What’s Going On With Blink-182?

Hoppus confirmed that the press release was indeed sent out from the bassist and Barker. He told Rolling Stone, “We stand by it 100 percent because it’s all true. There’s no ambiguity.”

To catch you up to speed, the initial press release from the group’s publicist explained why Musink’s lineup announcement lists Blink-182 with Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba. Barker is presenting the festival with Los Angeles rock station KROQ.

Blink’s statement, which was posted on KROQ’s website, notes, “ No hard feelings, but the show must go on for our fans.” Barker and Hoppus said they will still take care of all Blink-182 commitments, including Musink. Oh, and FYI, although Skiba is on board for Musink, he will continue playing with Alkaline Trio.

DeLonge responded by posting the following message on Instagram: “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… Apparently those releases were ‘sanctioned’ from the band. Are we dysfunctional- yes. But, Christ…..”

During the interview with Rolling Stone, Hoppus said the bandmates have been trying to get a record deal for the past few years. Lately, their communication has been through email as neither he nor Barker “have spoken to Tom in person for months.”

“We booked January 5th to go into the studio,” Hoppus told RS. “On December 30th, we get an e-mail from Tom’s manager saying that he has no interest in recording and that he wants to do his other, non-musical stuff and that he’s out indefinitely. 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.”

After the band went on indefinite hiatus in 2005, Barker and Hoppus formed the side project +44. In 2008 Barker survived a plane crash in 2008 that killed four people, requiring him to undergo 16 surgeries and 48-hour blood transfusions. The incident brought the group back together and the guys ended up reuniting the following year.  

Barker told RS that he thinks DeLonge posted on Instagram yesterday because “he’s just bummed Mark and I were finally honest.”

As for the future of the band, we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

Hoppus told RS, “There are legalities involved with this. As Tom pointed out, he technically didn’t quit the band. Then it gets all lawyer-y, which I will leave to the attorneys and managers. I just want to go out and play Blink songs. I want to go out and play the songs that we’ve been spending the last 20 years of our lives writing. That’s what Travis and I want to do.”

Update: DeLonge posted a photo on Twitter this afternoon of a guy embracing a lion with the caption “Me and the band #hugging.” This was followed by a link to a nearly 1,000-word Facebook post titled “LETTER TO THE FANS.”

“At the end of the day, all of this makes me really sad. Sad for us. Sad for you – that you’re witnessing this immaturity,” DeLonge writes. “I know them very well, and their current actions are defensive and divisive. I suppose they’re doing this as a way to protect themselves from being hurt. Like we all do.

“And even as I watch them act so different to what I know of them to be, I still care deeply for them. Like brothers, and like old friends. But our relationship got poisoned yesterday.

“Never planned on quitting, just find it hard as hell to commit.”