Tom Delonge Leaves Blink-182

[OrangeJoe]

Mark and Travis came forward and told the situation from their perspective.

Tom has been posting non sensical shit and deleting it.

Not really the same.

[psus2h]

Kinda feels like a Sublime with Rome situation, it's not really blink w/o Tom IMO.

[tokimedo]

Kinda feels like a Sublime with Rome situation, it's not really blink w/o Tom IMO.

 

they will more than likely go forward with the name "blink 182 with skiba" 

[TheGhostOfRandySavage]

Skib-182

[+hecollec+or]

The thread title reads like a plea for Tom to leave Blink.

[tokimedo]

lol. just noticed that. the title should read "blink 182 quit tom delonge" 

 

The thread title reads like a plea for Tom to leave Blink.

[OrangeJoe]

LETTER TO THE FANS

Where to begin?

The truth is always a good place. Let’s go there.

I love Blink and am incredibly grateful for having it in my life. It has given me everything. EVERYTHING. I started this band, it was in my garage where I dreamed up the mischief.

So what have I been doing behind the scenes? Well, I’ve tried to make things work. I’ve tried to help move this band down 50 different paths using my people, or other people, and people we don’t even know. I tried to put forth ideas about how we can grow and challenge ourselves to become a better band. I’m not sitting around waiting for someone else to do the work. I’m not wired that way.

The big reset was when I tried to put together a band summit in Utah where we’d talk and work things out. It quickly was narrowed down to three hours in someone’s dressing room in a shitty casino. What I hoped would be a positive get-together away from everything turned into an awkward meeting in a smelly convention hall dressing room. But it was there that I told Mark and Travis that as long as we talked, and things were good between us as real friends, that I would be engaged and work passionately. I'd mirror our personal relationship. Exact words.

Then, the EP was the test. Months later, we’re recording those songs. I was in the studio for two months and they came in for around 11 days. I didn’t mind leading the charge, but we had all agreed to give it 100%. And this time- no baggage.

Despite that, we still somehow managed to self-sabotage.

At one point, squabbling and politics forced me to pull the EP down at a time when 60,000 fans were trying to purchase it. And that blew my mind. I’d been trying so hard but that moment ultimately broke my spirit. I then realized that this band couldn't lose the years of ill will.

It was after that episode that I promised myself I would never be in that position again – to rely on the words we said to each other.

I remember asking one of them on the phone, “did you try your best? Like we all agreed to?” He was silent.

Are they at fault?

Am I? Of course. I'm nuts.

But there’s three of us – we’re all accountable. At the end of the day, we’ve always been dysfunctional, which is why we haven’t talked in months. But we never did. In the 8 years we have been together it has always been that way.

Over the past two and a half years, while a recording partner was being sought for a new Blink record, I launched a media company. I just put out a new Angels & Airwaves record and as some of you know, there’s a lot more coming – comics, books, a film, etc. The books will all come with music. This is a wheel that’s already in motion. So you can imagine my frustration when I was handed a 60-page Blink contract saying I couldn’t release an Angels album for 9 months and that the Blink album had to be recorded in 6 months, which was impossible for me. Doing so would force me to breach several artist contracts. Authors, Concept Artists, Animators... Many people.

They did eventually drop the Angels provision, but the part about having to finish a Blink album in 6 months remained. All of these other projects are being worked, exist in contract form– I can’t just slam the brakes and drop years of development, partnerships and commitments at the snap of a finger.

I told my manager that I will do Blink 182 as long as it was fun and worked with the other commitments in my life, including my family.

But Mark and Travis know all of this.

I wrote this same letter to them a year ago. But it created a massive argument, the biggest one yet actually. I just wanted us to do things we all agreed on. But that was their moment to dig in. From their view I was controlling everything. In reality, I was scared to put myself out there again. To repeat the EP experience.

I also wrote all of this to their managers this past December (who told me my bandmates weren’t angry and agreed with some of my ideas of how to grow the band).

So you can imagine my surprise when a press release went out yesterday—without my knowledge—about the band’s future. This is new to me. It’s not in my nature to fuel negativity about the legacy of the band on something as trashy as the Internet world.

But I guess that’s another example of how I differ from most. I follow the light... I follow passion and I make art. I hang with my son, my daughter and my wife.

At the end of the day, all of this makes me really sad.

Sad for us.

Sad for you- that you’re witnessing this immaturity.

I know them very well, and their current actions are defensive and divisive.

I suppose they’re doing this as a way to protect themselves from being hurt.

Like we all do.

And even as I watch them act so different to what I know of them to be, I still care deeply for them. Like brothers, and like old friends. But our relationship got poisoned yesterday.

Never planned on quitting, just find it hard as hell to commit.
-
Tom

[jhulud]

[TFP]

they will more than likely go forward with the name "blink 182 with skiba" 

 

haha

[jhulud]

Somewhat off-topic but not really but I've always felt odd when a band that's a trio and one member leaves for whatever reason (quit, death, etc.) and the remaining members still carry on under the same name but with someone else filling. Like the whole Nirvana with Paul McCartney thing a while back. Granted that was for and from the whole Sound City project, but still. 

[TFP]

Somewhat off-topic but not really but I've always felt odd when a band that's a trio and one member leaves for whatever reason (quit, death, etc.) and the remaining members still carry on under the same name but with someone else filling. Like the whole Nirvana with Paul McCartney thing a while back. Granted that was for and from the whole Sound City project, but still. 

 

I agree, especially with Blink 182, Tom and Mark's writing and vocals are so dominant. 

[dynamitekid]

The thread title reads like a plea for Tom to leave Blink.

Whoops!

[cannonball]

Blink 182 was ok. Fun music during my high school years. The S/T album was good and kinda got away from their traditional sound. The EP was bad. AVA is horrible, +44 was ok, and boxcar racer have a song or two at most. So unless your a 14 yr old girl...who cares. They haven't done anything worthwhile in over a decade.

[Sad Heart]

Somewhat off-topic but not really but I've always felt odd when a band that's a trio and one member leaves for whatever reason (quit, death, etc.) and the remaining members still carry on under the same name but with someone else filling. Like the whole Nirvana with Paul McCartney thing a while back. Granted that was for and from the whole Sound City project, but still. 

 

Agreed. Blink-182 just isn't Blink 182 unless it's the 3 of them. They sound the way they do because of who they are. You want to make more music and have a different member, fine by me, just make it a new project. It's new, it's different, make it so. Like with what they did with +44 and AVA.

[Shitty Rambo]

Replace Tom with Derrick from Sum-41, nobody will know the difference.

Honestly, I don't find this very tragic. They were phoning it in with Neighborhoods and DED EP, that made it clear. I just find it hard to take anything Tom says seriously, especially when he tries to be all artsy-fartsy with his statement. He doesn't have time for this band, his prerogative. Seems like them shoving contracts in his face was the only way to get him to do shit for the band. I say good riddance and wouldn't find it at all weird if they carried on without him as Blink 182, he artistically quit the band 10 years ago.

[zeb_enjoys_vinyl]

I wonder if they'll try to have Skiba sing Always

[ronniegwilliams]

I grew up on the first four Blink records and thank them for helping me become the awkward adult that I am today; however, they definitely weren't Blink 182 when Neighborhoods and the EP came out and if they continue on without an integral part of the equation, they're moving one step closer to playing the headlining slot at state fairs.  

[zacooper]

As much as I can understand Tom feeling like he has his priorities and doesn't understand the contracts been shoved in his face and forcing him to change his other plans, he needs to understand that for these guys Blink 182 is their highest priority and so they are tired of just sitting around waiting for him to figure shit out. We all knew Tom was going to do this again from the beginning when they got back together. The EP and full length sucked because it sounded like Angels and Airwaves with a tiny bit of Travis and Mark. I was hoping by keeping AVA Tom would leave those influences separate to his other project and focus on what made people like blink. He didn't, and he clearly only cares about AVA and not the effect it is having on the other guys and on their band. I agree it is stupid for them to continue on as Blink without Tom, maybe just go back to +44 moniker, but I do think that Mark and Travis should just move on and start making music again.

[bowserhound]

Mark & Travis need Blink to make money.  Tom does not.  The End.

[ronniegwilliams]

Mark & Travis need Blink to make money.  Tom does not.  The End.

 

Each of them have a ridiculous amount of royalties coming in from their extensive bodies of work, so much so, none of them would need to put out another album for the rest of their lives to live extremely comfortable

[bowserhound]

Then why bother playing more songs about dicks & farts when you are over 40 years old?  Mark & Travis HAVE to play these songs so bad they can't sleep at night?  So much that they rather replace the 3rd member of the band than to sit back and collect all of these royalties you speak of?

 

I call bullshit.

[dantheriver]

Then why bother playing more songs about dicks & farts when you are over 40 years old? Mark & Travis HAVE to play these songs so bad they can't sleep at night? So much that they rather replace the 3rd member of the band than to sit back and collect all of these royalties you speak of?

I call bullshit.

I would love to make money by playing songs about dicks and farts when I'm fourty. That sounds fucking awesome!

[OrangeJoe]

Travis makes more money than any of them. He is constantly featuring in albums and songs. He gets royalties from blink 182, +44, boxcar racer and transplants. He runs a very successful clothing company. (more then Atticus or Macbeth ever were). Not to mention constant live performances.

Tom probably makes more than Mark. But to me it's never been about the money to him.

[chefchino]

Then why bother playing more songs about dicks & farts when you are over 40 years old? Mark & Travis HAVE to play these songs so bad they can't sleep at night? So much that they rather replace the 3rd member of the band than to sit back and collect all of these royalties you speak of?

I call bullshit.

people love them a lot. Is it too far fetched that they love their fans right back? this 30 year old guy wants to hear a song about his girlfriend bringing him burritos still and there's nothing wrong with that.

[nick6ten]

...

Sad for us.

Sad for you- that you’re witnessing this immaturity.

...

Tom

 

For the first time ever, Tom is concerned about fans being subjected to immaturity.