Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus had to relearn bass after chemotherapy

October 19, 2023

Blink-182 recently sat down with New Zealand radio DJ Zane Lowe (ahead of the release of their new album ‘One More Time…’ to do an interview!

Among the highlights, you’ll hear bassist/singer Mark Hoppus open up about his struggles to play music again after chemotherapy and Tom DeLonge’s return to the band!

 

Hoppus said, “I didn’t know that Blink would ever get back together or that I would ever share a stage with Tom [Delonge; guitarist]. And I told management, I told Travis [Barker; drummer], I told everybody, I’m like, ‘I’m not setting foot on stage again with that dude. Not a chance.’ That’s the truth. But I’ve always thought Tom was one of the best songwriters in the world and one of my favourite songwriters, but there was a lot of bad blood and there was a lot of stuff in the press and feelings and all this stuff.”

Hoppus was diagnosed with stage 4-A diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in ’21 and was declared cancer-free six months later.

Hoppus added, “And healing through the band, once I was clear of the cancer diagnosis and got the all clear, I was still a fucking hollow, just shell. Shitty, weak brain eaten with the chemotherapy and pain and everything else. And then getting back in the studio to make this record was like learning how to play bass again, learning how to… The chemotherapy wrecked my vocal cords. I had to go to work with a vocal coach. I had to rebuild my throat. I had all this stuff had to rebuild to get to the point where we could go and walk on stage at Coachella and have one of the biggest shows of our career and have this album, which touch wood is one of the best albums we’ve ever written.”

Blink-182’s latest single, ‘You Don’t Know What You’ve Got’, was written about Hoppus’ battle with cancer. It’s the sixth and final single from their new album (out October 20).

Are you surprised to see Tom DeLonge back in the band or did you believe the whole time?

 

Written by Todd Hancock

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