Update: Tom DeLonge Hits Back At “Poisoned” Blink-182

Today’s news has been flooded with the awkward back and forth between the member’s of seminal pop-punk ratbags Blink-182 after Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker released an official press release that stated Tom DeLonge had the left the band “indefinitely”.

Interestingly, when this news arrived into the hands of DeLonge, he responded with a post on his Instagram account claiming that he had in fact not left Blink-182 and that the press release was “weird”, raising confusion amongst fans.

Since then, Hoppus and Barker together spoke with Rolling Stone, setting the record straight and confirming that Tom DeLonge had most certainly parted ways with Blink-182.

The pair claim that DeLonge provided a consistent lack of commitment to Blink-182, that he was disinterested in performing or recording fresh material, and as such Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba would replace the singer and vocalist for a forthcoming festival appearance at Musink Festival.

Hoppus recounted the past month of happenings between the failing trio, “we booked January 5th to go into the studio. On December 30th, we get an e-mail from Tom’s manager saying that he has no interest in recording and that he wants to do his other, non-musical stuff and that he’s out indefinitely. There’s a flurry of e-mails going back and forth for clarification about the recording and the show and his manager sends [an e-mail] back saying, ‘Tom. Is. Out. Tom is out indefinitely. For the foreseeable future, Tom is done’.”

Hoppus continued, “When Tom finally said, ‘I’m not going to go into the studio or play this show,’ it was kind of a gigantic relief because at least he finally said it.” Become rather agitated, he said “But to then say, ‘I didn’t quit the band,’ it’s just not true. It’s disingenuous.”

To many fans, this news has hit as a painful major shock, however for both Hoppus and Barker, it appears to be a sigh of relief.

Taking a much more harsh tone, Barker opined, “I think he’s just bummed because Mark and I were finally honest. We always covered up for him before. It was always, ‘we’re going to record an album,’ then ‘Tom refuses to get into the studio without a record deal.”

Clearly fed up, the drummed explained further, “It’s hard to cover for someone who’s disrespectful and ungrateful. You don’t even have the balls to call your bandmates and tell them you’re not going to record or do anything Blink-related. You have your manager do it. Everyone should know what the story is with him and it’s been years with it.”

Delving deeper, he revealed, “When we did get back together after my plane crash, we only got back together, I don’t know, maybe because I almost died. But he didn’t even listen to mixes or masterings from that record. He didn’t even care about it. Why Blink even got back together in the first place is questionable”.

Hoppus closed the tell-all interview by saying, “We’ve done everything that we could to give Tom what he says he needs. It’s been years of pushing back and I have to tell you: It feels humiliating to be in a band where you have to be apologizing for one person all the time.”

This isn’t the first time that DeLonge has left the band, with Blink-182 going on an “indefinite hiatus” from 2004 to 2009, Barker and Hoppus put together a new band, +44.

This time around they intend to continue performing as Blink-182, with or without DeLonge, “Last time this happened, Travis and I didn’t say anything and we did +44, which wasn’t Blink-182 because we weren’t playing Blink songs” Hoppus said, “But Travis and I are intent on protecting the legacy of Blink-182 and continue to do what we’ve been doing for the past two decades: continue playing the songs.”

DeLonge is yet to make any comments since the aforementioned interview with Rolling Stone, except for posting the following on his official Twitter account:

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