Nobody really seems to know what’s going on. A press release has been sent out for the blink-182 camp, citing the following:
“Matt Skiba of the Alkaline Trio will join Blink-182 in replacement of Tom DeLonge at the 8th annual Musink Music and Tattoo Festival. “We were all set to play this festival and record a new album and Tom kept putting it off without reason. 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.” Travis Barker and Mark Hoppus plan to honor all Blink-182 commitments including the Musink Festival and are excited to have singer/guitarist Matt Skiba join them for this project. “No hard feelings, but the show must go on for our fans.” Additionally, Skiba will continue to make new music and tour with the Alkaline Trio”
Indeed, blink-182 are on said bill as “blink-182 / with Matt Skiba”. But, the tale doesn’t end there. Delonge himself has since taken to various socical media outlets to say the contrary:
“To all the fans, I never quit the band. I actually was on a phone call about a blink 182 event for New York City at the time all these weird press releases started coming in… Apparently those releases were ‘sanctioned’ from the band. Are we dysfunctional- yes. But, Christ….”
And the following has been released from Delonge’s publicist:
“Contrary to reports, Tom DeLonge has not left Blink 182. “I never quit the band,” he says. “Actually, I was on the phone discussing a possible Blink-182 event in New York City when I heard the ‘news.’ The ONLY truth here is that I have commitments that limit my availability this year.
I love Blink-182 and I’m not leaving”
Everything seems very much in the air with blink-182. Of course, this isn’t the first time this has happened. Blink-182 originally went on ‘indefinite hiatus’ when Delonge decided it was time to create and focus on Angels And Airwaves, a band he is still very much involved in. Hoppus and Barker went on to form +44, though neither band ever went to the heights that blink-182 knows all too well.
Could we be seeing something similar happen here? There seems to be a lot of confusion from both parties, but this is surely far from the end of this story – and is hopefully far from the end of blink-182.