The highs are epic and the bass terrible in the thirtieth anniversary of the blink-182. At the peak of popularity, between the end of the 90s and the beginning of 2000, they filled the buildings of half the world, ranking in the pieces such as What's My Age Again And All the small things. Bad breaks have followed in front of the public, experiences of almost-morals because of a plane crash and cancer, partial reunions, long periods in which it seemed that they would never return together. The only stable member of the band since he formed in the suburbs of San Diego today is the singer and bassist Mark Hoppus. Here are 10 interesting facts contained in his new autobiography Fahrenheit-182.
Hoppus hasn't talked to the original drummer Scott Raynor for 25 years
Scott Raynor was part of the band from the beginning and played in the first two albums, including the individual Dammit. In 1998 he was faced with a crossroads: stop drinking or leaving the band. He did not appreciate the ultimatum and chose the second option, replaced by Travis Barker. They no longer had his news for a year, until he called them. “He made a long list of complaints, some real and others imaginary, he cursed me and Tom, he called us hypocrites,” writes Hoppus. “I said it was sorry, but things were as they were. We remained quiet a bit and then we reattached. It's the last time I talked about it ».
The joke of 'American Pie' was not in the script
In 1999 the blink appeared in American pie In the role of a high school student who witnesses the webcam attempt to have Jason Biggs sex with Shannon Elizabeth. They had to limit themselves to watching the screen shocked. The joke “that guy is in my trigonometry course” would have been pronounced by a professional actor. Hoppus improvised the joke “Trig boy strength, it's your birthday!” And it was then inserted in the final assembly. When the film was the success he had, the people on the street began to shout “Trig Boy Forza!” on the street. “It was a fast gag, thrown there,” writes Hoppus. “I have no idea why it entered the jargon, perhaps because the whole film is full of quotable things.”
At the time of 'Enema of the State' it was like being in a film about the mafia
“I'm at the top of the world, they are untouchable,” writes Hoppus. «Wherever they go, they find wide open doors. People kissed their rings, whatever favor they ask for it is soon done. Nobody stops to think what could happen later. Life is too beautiful to worry about the fact that they could end up in the trunk of a car or hung in a refrigerated cell ».
A stalker persecuted them
When the blinds were at the height of success, a woman began to park the car in front of their homes. He watched them with binoculars and a telephoto lens, he kept a diary with noted the plates of their cars, the time when they used to go back, at what time they turned off the lights at night. He was not breaking any law, but he was disturbing and at the end Hoppus moved to a more repaired house than the road. Months later, the woman showed up in a San Diego record shop where the three were signing the copies of the new album. Mark and Tom signed the disc trying not to look in his eyes, Travis no: «I don't sign that stuff. Bazzichi around our homes? COME COME? Follow our wives? Out of here! I don't sign a fucking anything ».
The Side Project Box Car Racer made him angry bad
When the Box Car Racer of Barker and Delonge published the first LP in 2001, Hoppus pretended nothing in public. In private, however, things were very different. “I wondered what the fuck was happening. They flocked against me. I got a lot in doubt: am I a bad musician? Do they believe it is a big cock? What does my personality have so wrong to make everyone so eager to do things without me? ».
Green days were frustrated because they had to open for blink
In the 2002 summer tour to open for the blink were the green days. The former were on the rise, the latter were falling before relaunching themselves thanks to American Idiot. «My feeling is that they hated having reduced to open for us. It was a difficult thing to send down. There was a lot of tension. There were evenings in which they drank together like old friends, in others instead you ended up shouting with their manager ». The two bands have no longer made a tour together despite the proposals of the blink. «Every now and then we ask to do it again and they refuse every time. We are like two rival gangs that live in the same city and hate each other and at the same time respect each other ».
When Tom Delonge left in 2005, Hoppus was on the ground
Delonge's decision to stop any communication after leaving the band for the first time in 2005 made things impossible. “He had to pass everything from lawyers and managers,” writes Hoppus. «For over ten years he had been my best friend and now to communicate with him I had to call his collaborators by mine. I was paying handsomely a lawyer to communicate with the boy with whom I sneamed myself in the abandoned buildings to go in skate … I not only lost my best friend. When the blink went to pieces, I lost everything ».
The spin-off +44 was a nightmare vehicle
After Delonge's defection, Hoppus and Barker tried to continue making music like +44. «People knew the blink-182, but what the stuff were the +44? It seemed like a task of Algebra ». Not even the Delonge group, the Angels and Airwaves, seemed to be up to par. «Tom had exaggerated with the performances, obtaining scarce results, which may have made skeptical people towards another post-blink project. We had to slaughter double. The help and safety networks we had suddenly disappeared. When a blink disc was released, the radio stations spread the red carpet, now it touched us to lick asses in order to have the crumbs of the Irplay ».
The first blink reunion went very badly
Shortly after the Travis Barker plane crash in 2008 the band returned together and the three recorded a new LP and made a world tour. However, the old tensions had not dissolved. “Tom arrives as late as possible, slips directly into the dressing room and closes the door,” writes Hoppus. “As soon as the concert ends, it goes up in the car and returns to the hotel without not even to be seen.” It was Delonge who decided not to want to take the tour scheduled for 2015. «It was ridiculous. Tom was out of control. After not a long time we started talking to us only through management. The saddest millionaires in the history of punk-rock. But did we really put the band back on your feet just to make her fail again, returning to discuss insignificantly on the screen? Another time? ».
They re -established relationships when Delonge learned about Hoppus lymphoma
“We are back friends,” writes Hoppus. “There were days when I just wanted to stay on the sofa to cry on me. It was Tom who prevented me from doing it. Every day he sent me a new joke or an old photo of ours. Or a photo of his cock. We never brought up the past. He only counted the present ».
From Rolling Stone Us.
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM
