOs.
"I don't know if you guys know this, but Tom told me where Atlantis was precisely."
A brief cancer scare also sidelined DeLonge for a bit, although he's since been declared
clean and healthy.
As for the other band members, they weren't especially pleased with his behavior.
In a Rolling Stone interview, Travis Barker said that he wished DeLonge would just admit
that he didn't want to play with them and that he only wanted to do shows for the money.
Adding insult to injury, plans to record a seventh album were consistently pushed back
to accommodate other commitments.
Barker explained to Rock Sound,
"I'd do interviews and I just felt awful for fans because they were promised albums for
years and we couldn't do it."
In 2014, DeLonge's manager informed the rest of the group that his client was leaving the
band indefinitely to pursue "non-musical" interests.
Hoppus and Barker then decided to move on without him.
Their statement came as an unwelcome shock to both fans and, supposedly, DeLonge himself.
He called the legitimacy of the report into question on an Instagram post in which he
wrote,
"To all the fans, I never quit the band.
I actually was on a phone call about a blink 182 event for New York City at the time all
these weird press releases started coming in."
As more news trickled in, however, it became apparent that he was indeed no longer with
the group.
Some time later, Hoppus and Barker addressed the confusion with Rolling Stone, blasting
DeLonge as "ungrateful" and "disingenuous."
They also cited email exchanges with DeLonge's managers that, if accurately quoted, didn't
leave much room for ambiguity.
As one message reportedly put it,
"Tom.
Is.
Out."
Hoppus also remarked that the events leading to DeLonge's dismissal were eerily similar
to those leading up to the band's 2005 hiatus, and that he was therefore disappointed but
not surprised.
Barker then claimed that he and Hoppus had spent the last several years covering for
DeLonge while explaining the extensive time it was taking for a Neighborhoods follow-up.
As he put it,
"Why Blink even got back together in the first place is questionable."
No matter what the competing narratives were saying, Tom DeLonge did indeed officially
leave Blink-182.
So Hoppus and Barker then welcomed Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba to replace him at a number
of 2015 shows.
When the legal intricacies were hammered out with DeLonge, Skiba was added to the band
as an official replacement and has been with them ever since.
Soon after, Blink's 2016 album, California, was heavily promoted and was the band's first
number one hit since 2001.
It also earned the group their first Grammy nomination for Best Rock Album.
However, despite glowing notices for the lead single "Bored to Death," the album as a whole
received mixed reviews thanks to its formulaic nature.
2019's Nine debuted slightly lower on the charts at number 3, though it was better received
critically.
As for DeLonge, he's continued with Angels & Airwaves and various other business ventures
relating to art and his UFO obsession.
For example, To the Stars Academy is an ongoing venture merging various art projects with
aerospace engineering and UFO truthism.
"Back in 2014, I started To the Stars, a media company that would develop science fiction-based
films, books, TV shows, comics.
All of it."
The project has endured some financial hardships resulting from an inability to crowdfund a
starship the company planned to build with the United States military.
On a lighter note, DeLonge and his former bandmates appear to be on friendly terms again,
which hopefully leaves the door open for future collaborations.
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