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Latest Blink 182 update: Tom DeLonge: “Don’t pretend there isn’t more to the story”
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Tuesday, January 27, 2015 - 18:12
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Bjorn

Last night, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker gave a tell-all interview to Rolling Stone, where they called singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge “disingenuous” and “ungrateful.” The interview mostly described a situation where DeLonge had been holding back the band for years, and they were finally ready to move on without him.

"We booked January 5th to go into the studio,” said Hoppus. “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.' Direct quote. This is the exact same e-mail we got back in 2004 when Tom went on indefinite hiatus before."

Earlier that day, DeLonge had denied he ever quit the band. “I love Blink-182 and I’m not leaving,” he said in a statement.

“I think he's just bummed because Mark and I were finally honest,” Barker (who rarely does Blink press) said in the RS interview. “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.' So everyone does hella amounts of work to get a record deal and now Tom isn't part of Blink-182. 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."

Not long after publication of the Rolling Stone's piece, DeLonge sent out a tweet, which he quickly deleted. “A year ago Mark and I spent a week on the phone with managers debating partnering with Travis,” he said. “Don’t pretend there isn’t more to the story.” You can see a screenshot of the tweet.