NME meets Blink-182's Mark Hoppus in London to talk about his emotional new memoir 'Fahrenheit-182' via punk escapades with his soulmates Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker, friendships broken and repaired, a Green Day rivalry, getting a little too close to Robert Smith, helping to capture Saddam Hussein, lessons learned from battling cancer – oh, and a few dick jokes.
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00:00Well, there's a lot of dick jokes in it, by the way.
00:02There is.
00:03In fact, when we were writing the book, at the end of it, we did a search all, like an
00:07Apple F, and we put the word dick in there, and there's 16 instances of the word dick
00:11in my book.
00:12Hi, I'm Andrew Trendell, you're watching NME, and we're here this morning with Mr. Mark
00:22Hoppus.
00:23Hello.
00:24How's it going, man?
00:25It's great.
00:26Lovely day in London.
00:27Sun's out.
00:28I'm in London where it's cold and rainy, which is the opposite of what I normally experience.
00:32Come here.
00:33Went to Kew Gardens yesterday in the sunshine, saw beautiful plants, walked around the city,
00:38saw my book in a store.
00:39It's great.
00:40Well, you brought the heat with you.
00:41It's the hottest day of the year today in London.
00:44Yeah, you're welcome.
00:45You used to live in London, right?
00:47Did, for three years.
00:48Loved it.
00:49So what's like, what do you do in London now as a former resident?
00:53Literally going to Kew Gardens yesterday was the first time that we've gone there.
00:56We lived here for three years, and it's such a beautiful place, I don't know why we didn't
00:59spend more time there.
01:01But yeah, when we come to London, we normally go out to a nice dinner, or we walk through
01:06the parks, which is always awesome.
01:08I could tell you, I could show you around the city.
01:10I know this city very well now.
01:11What's your favorite British pastime?
01:13Favorite drinking.
01:14No, favorite British pastime, I don't know, spending time outdoors.
01:20In Southern California, you're inside, and then you get in your car and you drive somewhere,
01:24and then you get out and you go inside, and you don't spend a lot of time outdoors for
01:27how beautiful Southern California is, and I actually spend more time outdoors in London
01:30than I do back home in LA.
01:32Yeah, I don't think people appreciate how much green space London has.
01:34It does.
01:35You have great green space here, you have great parks, you have great architecture,
01:39great history.
01:40Well, another place you should go to is the Design Museum.
01:42Okay.
01:43I don't know if you've been.
01:44I've got you a present.
01:46Lower your expectations.
01:49So I was in the Design Museum at the weekend, and they have a timber and exhibition going
01:53on.
01:54Oh, rad.
01:55It's really, really cool.
01:56So it's like his design and how he does stuff.
01:57Okay.
01:58And I saw these in the gift shop, and I was like, we'll get onto this in a second, but
02:00I was in the, I was reading the book, and these felt like they were very much in the
02:04same cinematic universe of the book.
02:06So I know you collect art, and they're just postcards, you could use them as bookmarks
02:09or something.
02:10But these seem like.
02:12Oh, that's so cool.
02:13Merry and keeping.
02:14Oh, that's rad.
02:15This, like, Ramones looking one.
02:18That's cool.
02:20And then this one says, my name is Jimmy, but my friends call me the hideous penguin
02:24boy.
02:25It's awesome.
02:26These are rad.
02:28But they felt like they were very much in the same cinematic universe as Fahrenheit
02:31182, available in all good bookshops and some bad.
02:35And mediocre shops as well.
02:36And on the internet, which is a mixed bag.
02:39But yeah, no, same kind of universe, loneliness, joy, goofiness, all wrapped up in a kind of
02:46sense of rock and roll, like a gothic curtain.
02:48Oh, thank you very much.
02:50That's a high compliment.
02:51I appreciate it.
02:52But yeah, here's my copy, as you can see.
02:55Very well read.
02:56You should do the same.
02:57What can you tell us about the need you felt to kind of get everything down and the compulsion
03:04and what you got out of it?
03:06For years, my manager, Gus, has said, you should write a book.
03:11And I really love writing.
03:12I like trying to agonize over which words best describe the thoughts that are in my
03:16head.
03:17But I didn't think I had a book in me.
03:20And then when I was diagnosed with cancer, I wrote to get all the dark thoughts out of
03:27my head.
03:28And I found it very therapeutic to write about that.
03:31And on the other side of cancer, I was very thankful to be alive.
03:36And I was like, I need to tell a story of Blink-182 from my perspective.
03:40And how much I love this band and how much I love my bandmates and the experience and
03:44the highs and the lows and everything.
03:45And so I started writing.
03:49And I wrote a whole bunch about my family and things like that.
03:54And I started working with my co-writer, Dan.
03:57And he read everything that I had written.
03:59And he said, this is really great writing.
04:01I love your voice.
04:02But nobody cares about your family.
04:03People want to know about the band.
04:04They want to know about Blink.
04:05And it really focused me.
04:07So then I dove into the history of the band, why I love it, the things we've gotten to
04:12do, and kind of started rolling with it.
04:15And it's been a really joyous experience.
04:17Well, that's one thing that comes out of it is it seems like you're Blink-182's biggest
04:22fan.
04:23I probably am.
04:24I've been to every single show.
04:25I'm the only person in the world that's been to every single Blink-182 show.
04:28That's true.
04:29Did you get a badge?
04:30I should.
04:31I should get a tattoo.
04:33How did Tom and Travis react?
04:36Revisiting this history through your eyes, seeing themselves through your eyes.
04:40They've been super supportive from day one.
04:44I think that they...
04:45I don't know.
04:46They're like my brothers.
04:47So when I said I was writing a book, they said, great.
04:50Travis has a memoir that he'd written, and Tom's written a bunch of books and things
04:54like that.
04:55So when I said I was going to write it, nothing but support and love.
04:59And you don't hide anything.
05:01No.
05:02You know what?
05:03I feel like this book, for decades, I've not told stories or I felt like it wasn't my place
05:08to say or whatever.
05:10I really prefer to be a little bit more reserved and private, as outgoing and as ridiculous
05:15as I am.
05:17But talking about how I felt about things and arguments that our bands have had and
05:24struggles that I've had, to put it all out there into the world feels kind of cathartic
05:29and healing.
05:31I don't know.
05:32Even putting out the bad stuff feels joyous to me.
05:34Well, that's it.
05:35It's not a book of dick jokes.
05:36It is.
05:37Well, there's a lot of dick jokes in it, by the way.
05:39There is.
05:40In fact, when we were writing the book, at the end of it, we did a search all, like an
05:44Apple F, and we put the word dick in there, and there's 16 instances of the word dick
05:48in my book.
05:49Which might be a record for a rock star biopic, apart from maybe Tommy Lee.
05:52I don't know.
05:53Yeah, maybe.
05:54Or, you know, Herman Melville's book.
05:58And that's a nice thing.
05:59So, a lot of the book is you wrestling with this notion that people see you as a comedy
06:03band.
06:04Mm-hmm.
06:05But you guys take everything so seriously, in the sense that you'll live or die for Blink.
06:09Yes, absolutely.
06:10I mean, we work really hard and meticulously and try and write the best songs that we can
06:15and put on the best show that we can, but we get up there and we're just ourselves.
06:20And when Tom and I get microphones in front of us, we just turn into idiots, and we try
06:25and outdo one another with who can say the more ridiculous thing.
06:28But at the heart of it, we really work hard to create what I consider art.
06:33What the book is good at is kind of going right back to the start, and literally on
06:36like page seven or page eight, you say, this is how I am.
06:39This is the reason I am how I am.
06:40You don't have to read the rest of the book.
06:41Right.
06:42And you talk about how your parents divorced, kind of cast that shadow, and you were kind
06:45of the middle man, the middle kid.
06:48And playing the mediator, the peacekeeper, the glue in the middle of everything, or that's
06:53how you saw yourself.
06:54Yeah.
06:55And that's very much what a bassist is as well, right?
06:56Totally.
06:58The way that I grew up, trying to mediate between my parents during their divorce and
07:03the person that I am at heart, where I try and grab different things and have them make
07:07sense together is exactly what I love about playing the bass guitar.
07:10It's the bridge between the rhythm of the drums and the melody and the voice of humans
07:18and guitars.
07:19And the bass kind of glues it all together and lays the foundation for it.
07:24And that's kind of how I feel in my band.
07:27Tom is over here doing his thing and Travis is like this amazing X Factor that comes in
07:31and does all this stuff.
07:32And I feel like I'm hopefully the glue that kind of binds it all together.
07:36And let's talk about meeting Tom.
07:37So he had a very similar kind of childhood to you.
07:40And the way you describe it in the book is quite nice.
07:42You show up, you chat, you have the same humor, the same story, the same interests.
07:46You write carousel on the spot, pretty much.
07:48It kind of felt like he was waiting for you.
07:50Yeah.
07:51The funny thing is because literally the day that I met Tom, he asked if I had an idea
07:56for any song ideas and I played him something on my bass.
08:00And his face lit up and he said, oh my gosh, I'm working on a song that sounds almost exactly
08:04like that.
08:05It was even in the same key.
08:06So within days of meeting one another, Tom and I had basically written the same song.
08:11And when we got in the room, we had the same sense of humor and we liked the same bands
08:15and skateboarding and everything else and it felt like it was supposed to be.
08:20But then there's the other side of him that's kind of like dogged, determined, workaholic,
08:26always chasing, which you sort of describe as a blessing and a curse and what keeps Blink
08:30going in many ways, but also kind of what almost tore Blink apart.
08:33Yeah.
08:34You know, Tom is very driven and enthusiastic about whatever it is that he's into right
08:41then.
08:42And that's the beauty of Tom is he will come at you one day and you don't know what it's
08:46going to be.
08:47Sometimes he's excited about this thing or it's about this thing and that can also veer
08:52off into his other interests.
08:54He's really into directing movies and writing scripts and developing those different ideas.
08:59And I think that when the band reformed, one of the key things was that we all love Blink
09:05182.
09:06That's the core of everything that the three of us do.
09:07But we also have different interests.
09:09And Travis is into producing a bunch of different bands and working on different projects.
09:14And Tom does the same thing.
09:15And I like to do other things as well.
09:17But when we come together as a band, that's when real awesome things happen.
09:22When the three of us get a room, good shit happens.
09:25When the Blink train derailed from the train track, it was very much like that's because
09:31Blink wasn't people's priority at the time.
09:33Yeah.
09:34You know, being in a band is very difficult.
09:37It's a joy and it's awesome.
09:39And Blink is amazing.
09:40You start this band when we were teenagers, just out of high school, just in college.
09:47We had nothing but the band.
09:49We would leave on tour in a van and we'd be gone for months at a time.
09:53And we didn't have any cell phones.
09:54We didn't have girls back home.
09:55We didn't have anything.
09:56We were just like, all that we cared about was this band.
09:59And then you grow up and you meet somebody and you fall in love and you get married.
10:02And then you have a mortgage and you have kids.
10:05And then you're like, well, you know, Tom at the time was like, I want to be home at
10:09home with my wife and my daughter.
10:11And Travis and I were like, well, we love our wives and our kids, but we want to be
10:15on the road.
10:16And so there's that friction.
10:17And if you think about the people that you were friends with in high school, like, you
10:21know, when you're in your 30s, are you still friends with them?
10:24Do you still have the same goals, the same dreams?
10:27And I think that that point of friction was when the band broke up for the first time.
10:33And then you realize that, yeah, people have different priorities, but creatively Blink
10:37182 is what we all love.
10:39Well, that's it.
10:40Your kind of pure love of Blink seems to remain the constant.
10:44The same way when you're playing like Sweaty Garage shows and house parties at the start.
10:48And there's a point where Tom's talking about side projects.
10:52And you say, why would you want to do anything apart from Blink?
10:54Blink is life.
10:55Yeah.
10:56Yeah.
10:57You know, and that's just one of the things that I had to come to terms with and understand,
11:03because I always thought that everything creatively that I did musically would be with Blink 182.
11:08And, you know, Travis was always committed to Blink 182, but he would also go into bands
11:14like Transplants or he would work with Expensive Taste or things like that.
11:19And then when Tom went off to do something else, it was a little strange to me because
11:26that was kind of the first time that Tom was like, well, I'm going to do something musically
11:28without you.
11:30So I felt hurt by that and didn't really understand it.
11:32And then when he enlisted Travis and like management and agents and things like that,
11:38then I felt really left out.
11:39And so that kind of left me with an identity crisis of, well, if Tom wants to go with Travis
11:43and do a whole different band, then what am I in this equation?
11:46And it took me a long time to come to terms with that.
11:48So, yeah, that was hard, but we're all on the other side of it now.
11:53Exactly.
11:54And Travis, again, seems like another kind of solid, steadying presence throughout.
11:59Yeah.
12:00Travis is always there.
12:01You know, Travis is laser focused on like he has ambition and drive like nobody else
12:07that I've ever seen in my life.
12:08He is.
12:09He is going to be one of the greats in music for sure, just because he has that whatever
12:15it is that like LeBron James has or, you know, Steve Jobs has or somebody like that who is
12:22so driven and focused on what their goals are and working hard to achieve it.
12:27You know, for me, I need days where I don't do anything.
12:30Like I'll have days where I just like sit and look at my phone for half the day.
12:34I'm like, well, what have I done that for?
12:35And that's not that doesn't happen with Travis.
12:37Travis is like working out or in the studio or doing this or building a company or that
12:42kind of thing.
12:43But he loves Blink so much and has been there, you know, for so long that that's a huge part
12:48of his identity as well.
12:50Yeah.
12:51He seems sort of like the ultimate rock star.
12:54But I can imagine it's like drinking green tea.
12:56Yeah.
12:57Travis is the ultimate rock star.
12:58But like, you know, I feel like he did all of his wild years in the beginning, but like
13:05intelligently and more focused than just like a rock star where you just like go crazy and
13:11whatever.
13:12Travis is always working towards something.
13:13Yeah.
13:14And Blink is more than the sum of its parts, of course.
13:16Yes, of course.
13:17Blink is way more than the sum of its parts.
13:19Blink is way more than what I bring to it or anything.
13:21It's when the three of us get together, there's a push and pull in the music and in the room
13:26where when we're all firing, it's magic.
13:28It's unlike anything else.
13:30It's like watching fire start.
13:33Yeah.
13:34You still have your own accents as well.
13:35I mean, there's a point at the start of the book where you pick up the bass and you say
13:38still decades later, I still don't think I have a very good technique.
13:41But I think you're a great bassist.
13:44I remember being at school when me and my mates were getting into bands, all the bassists
13:46either wanted to be Mark Hoppus or Flea, you know, two very different sides of the...
13:50Wow.
13:51That's a huge compliment.
13:52Yeah.
13:53No, I think I'm a good bassist.
13:56I think that I write really cool bass parts.
13:58But as far as technicality and being able to run scales and things like that, I don't
14:02have that technical ability.
14:04But I think I have an ear for what helps a song.
14:07And I can play well live and I can put it all together.
14:12But I didn't learn how to play bass by a teacher.
14:15I learned by listening to punk rock bands and trying to play along with them.
14:20But I think that also, and playing in Blink-182 where there's just one guitarist, one bassist
14:26and one drummer, I kind of play a combination of bass as a rhythm guitar because Tom can
14:31go off and do leads and then I can kind of lay more of a foundation underneath that.
14:35It's more than just a simple bass part.
14:36It's almost a rhythm guitar slash bass.
14:40But I wouldn't say that I'm a very technical bass player.
14:43But maybe it's that, maybe the reason there's still kids that want to be Mark Hoppus is
14:46that freedom.
14:47You know, the same thing like Hooky from New Order has the same thing.
14:49Yeah.
14:50Is he playing the bass?
14:51What's he doing?
14:52Yeah, yeah.
14:53Totally.
14:54No.
14:55And I grew up listening to New Order as well and Peter Hook is a huge inspiration.
14:58Like what he did at the beginning of Ceremony is just one of the most beautiful bass parts
15:01I've ever heard.
15:04And that's what I like.
15:06That's what I like the bass and that's what I like in music as well.
15:08But it was Simon Gallop from The Cure.
15:10The Cure.
15:11The Cure.
15:12Yeah.
15:13Simon Gallop was the one.
15:14Like, when I heard The Cure for the first time, it was just like heaven on Kiss Me Kiss
15:19Me Kiss Me.
15:20And it changed my life.
15:21Listening to The Cure made me want to play bass.
15:23Simon Gallop and his bass lines and I don't know, he just always looked so cool and just
15:28like his head was down, his hair was all up and just rocking out.
15:33Rock God.
15:34And then you became close to Robert Smith.
15:36Maybe a little too close.
15:37Yeah.
15:38I mean, it's been a dream come true to like grow up idolizing The Cure, having, you know,
15:45I could sing you every single lyric from, you know, Three Imaginary Boys up through
15:49Bloodflowers, word for word.
15:52And then having Robert Smith on one of our songs and then performing with him and having
15:57him know even who our band was is just beyond compare.
16:01And then take us back to that night, your face to face with Robert Smith post Wembley.
16:06He's inching closer and closer.
16:08No, it was awesome.
16:09It was so cool.
16:10We, you know, we'd played Wembley and Robert Smith had come out and he sang all of this,
16:15which he had done on our record.
16:17And that was a dream come true, playing in London at Wembley, sold out show, Robert Smith
16:21on stage with us.
16:23And then, you know, we covered Boys Don't Cry and he sang it and we were backstage and
16:27we were all hanging out.
16:28And I was like, hey, man, I went over to give him a hug and say, thank you so much.
16:31This means the world to me that you're here.
16:33I really appreciate it.
16:34I wanted to give him a hug and he like was trying to kiss me and I was like, whoa, what's
16:38going on?
16:39And I kind of backed off and he's like, no, do it proper.
16:42And I was literally like holding my wife's hand and we were in a packed room after party
16:46at a show and I was like, and then we get in the car and I was like, wait, did that
16:52just happen?
16:53And we're driving away and my wife's like, oh, what a dream come true for you.
16:57And it's like, what's wrong?
16:59Why are you acting so weird?
17:00I'm like, did you not see Robert Smith to try and kiss me?
17:02And she's like, nah.
17:03And so I was literally like, did that really happen?
17:06I was laying in my bed at the hotel until like the wee hours of the morning.
17:10And I called my drum tech and he just answers the phone and he's laughing and I'm all, so
17:15you saw that, right?
17:16He goes, Robert Smith trying to kiss you?
17:17Oh, yeah, I saw that.
17:18And looking back, I wish I would have done it would have been a much better story than
17:22it almost happened.
17:23Do you think Sky would have been cool with that?
17:25I don't know.
17:26There's only one way to find out.
17:28Yeah.
17:29Do you think you'll get your chance?
17:30Nah.
17:31No, but it's cool.
17:32Like, you know, we've seen him many times since and he's always so gracious and such
17:35a rad guy.
17:37And like we played a festival with him and I forget where in Europe a few years ago.
17:42And like somebody came back there like, hey, Robert wants to see you.
17:46And I was like, oh, shit, yeah.
17:47So I went and hung out in his dressing room and just, you know, they say never meet your
17:51heroes.
17:52But Robert Smith was definitely an awesome person.
17:55But that's what's cool about the book is there are so many holy shit, we've made it moments.
17:59But whether it's like playing that first house party or getting onto NoFX's bus, Robert Smith
18:05making out with you, they seem to be all on the same level.
18:08Yeah.
18:09I mean, you know, when we started Blink, our biggest goal in the whole world was to sell
18:13out a small club in San Diego called Soma.
18:15And the big room at Soma, like the big time for us was twelve hundred people.
18:20And when we sold out that that room in like whatever it was, ninety five, I thought we'd
18:26made it.
18:27Like we played the biggest punk rock club in our hometown.
18:30What else is there?
18:31And then you go on and you get signed to a label and then you get signed to a major label
18:34and then you have your song on the radio and then you're playing larger venues.
18:38And I mean, even this past year, we were selling out stadiums in Los Angeles and Boston and
18:43New York and all these places that I'm like, holy hell, this is our band that we started
18:47in our in Tom's Garage.
18:49Yeah.
18:50But the other way to think of like the thing people might forget is this was the age of
18:53grunge when you guys were coming up.
18:55That was the dominant thing, flannel shirts and misery.
18:57Yeah.
18:58It must have seemed like a completely alien concept that you'd become the biggest band
19:00in the world.
19:02Are we the biggest band in the world?
19:03Well, if you were, you have, you've been, you've been, we have, we have a number one
19:07album.
19:08Like we did.
19:09We've had a headliner stadium.
19:10Yeah, totally.
19:11Yeah.
19:12Number one album.
19:13Then I'll take it.
19:14Yes, we are the biggest band in the world.
19:15Sorry.
19:16What was the question about it?
19:17It must have seemed so alien that like a pop punk band.
19:18Oh, yeah.
19:19Three skate kids.
19:20Especially coming out of San Diego, because at that time in the early 90s in San Diego,
19:22it was the new grunge and, you know, it was these cool bands.
19:25It was Drive Like Jehu and Rocket From The Crypt and and all these like San Diego grunge
19:32bands.
19:33And then also this punk rock kind of underground where all the kids were going.
19:37All the cool, all the cool clubs were 21 and up, but all the punk rock kids went to Soma,
19:45the all ages club.
19:46And that was really where we kind of felt at home.
19:49And then five, seven, let me count five, six, seven, within six years, I mean, Green Day
19:55are opening for you.
19:57Yeah, that was very strange because I grew up listening to Green Day.
20:01You know, when I first started playing bass and I heard Green Day for the first time,
20:03I was like, oh, this is awesome.
20:05I literally waited for the day that Dookie came out.
20:08It was in line waiting to buy Dookie and a huge fan of the band.
20:13And then we're touring with them.
20:15And just, you know, at that point, there was just a weird thing where Green Day was kind
20:18of dipping at the time and Blink was ascendant and, you know, we were headlining above Green
20:23Day.
20:24We were billed as co-headliners, but we were closing every night.
20:26And that was a strange situation for us because headlining over your idols is a little strange.
20:32You said it created some tension.
20:33Would you think it was looking back, was it more of like a friendly competition?
20:36It was more, yeah, totally.
20:37It's a friendly, it was a friendly competition, at least for us it was.
20:40You know, we showed up and we thought we were cool.
20:42We had a number one record and, you know, Take Every Pants and Jagged had just gotten
20:45number one.
20:46We were the first punk band to ever have a number one record.
20:49Green Day was kind of on their way, way down for a little bit.
20:52And we walked in thinking we were hot shit and Green Day walked in ready to fight, musically,
20:56not, you know, they were super cool to us the whole time.
20:59My wife and Billy's wife were great friends.
21:02My wife was pregnant at the time.
21:04You know, Billy's wife befriended her and kind of took her under her wing and Billy
21:08was super nice to us.
21:09But when it came to time to get on stage, it's like athletes, you know, like, you know,
21:13we can be on different teams as athletes, but when it comes time to get on the field,
21:17we're going to try and kick your ass.
21:20And we didn't come with that attitude, but I think that they did.
21:22And then they blew us off the stage the first few nights.
21:24We were like, oh shit, we have to up our game.
21:27And then it was kind of like this battle back and forth of who could put on the better show
21:30and who could win people over and definitely made us a better band.
21:34And then, as you say in the book, two years later, we got American Idiot.
21:36Yeah.
21:37So, you know, I think that I inspired them so much that they were like, we have to kill
21:40Blink-182 with an awesome album called American Idiot.
21:43To take responsibility for American Idiot.
21:45That's pretty amazing.
21:46Thank you very much for that.
21:47Yeah.
21:48And also the capture of Saddam Hussein.
21:49That was pretty sweet.
21:50I did.
21:51I saved the world from Saddam Hussein.
21:53We were performing for the troops in the Middle East and we were on an aircraft carrier.
21:59We performed in the aircraft hangar of an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf while
22:04we were at war.
22:06And I was sitting down with an admiral of the fleet after dinner before we were going
22:10on stage.
22:11And I said, hey, before I go on stage, I have an idea of how we can capture Saddam Hussein.
22:14And he laughed at me.
22:17But then I said, so I have this idea.
22:19You kind of know where he's at.
22:20And he used to release these videotapes to his followers and he would like put a flag
22:25up behind him and he'd look into the camera and he'd say, you know, rise up against the
22:28American dogs or whatever it was that he would say.
22:31And then he released the tapes.
22:32And I said, OK, if you have an idea where you think he might be, why don't you fly drones
22:36or aircraft in grid patterns blasting as loud as you can timecode above the range of human
22:42hearing but within the dynamic range that will get captured on a video cassette.
22:47And then when he releases his videos, you can take the audio portion and extract the
22:52timecode and triangulate where he might be.
22:54And the admiral kind of looks at me like, the hell?
22:58And he says, you know what?
22:59I'm actually meeting at the Pentagon with the Joint Chiefs of Staff next week.
23:04And I might bring up your idea.
23:05And then four months later, they'd captured Saddam Hussein.
23:08So it must have been me.
23:09Where's your statue?
23:11You know what?
23:13Just knowing that I saved the world is metal enough.
23:17Well, that's what you say.
23:18You're probably going to be known for a few things.
23:20You said probably the GoTrig boy line from American Pie.
23:23Yep.
23:24The Naked band from What's My Age Again.
23:26Yeah.
23:27And, well, the guy who told the world he had cancer on Instagram.
23:30Yeah.
23:31So I had cancer.
23:34That happened.
23:35Yeah.
23:36And when I got cancer, when I was diagnosed, I didn't really tell anybody outside of my
23:41family and my very close group of friends.
23:45And my chemotherapy that I underwent was six sessions, three weeks apart.
23:51So I'd go for one session, did crush my body.
23:54For three weeks, I'd be ailing, and then you'd start feeling better again, and then you'd
23:57get pushed down again.
23:58But every time I went for a session, I'd post on Instagram to my close friends, like, you
24:02know, something positive, like, let's go.
24:05Fuck cancer or whatever.
24:07And then on my third round, I had just gotten a shot of Benadryl, which makes you super
24:14tired.
24:15And I was just about to fall asleep.
24:16But, oh, shit, I forgot to post.
24:17And so my wife took a picture of me, and I posted my close friends saying, hello, yes,
24:21one cancer treatment, please.
24:23I posted it to Instagram, and I fell asleep.
24:26And I woke up, like, five minutes later because my phone was going off, and it's my friend
24:29April.
24:30And she said, did you mean to post that on Maine?
24:32I knew what she meant.
24:33I was like, ah, shit.
24:34But I was, like, already starting to feel low-key and awful from the drug, so I just
24:38hit delete.
24:39I was like, oh, that's fine.
24:40Nobody will notice.
24:41But I had actually posted it to Maine, and that's how the world found out that I had
24:45cancer.
24:46But then the outpouring of love.
24:48But then, well, I didn't tell, the reason that I didn't tell anybody that I was sick
24:52was because I thought for sure when people found out that I was sick that they would
24:54laugh at me because I'd been lucky for so long.
24:57Like, our band had gotten to do things that no band gets to do.
25:01We were on the radio and selling out huge shows and number one albums, and every single
25:05dream that our band had came true.
25:09And I had an awesome wife and an incredible son, and I'd just been fortunate for way too
25:12long.
25:13And of course, like, the bill's going to come due, and that was going to be cancer.
25:16And I thought that people were going to say, like, well, you deserve it, basically.
25:20And that's kind of how I felt as well.
25:22So I didn't tell anybody.
25:24But then when I posted that and it went out to the world, the outpouring of love that
25:28I got from strangers, people on the internet, people that I had been friends with, that
25:35had fallen out with, that hit me up and were like, hey, man, like, Tom had quit the band.
25:41I hadn't talked to him for five years.
25:44He hit me up, not about cancer.
25:46He hit me up about a video that he was filming.
25:48And I was like, oh, hey, by the way, I have cancer.
25:51And he called me up, and it was like, healed my relationship with Tom.
25:56And at that point, I really, like, felt emboldened, and I still thought that the cancer was going
26:02to kill me.
26:03But I was like, well, the cancer's going to get me, but I'm going to go down fighting.
26:07Yeah.
26:08And then there's a bit in the book where you say, really touching, where you say, I didn't
26:11feel like Mark from Blink anymore.
26:13I felt like a patient.
26:14I felt like a number.
26:15What can you tell us about the journey back, and what advice do you give to anyone who
26:19might feel, like, rudderless?
26:21Lean on the people that you love.
26:23That's really how it helped me.
26:25Because I leaned on my wife, I leaned on my friends, leaned on my management.
26:31All the people that are closest to me in the world, I leaned on them really hard.
26:35And it was really difficult coming back from being almost like a child again, where literally
26:41there were days where I couldn't get off the couch, and people would have to bring me food
26:45and eat.
26:46And, like, my wife, bless her heart, was, like, looking up on the internet recipes for
26:51people undergoing chemotherapy, and what was good, and things like that.
26:54It was hard to transition from that back to being, like, I'm in a fucking rock band, and
26:59I'm in Blink-182, and I'm cool, and all that stuff, when literally months before that,
27:04I was just, like, a mess on the couch, just unable to even stand up.
27:08And did it make you feel differently about, like, past sort of suicidal ideations, like
27:14the kind you faced in Adam's Song, and other times you talk throughout the book?
27:17Does it make you feel differently about those thoughts when you're actually faced with death?
27:22Yeah.
27:23It's interesting, because there's been times in my life where I've gotten really depressed
27:25and had suicidal thoughts and ideations, and been like, I don't know how I'm going to get
27:29through this, and just spun up in my own head, and making up all these monsters that weren't
27:35there.
27:36And then when you're actually faced with death, you're like, I'm not ready to go yet.
27:39I still have a lot that I want to say, and a lot that I want to do, and people that I
27:42love.
27:43And I think that you kind of see the beauty in the world less than, like, the things that
27:49scare you in the world, when you're like, oh, man, this could be my last year on earth.
27:53Like, what am I going to do?
27:55On the other side of that, like, now here, I'm, like, really thankful.
27:59I used to be, like, not want to do press, and not want to talk about stuff, but I woke
28:07up today really anxious to, like, talk about the book, and talk about things, and be here
28:11in London, and walk around, and I'm lucky.
28:16And you got two postcards.
28:17And I got two postcards.
28:18And you're talking to me about a book, and you've read the book.
28:20Like, look at this.
28:21And I think it's cool that...
28:22How good does that sound?
28:23It's humbling that the process for me to heal from being sick, and go through all this pain,
28:29and everything else, and the joy of Blink, that people want to check it out.
28:33It means a lot.
28:34And so bounce back with a sense of vindication that, like, Pop Punk is huge now.
28:38You know, those kids referencing bands that would reference you, this whole cycle.
28:43Kids discover Blink-182 free of context, just because they love the songs.
28:47Do you feel vindicated?
28:48Do you feel, like...
28:49I do feel vindicated.
28:52I've always felt like our band was special and cool, because of the talent that is in
28:57our band.
28:58Like, Tom is one of the best songwriters that I've ever met.
29:02Travis has an ear and a sense of music that I aspire to.
29:08And I've always been just in awe of their abilities, and to be part of this band, and
29:12to work with them.
29:13And I've always felt like we had something special that we've had to fight for.
29:17I've always felt like Blink were the underdogs.
29:19People didn't want to like Blink, or the gatekeepers always thought that we were the
29:23silly band, or the throwaway band.
29:25But we really worked hard, and we really toured, and wrote, and toured, and struggled.
29:32To be on this side of it is really vindicating.
29:36People who are coming to shows, it's their first concert ever, and they're coming to
29:39see Blink-182, 30 years into our career.
29:42What more could you ask for?
29:44So what advice would you, if you could go back in time, what advice would you give to
29:46that desert goth, as you put it?
29:51You know, put your head down and do the work, and enjoy it, because you're very lucky to
29:56get to do what you do.
29:58And what's next?
29:59Fahrenheit 182 the movie, or new Blink album?
30:02Let's go Fahrenheit 182 the movie, yeah, that'd be cool.
30:04Who's playing who?
30:06Let's see, Travis would be played by MGK, Tom would be played by, who would play Tom?
30:15Tom creative, and weird, and I don't know, Tom York maybe?
30:17Chalamet.
30:18What's that?
30:19Timothee Chalamet.
30:20Yeah, Chalamet, that's great.
30:21And who would play Mark Hoppus?
30:24Who's like the game show host, actor, like, silly guy?
30:28Tell us in the comments what we think about this.
30:30Yeah, okay.
30:31Who would be your dream?
30:33My dream?
30:34Who am I excited about right now?
30:38I don't know, I can't think of anybody, can't think of anybody worthy to carry the mantle.
30:44Amazing.
30:45Well, Fahrenheit 182, coming to a cinema near you.