Tom DeLonge says he’s “completely repaired” his friendship with former Blink-182 bandmate Mark Hoppus
DeLonge left Blink-182 back in 2015.
Photo: Lisa Lake / Getty
Tom DeLonge says his friendship with Mark Hoppus has been “completely repaired” since he learned of his former Blink-182 bandmate’s cancer diagnosis.
Hoppus confirmed his cancer diagnosis in June when he was already undergoing chemotherapy for stage four diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Hoppus has completed chemotherapy, and in his latest social media update (21 September), shared that his hair has started growing again.
Speaking to Zane Lowe in a recent interview for Apple Music, DeLonge revealed how he first learned of his former bandmate’s diagnosis.
“The way the universe works is strange because I reached out to Mark because I needed him to sign this piece of paper that had to do with my divorce,” DeLonge said. “Only because of that call did I learn he had cancer. And he told me on the phone. I was like, ‘Wait, what?’”
DeLonge left Blink-182 in 2015 when he decided to devote more time to his aerospace-entertainment company To The Stars. In his place, the band enlisted Alkaline Trio vocalist-guitarist Matt Skiba. DeLonge and Hoppus did not speak regularly back then.
“We weren’t really talking much at all, maybe once every couple of months. A little text here and there,” DeLonge explained. “But now, we talk multiple times a day. So it’s like we’ve been able to completely repair that friendship and really cut to the depth of who we are as people and what this is all about.
“And he’s had a really difficult time, but he’s doing really good right now, in the sense of where the cancer is gone, as far as we know, and the chemo worked really well.”