The music world has been awashed with rumours all day about the status of Tom DeLonge and Blink-182, well Rebellious Noise can confirm that longtime guitarist Tom DeLonge has told bandmates Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker that he’s taking break from group “indefinitely,” and the band will carry on with Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba taking over Tom’s duties for their upcoming shows.
Suspicions began when the band revealed that Alkaline Trio guitarist/singer Matt Skiba was recruited to join Blink-182 at the group’s upcoming headlining set at drummer Travis Barker’s eighth annual Musink Festival on March 22nd in Orange County, California.
Soon after, Blink-182’s Barker and bassist/singer Mark Hoppus issued a statement that DeLonge decided to “indefinitely” leave the band. “We were all set to play this festival and record a new album and Tom kept putting it off without reason,” Hoppus and Barker said. “A week before we were scheduled to go in to the studio, we got an email from his manager explaining that he didn’t want to participate in any Blink-182 projects indefinitely, but would rather work on his other non-musical endeavors.”
Hoppus and Barker continued, “No hard feelings, but the show must go on for our fans.” It’s unclear how long Skiba will collaborate with the remaining Blink members, but Alkaline Trio fans can breathe easy: Barker and Hoppus promise Skiba will continue to record and tour with his own band.
At press time, DeLonge had not commented on social media about his split from Blink-182, but he has been active in recent week promoting music from his other band Angels and Airwaves. Shortly after his decision to leave Blink-182, however, DeLonge posted a selfie on instagram with a sundown in the background. Hoppus tweeted shortly after the announcement, “Blink-182 for life. For life.”
In a fresh interview with Rolling Stone magazine, a clearly vexed Mark and Travis stood by their statement saying that an email from Tom’s manager confirmed “he has no interest in recording and that he wants to do his other, non-musical stuff and that he’s out indefinitely.”
Mark said: “There’s a flurry of e-mails going back and forth for clarification about the recording and the show and his manager sends (an e-mail) back saying, ‘Tom. Is. Out.’ Direct quote.
“This is the exact same e-mail we got back in 2004 when Tom went on indefinite hiatus before.
“To be honest, I wasn’t that surprised because his attitude leading up to that had been not excited and not interested.”
Travis added: “I think he’s just bummed because Mark and I were finally honest. We always covered up for him before. It was always, ‘We’re going to record an album,’ then ‘Tom refuses to get into the studio without a record deal.’
“So everyone does hella amounts of work to get a record deal and now Tom isn’t part of Blink-182. It’s hard to cover for someone who’s disrespectful and ungrateful.
“You don’t even have the balls to call your bandmates and tell them you’re not going to record or do anything Blink-related. You have your manager do it.
“Everyone should know what the story is with him and it’s been years with it. When we did get back together after my plane crash, we only got back together, I don’t know, maybe because I almost died.
“But he didn’t even listen to mixes or masterings from that record. He didn’t even care about it. Why Blink even got back together in the first place is questionable.”
Ouch.
Mark continued: “We’ve done everything that we could to give Tom what he says he needs. It’s been years of pushing back and I have to tell you: It feels humiliating to be in a band where you have to be apologizing for one person all the time. That’s how it’s felt for a long time.
“When Tom finally said, ‘I’m not going to go into the studio or play this show,’ it was kind of a gigantic relief because at least he finally said it. But to then say, “I didn’t quit the band,” it’s just not true. It’s disingenuous.”
You can read the full Blink-182 interview with Rolling Stone here