Former Blink-182 bandmates Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge reunited on the latest episode of Hoppus’ After School Radio podcast. The two legends spoke about UFOs, the time M. Night Shyamalan almost directed a Blink-182 music video, and of course, dick jokes.
“Why do you think that you and I can go five years without talking and then just get on the phone and pick up like nothing ever happened?” Hoppus asked. “Because we appreciate dick jokes in a way that no one else does,” DeLonge replied. “It boils down to only that, there is nothing else.”
Hoppus agreed. “I think so, because the first time that we met, I think it was dick jokes from the beginning in your garage.” “Yeah,” his old friend said. “It’s a dialogue. It’s a language.”
Later, Hoppus recalled being “on tour in Japan and we were having lunch in the hotel in Japan, and we look over and M. Night Shyamalan is at a table next to us.” Here, DeLonge interrupted to say, “Shama lama ding dong.” Hoppus continued, “And you just walk up and you’re like, ‘Hey, my name’s Tom DeLonge. I play in a band called Blink-182. We’re a big fan of yours. Would you ever direct a Blink video?’ And within half an hour, we’re all sitting together and he’s coming up with ideas for a Blink video. 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.'”
Ultimately the plan fell apart due to budget, as DeLonge recalled. “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.”
Hoppus also asked DeLonge if he felt vindicated after the Pentagon published his UFO videos last year. “What’s funny about it is I take it as you feel vindicated because everyone was laughing at you for so long,” DeLonge said. “But I always tell people, the ego side of me is like, ‘Oh, you know what I know is now starting to hit so people are going to not think I’m not crazy or whatever.’ But really, the rest of me is like, ‘Ah, they’re just starting on this little adventure.’ There’s things about this subject that just are really not awesome. And so I think I feel… What’s the word? I feel cautious about how the people are going to digest all the subject matter and really start to understand things. It’s going to be hard.”
Elsewhere, the duo discussed their favorite Blink-182 albums and music videos, how DeLonge’s children remind him so much of himself and Hoppus, their early days of telling lies to book gigs, and more. You can listen to the whole thing through Apple Music.
DeLonge left Blink-182 in 2015, and as recently as 2019 there were discussions about a musical reunion. Whatever plans they may have were scuttled during the pandemic, and now DeLonge’s project Angels & Airwaves has a new album, Lifeforms, due out September 24th. His band is also on tour, and they recently played Lollapalooza with a set full of — you guessed it — dick jokes. Meanwhile, Hoppus has been in a literal fight for his life battling lymphoma. Luckily, as he revealed in his latest update, the chemotherapy is working.
