Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge reunited for a chat about nearly getting M. Night Shyamalan to direct a Blink-182 video, the white lies Delonge told to help book the band’s earliest gigs, and how dick jokes helped them form an everlasting bond, during a chat on Hoppus’ Apple Music 1 show, After School Radio.
The conversation, which aired today, August 3rd, notably arrives in the wake of Hoppus’ announcement back in June that he’s been battling cancer. While DeLonge parted ways with Blink-182 in 2015, there doesn’t seem to be any lingering acrimony: DeLonge shared a note of encouragement after Hoppus revealed his diagnosis, while during their After School Radio interview, Hoppus asked DeLonge why thought they could go five years without talking, then just hop on the phone and chat like nothing had happened?
“Because we appreciate dick jokes in a way that no one else does,” DeLonge quipped. “It boils down to only that, there is nothing else. It’s that, in my opinion.” Hoppus, obviously, agreed, adding, “I think so, because the first time that we met, I think it was dick jokes from the beginning in your garage.”
Hoppus and DeLonge went on to share an array of stories from their Blink-182 days, such as the time DeLonge approached Shyamalan at a hotel restaurant in Japan and asked if he’d want to direct a video for the band. “Within half an hour, we’re all sitting together and he’s coming up with ideas for a Blink video,” Hoppus recalled. “And I mean, he did come up with a whole treatment and everything. It was going to cost, whatever it was, $20 million, but I mean, just on your gumption or I don’t know, no fucks to give, just walk up to somebody and say, ‘Hey, I want you to direct a Blink video.’”
DeLonge added a few moments later, “I think when he found out what music video budgets really were, he was like, this is so beneath me. No, he didn’t say that, but of course, he was like, I’m not going to do this, this is a nightmare.”
In discussing DeLonge’s fearlessness, the pair also touched on his work in the UFO world, the time he drunkenly interviewed Mel Gibson for MTV, and how he managed to convince local high schools to book Blink-182 by claiming they were a group with a “motivational edge.”
“I remember calling those high schools,” DeLonge said. “It was like anti-drug, alcohol message or something. Whatever it took, that’s kind of how… You know what’s fun about being young though, is you’re not aware of the ramifications of what you do. You can really get away with anything if you don’t really know what’s going to happen to you for it. And I’m always trying new things for that reason. Blink was very much like that.”
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