Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge was contemplating retirement from music until he learned that bandmate Mark Hoppus had cancer.
In a new teaser film advertising the band’s next album, “One More Time,” DeLonge discusses how Hoppus’ condition caused him to reconsider retiring.
“I remember telling my wife now, like, ‘I don’t think I’m ever going to play music again; I don’t think I’m ever going to tour again,'” he says. In the video, DeLonge stated: “Until Mark told me he was sick, and then it was like, that’s the only thing I wanted to do.”
According to Vanity Fair, Hoppus was diagnosed with stage 4 diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in April 2021.
Months later, in September 2021, he declared himself cancer-free.
“When I found out I was sick, I was really shitty, weak, brain, like, eaten with the chemotherapy, in pain and everything else, just a hollow shell,” Hoppus said in a video detailing his cancer treatment.
He went on to describe how his bandmates, particularly DeLonge, were doing everything they could to cheer him up.
“I was weary of hearing Tom’s upbeat nonsense. “I really did,” Hoppus said. “Things like, ‘You’re going to do great, you’re going to get through this, you’re going to crush this,’ on days when all I wanted to do was wallow. “I don’t want to be optimistic.”
DeLonge went on to say that their desire to resume producing music as a band wasn’t motivated by “fame, money, or how big Blink was,” but by the opportunity to support one another through their own personal challenges.
“It was probably the gnarliest moment when he informed me he was sick… “That’s like, nothing really matters,” DeLonge stated.
Drummer Travis Barker also took a minute in the video to ponder the significance behind their upcoming title single.
“On the album, ‘One More Time’ is kind of written about, like, why does it take these catastrophes like me being in a plane crash and Mark being sick for our band to get back together?” Barker said in the video.
According to Billboard, Blink-182 went on hiatus in 2005 owing to internal conflicts. They reconciled in 2009 after Barker survived an aircraft disaster that killed four people, after years of difficult ties.
“My accident definitely made everyone think about things a little more clearly, especially me,” Barker said in an interview with The Daily Beast in 2017. “It’s unfortunate that it took something like that to wake everyone up, but we realized, man, life’s short!” We were fighting and not talking about some nonsense, and it wasn’t worth fighting about.”
According to Billboard, Matt Skiba took DeLonge’s place for the subsequent two Blink-182 albums after he left the group in 2015.
According to Billboard, DeLonge rejoined Blink-182 in October 2022, and the three released a single named “Edging,” their first song and music video together in years.