JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Mark Hoppus met his best friend on the same day he moved to San Diego for college.
(SOUNDBITE OF BLINK-182 SONG, "D****T")
SUMMERS: He says they were both just Southern California skateboarders who dreamed of making art. It helped that Mark Hoppus played bass and Tom DeLonge played guitar.
MARK HOPPUS: From the day that I met Tom, he was, like, a dear friend. And we had the same sense of humor, the same musical sensibilities. Even today, like, 30-something years later, Tom and I get in a room together, and we're just laughing and trying to make each other - trying to outdo one another with jokes. And he's just awesome.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "D****T")
BLINK-182: (Singing) And it's happened once again. I'll turn to a friend, someone that understands.
SUMMERS: This was the '90s, and their bromance became a rock band, a trio called Blink - eventually, Blink-182. After years of living out of a touring van, their record company got acquired by a major label, even if label executives did not love their forthcoming album.
HOPPUS: When we brought it in, we started playing them songs, and one by one, all the people walked out (laughter). It was great.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "D****T")
BLINK-182: (Singing) Well, I guess this is growing up. Well, I guess this is growing up.
SUMMERS: Blink-182 did get on the radio with the song, "D****t," and with a new drummer named Travis Barker. They would soon explode into the mainstream with their next recording. And all of this is chronicled in Mark Hoppus' new memoir, "Fahrenheit-182." He writes about the rise and fall of his band through the lens of his friendship with Tom DeLonge. In 1999, Mark, Tom and Travis were riding high with smash hits like, "What's My Age Again?"
(SOUNDBITE OF BLINK-182 SONG, "WHAT'S MY AGE AGAIN?")
HOPPUS: First of all, I think it's a great song. It's a song that I started writing as a joke song just for my friends. And then, with Tom and Travis' encouragement, turned it into a real song that I think is a great representation of Blink-182.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHAT'S MY AGE AGAIN? ")
BLINK-182: (Singing) Nobody likes you when you're 23 and are still more amused by prank phone calls. What the hell is call ID? My friends say I should act my age. What's my age again? What's my age again?
HOPPUS: You know, coming out of the mid- to late-'90s, pop was really big, you know, boy bands, NSYNC. And I think people were ready for a little more edge and a little more fun. So Blink-182 came around, and I think it was just being there at the right moment when people were ready to laugh. And I think that "What's My Age Again?" really broke through what was being played on the radio because it was catchy. It has a lot of energy. It had a funny video.
SUMMERS: I was kind of laughing to myself when I was reading the part of the book where you talk about how this is what cemented Blink's status as the naked band.
HOPPUS: Yeah. Marcos Siega, the director of "What's My Age Again?" - he went to his nephew and said, you know, I'm going to direct a video by Blink-182. What do you know about them? He was like, oh, they're silly, and they're funny, blah, blah, whatever. And so, Marcos was like, OK, what about a video where you run naked through Los Angeles? We're like, sure, sounds funny. We can make a joke out of that. And then we did that, and it was such a huge hit that when we did "All The Small Things" video...
(SOUNDBITE OF BLINK-182 SONG, "ALL THE SMALL THINGS")
HOPPUS: ...We were like, oh, let's do a throwback to the "What's My Age Again?" video. And we'll do a thing where we run naked across the beach.
HOPPUS: And then that video got super huge. And then people were like, oh, do this photo shoot, but, like, take off your pants and, like, cover yourselves up. We do that. And then it just kind of became a thing. And once it started to become a thing, then we were like, we don't want to do that anymore. That's dumb. Even to this day, people are, you guys going to play naked tonight? And we're like, we're in our 40s and 50s now.
SUMMERS: (Laughter).
HOPPUS: What are you talking about?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ALL THE SMALL THINGS")
BLINK-182: (Singing) Carry me home. (Vocalizing).
SUMMERS: The band has gone through a lot of twists and turns in terms of the personnel. You talk a lot in the book about your relationship with Tom, who left the band twice - the first time was in 2005. And I have to say, the way that you write about it at that time, it's very clear that for you and for him, this is more than just a band breaking up. You all had been best friends and creative partners for so long. Can you describe what that felt like?
HOPPUS: It felt like my world had ended. It felt like I had gotten divorced, like someone had died. It felt like a huge sense of loss. Outside of my marriage and my son, at that point, I had nothing else.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STAY TOGETHER FOR THE KIDS")
BLINK-182: (Singing) Every day. So here's your holiday. Hope you enjoy it this time.
HOPPUS: And to think that Tom would not want to do that was heartbreaking to me. And I felt betrayed, and I really spun out for a while there. I did. I lost a lot.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STAY TOGETHER FOR THE KIDS")
BLINK-182: (Singing) It's not right.
HOPPUS: Writing this book and thinking back to all the hard times, I don't know that we would be where we are right now without having gone through what we did - the lows, especially.
SUMMERS: You just write in so much detail about those hard times - the first time Tom left the band, the second time, sort of the emotional journey that you went through. It left me wondering - did you guys - were you able to have a conversation - the two of you and Travis - about why the friction happened, why you guys had to take some time apart? Were you able to have that dialogue?
HOPPUS: Both times that the band's gotten back together were due to horrible tragedies. The first one was Travis' plane crash. And I think that at that moment, Tom realized what was really important to him was our band and our friendship. And so that kind of brought us all back together. And then we were together for a number of years, and then Tom quit again. And then I got sick with cancer.
SUMMERS: Yeah.
HOPPUS: And literally, the day before I started chemotherapy, just by chance, Tom texted me a joke. And I was like, ha, ha - that's awesome. Stoked for you - by the way, I start chemotherapy tomorrow. I have cancer. And immediately, my phone rang, and it was Tom. And he was like, first of all, I love you, and you're going to get better. You're going to get through this. I'm going to see you through this. We're going to get you better, and we're going to write the album of our careers.
And so, on the other side of getting better from cancer, and we started to - obviously, it was in the air. Are we going to get the band back together? What's going to happen? We all sat down and had a really great talk. We just went, and we said, we want to only do what we want to do. Don't come to us with any nonsense. We're going to ride this out to the end - Blink-182 forever.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I MISS YOU")
BLINK-182: (Singing) Where are you? And I'm so sorry. I cannot sleep. I cannot dream tonight. I need somebody and always.
SUMMERS: Near the end of the book, there's this moment where y'all get called in last minute to play Coachella after Frank Ocean dropped out. And there's this huge crowd. It's this big moment. You all have been at this for so many decades. And yet, so much of how people see and talk about Blink is kind of about this vibe of - I don't know - youthful irreverence. How have you been thinking about that and the music that you've been making recently?
HOPPUS: Well, we've always tried to balance Blink's comedy and youthful irreverence and, you know, silliness with heartfelt lyrics and heartfelt songs. And if you listen to the record, there's songs like "Adam's Song," and there's deeper songs.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ADAM'S SONG")
BLINK-182: (Singing) I never thought I'd die alone. I laughed the loudest, who'd have known?
HOPPUS: The people who get Blink-182 know that there's a duality to Blink-182, that we write really heartfelt stuff that's important to us. But we will also write a song like, you know, "What's My Age Again?" (laughter).
SUMMERS: Because you mentioned "Adam's Song," I do want to ask you about it. I know that it's a song that came from a challenging place for you in your own mental health. And I'm just curious - what does that song mean for you today? What's your relationship with it now all these years later?
HOPPUS: When we first got the band back together, and we were touring last year, we would play that song, and I would talk about it beforehand. And I would say this song saved my life when I wrote it. And this band, when I got sick with cancer, saved my life a second time. And I'm doing it right now - but it makes me choke up, and it makes me appreciate everything so much more. And it makes me appreciate my band and the love that we feel from people when we perform live.
SUMMERS: We've been speaking with Mark Hoppus of Blink-182. His memoir, "Fahrenheit-182" is out now. Mark, thank you.
HOPPUS: Thanks for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ADAM'S SONG")
BLINK-182: (Singing) We couldn't wait to get outside. The world was wide, too late to try. The tour was over, we'd survived. I couldn't wait till I got home to pass the time in my room alone. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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