Frontman, guitarist, producer, songwriter, businessman—these are some of the many hats that musician Tom DeLonge has worn throughout his past dozen-plus years in the music scene, whether as the on-stage co-lead to bassist Mark Hoppus in platinum pop-punk powerhouse Blink-182 or as the sole frontman of the more experimental, alternative rock act Angels and Airwaves. Or perhaps it’s as the head of Macbeth Shoes or the visionary behind the social networking website Modlife. No matter which angle he’s viewed from, DeLonge’s years in both the underground and mainstream circuits have found him delivering interesting and important perspectives on the ever-changing entertainment industry, specifically in terms of tastes, technologies and traditions

Hailing from Southern California’s San Diego region, DeLonge received his first major break in the commercial music scene in the early ‘90s with the formation of Blink-182 and their eventual signing to a major label. Driven by his hook-laden guitar riffs and edgy voice—counterbalanced by Hoppus’ slinky bass lines and smooth vocal style—Blink-182’s material featured lyrics that alternated between comedy and contemplation, and boasted robust rhythms performed by drummer Travis Barker that propelled pits at every venue stop. The trio would eventually sell millions of albums, particularly with its most famous releases, 1999’s Enema of the State and 2001’s Take Off Your Pants and Jacket.

However, after the band’s 2003 self-titled album release, Blink-182 went on hiatus and DeLonge embarked on his most intense musical journey to date by creating a new band, Angels and Airwaves. With this new musical unit, DeLonge was able to reset his musical vision and direction, taking the recording reins by self-producing his albums and merging it with other technologies, including video, film and art. It was an education for an already-experienced DeLonge, in that the learning process yielded not only a pair of great albums (We Don’t Need to Whisper and I-Empire), but also a host of new techniques for the famed gu...

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Tags: Interview, Tom, Video

Q: What is the most exciting part of the tour for you?

A: I think the big talk of the day is how big the tour is. I tell people that we used to do 8,000 people a night. This one is going to be very many 20,000-30,000 [capacity venues], so I think that right there is freaking us out a little bit.

Q: You told the San Diego Union Tribune: “I have a lot of anxiety right now about this tour and how big it is. ” What’s keeping you up at night?

A: Well, I’d be fine if all those people weren’t staring at me…

Q: Other than that…

A: Other than that…but the cool thing about this band is if we ever mess up or do anything horrible, it makes the show better and people laugh at us and they feel good, so that’s good…Most bands, if something goes wrong, they cower and walk off stage and fire people. Not us.

Q: What goes through your head when you look over on stage and see Travis and Mark?

A: Sometimes, it feels a little like “The Twilight Zone.” Where am I and how did I get here, you know. But at the same time, to be honest, it feels like that’s where you’re supposed to be and that’s who you are. The only thing that’s odd, I think, is we all have so many other things going on in our lives too.

Blink, that’s all we ever did for the longest time, and then now, it’s like we’ve got companies. I’ve got Angels & Airwaves, which we’re releasing a motion picture and an album for free right after the first of the year. So I’ve got that going on and those guys are producing bands all the time, so we have all these respective projects that are very much active parts of our lives.

So I think when you’re sitting there looking at these guys, you’re so used to being younger and your whole world being around it, but now we’ve got this much bigger world, but at the same time, the band’s bigger than it’s ever been, so it’s crazy.

Q: We hear about these bands that the only time they see each other on tour is during the 90 minutes they’re on stage together. Is that how it is with you guys?

A: No, I don’t think so. We’ll see how it goes. We’re all going to bring our families out. We’ll all have different buses, for sure. I mean, I’ve got kids and they’ve got kids, but even before we had kids, we had separate buses.

I don’t know what the rhythm is going to be, but I do know that when we get to practice and start playing, it’s funny, you know. And the couple of shows we played already, we’re already back in to saying the crazy dumb shit we always say. It’s one of those things that’s going to come very quickly where people are going to go, “God, I forgot how much they talk!” So regardless of what we do during the days and whether we hang out, don’t worry, the shows are going to have plenty of chemistry, I think.

Q: You really picked great support ac...

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Four years had passed since Tom DeLonge, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker shared a stage together, but at this year’s Grammy Awards, the members of blink-182 stood together and announced they’d be playing music together again. The trio that had acrimoniously disbanded following the abrupt resignation of DeLonge began communicating again in the wake of a plane accident involving Barker. A breakup became a reunion.

Of course, all three had moved on to different projects in the interim, most notably Angels & Airwaves, headed by DeLonge and +44, featuring Hoppus and Barker. But Hoppus has done production work for a myriad of bands, Barker has been working on hip-hop projects with DJ AM, and DeLonge has been something of an investor-creative director in Macbeth, a shoe company, and Modlife, a web venture for bands.

Now, with all their previous commitments on the side, the band few thought would tour again have embarked on a jaunt throughout the U.S. with Weezer and Taking Back Sunday, in what has quickly become one of the best-selling tours in the worst economy in decades. DeLonge explains.


How has the tour been? What’s the energy like?

Oh the tour’s insane. It’s somehow officially the biggest tour of the summer. Even tonight [Pittsburgh], it’s 20,000 some people, sold out. Last night, 23,000 people as well. It’s fucking crazy. No one understands why dick jokes got so popular. They’re sending down NASA scientists to really try and figure out why it’s so big. But the tour is amazing and the energy is awesome. We’re playing better than we ever have and we’re having a lot of fun. Mark drinks now too so now we’re both up there wasted. We don’t even remember the shit that we’re saying.

Is it a validating feeling? I know a lot of tours aren’t doing very well. Is it like, ‘Shit, I should have done this two years ago?’

I know, you would think. To give you an idea, the promoters bought the shows thinking we’d do 8,000 people a night. The average shows are almost 20,000 a night. No one thought, not the band, not the promoters, not the management, so it’s not like we got together going, ‘Fuck, we should have done this earlier.’ We got back together because Travis had that accident and we thought it would be good to play music again together. But one step at a time and we’re having a lot of fun. It’s great. I’m humbled by it, honestly, because we still are just a punk band at heart. We’re talking the band’s been together almost 20 years now I guess, well, we broke up, but we’ve been around for almost 20 years. It’s just nutty to see this right now. We’re very, very happy it’s working out so well. It’s obviously making the reunion very electric.

You mentioned the accident. Was there a moment of realization between the three of you, that leaving Blink on indefinite hiatus ...

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Tom DeLonge: 'Have the Balls to Fix Your Dog!'


by Patricia Trostle

Tom DeLonge's peta2 Ad
Blink-182 and Tom DeLonge have kept their fans happy with their outrageous brand of humor since MTV first showed their "Dammit" video in the '90s. Even after becoming a big-time entrepreneur as the owner of Macbeth Shoes (man, we love those vegan shoes!) and the creator of Mod Life and branching out with Angels & Airwaves, Tom still has that wicked sense of humor. Lucky for us, and dogs and cats everywhere, he's now using it to speak out about a serious matter: spaying and neutering.

Tom and his adorable pooches, Chloe and Grey, are starring in peta2's "Have the Balls to Fix Your Dog" ad to help spread the word about the animal overpopulation crisis. Each year, 6 to 8 million dogs and cats are left at animal shelters, and half of them will be euthanized simply because there aren't enough good homes for them.

But it doesn't have to be this way. In fact, the solution is as easy as ABC—animal birth control. So always spay and neuter your animal companions, and remember that dogs and cats aren't objects to be bought and sold, so never buy an animal from a pet store or breeder.

If everyone did their part and had the balls to fix their dog or cat, as Tom so eloquently puts it, we might one day see an end to animal homelessness. As Tom says, "It just ends up becoming a really sad state when animals are running around that have no families to be a part of. Spaying and neutering the animals keeps the happy animals with happy families and doesn't create too many lonely ones out there."