Tom responded to this whole thing:
To all the fans, I never quit the band. I actually was on a phone call about a blink 182 event for New… http://t.co/7SmReh5wPr
— Tom DeLonge (@tomdelonge) January 26, 2015
This is a bit of a surprise considering they have been teasing a new album over the last however many months, but it seems Blink-182 is over. The band is replacing Tom on an upcoming gig with Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba. According to the band via Billboard:
“We were all set to play this festival and record a new album and Tom kept putting it off without reason,” the group wrote in the statement. “A week before we were scheduled to go in to the studio we got an email from his manager explaining that he didn’t want to participate in any Blink-182 projects indefinitely, but would rather work on his other non-musical endeavors. No hard feelings, but the show must go on for our fans.”
It seems DeLonge is about having just released a new Angels & Airwaves album late last year and told us streaming music is like killing baby elephants. I suppose this is a bummer, but it is probably for the best as things forced are often not great or even good. Plus Matt Skiba is amazing, but they should play under a different name. I wouldn’t call it baseball if they had seven bases. It would be super baseball. That being said it could be a good progression for Mark and Travis. We will know for sure when they perform at the Musink Tattoo & Music Festival on March 20-22 in L.A.
Here’s one from the good ol’ days.
