LINK 182 WERE ONE OF THE BIGGEST BANDS IN THE WORLD - UNTIL PARANOIA AND JEALOUSY TORE THEM APART. NOW TOM DELONGE HAS FINALLY AGREED TO BREAK THE SILENCE...

You always hurt the ones you love. That's what people say. Well, it works both ways, and that's something the three members of Blink 182 could tell you a thing or two about.

On February 22, shortly after mysteriously pulling out of a tsunami benefit show in California, Blink 182 released an official statement announcing that they were going on an immediate and indefinate hiatus to "spend some time enjoying the fruits of their labours".

In the wakes of the announcement, the trio remained tight-lipped about what exactly had prompted it. Instead, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker busied themselves with their new band - Plus-44 - and Tom Delonge retired from the spotlight, giving no interviews and making no public appearances.

The guitarist/frontman might be preparing to rise again, through his new band Angels and Airwaves, but that doesn't mean that he's put Blink 182 into a box, locked the lid and cast it aside. Far from it. Via two long and intense phone calls, the usually private Delonge opened up to Kerrang! about the band's breakdown. Of course, his is only one part of a three-sided story, but at the time of going to press, his former bandmates declined to be interviewed.
Here, then, is Tom Delonge's account of the death of Blink 182...

WHEN YOU AND TRAVIS FORMED BOX CAR RACER WITHOUT MARK, WAS THAT THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR BLINK 182?
"Mark took it extremely hard. I had no intention to ever make Box Car a priority over Blink, but it really hurt him. It sucks because Mark's a sweetheart and I never meant to hurt him. But he never got over it."

WHY COULDN'T HE LET GO?
"Mark's one of the most intelligent people I've ever met, but sometimes he's too intelligent for his own good and will over-analyse stuff. But if the only issue was that he couldn't get Over Box Car, then I'd have propably hung it out a little while longer."

SO PROBLEMS BETWEEN YOU WEREN'T JUST A RESULT OF BOX CAR?
"I also wrote a song for a hip-hop guy because I wanted to do something different and after that, our record lable offered me a solo deal."

DID YOU WANT TO GO SOLO?
"I was flattered, but there was no way in hell that I'd ever do that. I thought it would be the most stupid, arrogant, lame thing to do. In any case, these e-mails were getting floated around between the lable and management and Mark found out."

HOW DID MARK TAKE IT?
"He didn't talk to anyone for two days and was pretty pissed about it. Off the heals of Box Car, Mark was suspicious. There were many things he thought happened that never happened - like secret meetings behind his back - and I couldn't convince him otherwise. I think people thought I was conspiring to do things and that was so not the case."

THAT MUST HAVE MADE YOU FEEL PRETTY ALIENATED.
"It was one of the things that frustrated me the most because I really wanted nothing but the healthiest and to be doing it with my best friends. I didn't want to start another band and I didn't want to go solo."

SO AMONG ALL THAT, YOU GUYS DID ANOTHER BLINK ALBUM.
"Yeah, and it was a great healing period for us, but with Mark not being able to let Box Car go, things weren't the same. Travis, on the other hand, I think his focus was in many different places. He wanted to tour all the time, was playing in multiple bands and then he started his reality TV show that he never told me about."

HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT TRAVIS DOING THE MTV SERIES "MEET THE BARKERS"?
"It was something I didn't agree with, but I supported him, even though I didn't like having TV cameras around me and I felt that my personal privacy was invaded. And then on our last European tour [towards the end of 2004] everything kind of came to a head."

HOW BAD DID THINGS GET ON THAT TOUR?
"I was super-bummed because I needed to go home and see my daughter and my wife. We'd been away from home for nearly two years and I was really unhappy."

DID YOU RESENT THE FACT THAT BLINK KEPT YOU AWAY FROM YOUR FAMILY?
"No, but it got to the point where my family couldn't be my first priority and I wasn't willing to uproot them every time I went on tour. It just wasn't fair - they needed some normality."

MARK AND TRAVIS HAVE WIVES AND CHILDREN TOO. WHY WAS IT SUCH A STRAIN FOR YOU?
"Of course they love their families, but I think they deal with the way that their family lives fit into the band easier than I do. My family needed me at home and it didn't seem like me making that my priority mapped up with the way those guys wanted to work."

COULDN'T YOU JUST TALK TO THEM ABOUT IT?
"I didn't understand. Travis and I couldn't talk to Mark anymore - we weren't the friends we were. The other thing was I was getting so much shit from Mark about Box Car, but then when we were on that last tour, Mark and Travis had already put together Plus-44. I didn't even know about it until it got printed in a magazine - in Kerrang!, I think."

IS THAT WHEN YOU DECIDED TO FORM ANGELS AND AIRWAVES?
"No, absolutely not, and I want to make this clear. I had an epithany on that tour which made me feel like I was going to do something big, but I had no idea what it meant. It didn't even cross my mind to put another band together until after we announced our hiatusm when I was working on some new songs last March."

BUT MARK AND TRAVIS MUST HAVE KNOWN YOU WEREN'T HAPPY.
"They were going to me, "What do you want? What is your problem?" I didn't want to tell them what I wanted - a break - because I knew they wouldn't like it. Mark was happiest when he was on tour because he was with his friends and doing what he loved and Travis just wanted to play the drums. But I was going to self-destruct if I didn't make some changes."

WHAT CHANGES DID YOU ALL AGREE TO MAKE?
"We decided to take a six-month break."

HOW DID THAT SIX MONTH BREAK SUDDENLY BECOME AN 'INDEFINATE HIATUS'?
"My number one reason for needing a break was because my family needed me but as soon as we came home, we had to record a song for Travis' TV show and Mark had booked us multiple tsunami benefit shows. I think because they felt I was trying to control the band by making us go on a break, they were booking stuff for us to do."

WHAT WAS THE LAST STRAW FOR YOU?
"Before that show [the Music For Relief tsunami benefit] we had this big argument after a rehearsal. It was completely clear to me that the way the band was going to operate was very different to how I needed it to be, because of the type of family man I wanted to be. Anyways, as I was driving away, they both called up our manager and tried to cancel the show because they were really mad at me. They were so angry that they were saying... I don't even know what they were saying."

WERE THEY INSINUATING THAT SOMETHING BAD MIGHT HAPPEN?
"There wasn't an actual threat, but there was a really weird, unsaid... I don't know what it was but it was so strange. That's when I said to my manager, "Okay, it's time for a break"."

SO YOU WERE LEFT WITH NO CHOICE BUT TO TAKE A 'HIATUS'?
"Please understand that the break-up, or hiatus, or whatever you want to call it, was never an agenda of mine. I never wanted it to happen. It was a very depressing thing for me."

HAVE YOU SPOKEN TO MARK AND TRAVIS SINCE?
"No, We did a huge amount of talking and that's why I haven't spoken to them since because I said everything I needed to say to them."

DO YOU THINK THEY UNDERSTOOD WHY YOU NEEDED TO MAKE SOME CHANGES TO THE WAY BLINK WORKED?
"I don't think that either of those guys would ever believe that I did this because I thought it was best for my family. I think, until the day we die they will go to their graves thinking I did this because I had a master plan to make another band or do it by myself without them."

THAT'S A SAD THING TO THINK ABOUT YOUR FRIENDS.
"I'm tired of thinking about what they think said. I'm tired of wondering how I could have said things better. I said to them, "I want to be the biggest band in the world, I want to love my band and I want to be your best friend, but I have to be the best husband and father first." But I don't think they were really hearing me. I just think that we were different people at the end."

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT MARK AND TRAVIS NOW?
"I miss them. I don't feel "fuck you" towards them at all because I love them. They're fucking awesome guys."

YOU AND MARK STILL OWN (CLOTHING LABELS) MACBETH AND ATTICUS TOGETHER, DON'T YOU?
"Part of the charm about this whole situation is that we still have these companies together, which means that one day we have to come together and rebuild our friendship."

IS THAT GOING TO HAPPEN?
"It has to happen."

ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE IT HAPPEN?
"It's not going to happen on it's own. When all this stuff went down, I knew I had to take a different route to happiness, so I don't feel guilty about that, but there's such a large part of me that can't wait to rebuild my friendships with them. Playing with them again is something I think about every day, but I know that it just doesn't make sense for me right now."

PART OF THE APPEAL OF BLINK 182 WAS THAT IT REALLY SEEMED LIKE YOU WERE BEST FRIENDS. DO YOU THINK FANS WILL FEEL DUPED WHEN THEY REALISE THAT WASN'T THE CASE?
"We were friends. That's the saddest thing. We were doing what we loved and I swear, whenever we were onstage it was magical. There's nothing stained on the Blink name as far as the music and shows go, the only thing that's stained is the breakdown of our friendship at the end. It makes me so sad to think our fans would feel that way."

BLINK 182'S 'GREATEST HITS' ALBUM IS RELEASED ON UNIVERSAL / ISLAND ON OCTOBER 31.

Also see:
 See Plus 44 section on aliens-exist.net.
Song Meanings

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