Blink-182's Mark Hoppus: 'I'm Lucky to Be Alive'

US Weekly

Transcript

00:00kind of the whole point of the book is like there's no demons out there everybody is just doing the

00:05best they can aren't we all lucky to be part of each other's lives and to be part of this world

00:10and like i'm not here to grind an axe against old band members or current band members or stuff that

00:17people i thought did wrong to me like the whole point of the book is like

00:20aren't we lucky to get to do what we've done and see what we've seen and do what we've done

00:30i barely remember the next 24 hours from the moment that i got the call i was walking into my

00:35therapist for the first time i was in a dark place we were coming out of covid the world was weird

00:40everything was polarized and people were fighting and there was like you know it just felt the world

00:46felt like it'd been knocked off kilter and i felt really off kilter and so i went to go talk to a

00:52therapist for the first time and as i'm walking in my phone rings and i'm like oh hang on this is from

00:57a health care and so i answer it it's my oncologist who had just done all the tests you have cancer

01:02it's going to be chemotherapy you know cancel the next six months of your life uh we're gonna we're

01:10gonna beat this but yeah you have cancer and i need you to come in and so it was like what happens what

01:17what's my course of treatment what does that mean like you know i came home and i called my doctor and

01:23i'm sitting here at this desk talking to my doctor on the phone and the only question i could think of

01:28is is it gonna hurt um and they said yeah it's gonna hurt i'm kind of the cancer guy amongst my

01:40group of friends now so when somebody that i know or someone that they know finds out that they have

01:44cancer i'm the guy that they turn to and say hey my friend just found out that they have cancer

01:48like will you get on the phone with them when you talk to them or like what advice will you give

01:52and really it's take care of yourself like allow yourself to sleep don't don't feel like you have

01:59to go and still conquer all the world and do all this stuff and be normal and be strong and you know

02:04be strong for yourself be strong for your family but be kind to yourself and give yourself space like

02:09i wish that i would have just slept more been on the couch more uh allowed myself to just uh heal

02:17and go through it but i was always like trying to be okay i still gotta do my stuff and i still gotta

02:23whatever and there was stuff that i wanted to do and still did like i needed to walk and sometimes

02:28just getting outside to walk was all i could do during the day like if i could walk for 15 minutes

02:33on flat ground that was it because i could barely breathe because my blood my red blood count was so low

02:39that like i could i couldn't carry oxygen so i would walk up the stairs from my studio here

02:44and be completely out of breath oh i feel incredibly lucky to be alive i feel like of all the cancers to

02:50get i got one that's curable um the the biggest blessing not the biggest blessing but one of the

02:55biggest blessings for me was i didn't have to make decisions of how i was going to be treated with

03:00my kind of cancer with my specific you know whatever genetic markers there's only one thing i can do i

03:06never had to make a choice do you want to do radiation and then uh and then surgery do you

03:11want to do surgery and see what happens and then maybe do radiation do you want to do like this kind

03:15of came with it like there was only one thing so that my course was set i don't have to get scanned

03:20anymore but i do think about my health a lot and i eat right i'm very conscious of what i'm eating

03:27uh i try not to drink too much um i work out five days a week i i really try and for me like the

03:35ongoing thing with my cancer is that i'm tired a lot and that i still have brain fog so when i get tired

03:41i go to bed like sometimes like if the if the day calls for it i'll climb into bed at seven o'clock at

03:47night and and allow myself to do that because i need it and then when i get brain fog i just have to be

03:54kind to myself and be like okay it's gonna go away but i do get like days where i'm like

03:58can't remember people's names or i can't remember certain words or just feel a little bit off the

04:04day before i started chemotherapy just randomly tom texted me we were cordial at that point we

04:08weren't friends by any means at all we were cordial enough that we would text each other like merry

04:12christmas hope you and the family are great really surface level that was it the day before i started

04:18chemotherapy tom texted me a photo of him standing in front of a bunch of women in lingerie

04:23it was for a music video that he was filming for angels and airwaves and he said hey just so you

04:29know i'm still creating art over here with angels and airwaves and i replied haha that's great by the

04:35way i need to tell you i have cancer i start chemotherapy tomorrow and immediately my phone

04:39rang and it was tom and it was the first time that really spoken to him in years and but we didn't

04:44even talk about that he's like how are you how are you feeling what's going on first of all

04:48you're gonna get through this i'm gonna help you get through this no matter what we're gonna

04:52uh and he said i remember in that first phone call he said this is some this is a lesson the

04:58universe is trying to teach you figure out what it is figure out what that lesson is and so that was

05:04probably the best advice that somebody gave me while i was sick was what is this in like in the

05:11universal sense like what is what is god trying to tell me right now slow down be kinder to yourself

05:17just slow down your brain be here enjoy it literally be here now is like great advice

05:23that i think about all the time be here now don't worry about tomorrow don't worry about yesterday you

05:28you get today enjoy it

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