Tom DeLonge confirms he has quit Blink-182
Former Blink-182 star Tom Delonge has confirmed he's no longer with the band less than 24 hours after insisting official news of his departure was a "miscommunication".
Bandmates Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker announced the split news in a statement on Monday (26Jan15), revealing they had already replaced the guitarist for an upcoming festival show in California.
DeLonge eventually responded to the story, insisting he had not
left the punk trio.
But after drummer Barker urged his ex-bandmate to admit to fans he
no longer cares about the group, DeLonge posted a lengthy response
to one concerned fan's query about his future in Blink-182 on his
Facebook.com page on Tuesday (27Jan15).
He wrote, "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."
Adding he "tried to make things work", the guitarist states, "I'm
not sitting around waiting for someone else to do the work. I'm not
wired that way."
DeLonge continued, "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 sh**ty 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... 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."
Signing off, DeLonge revealed he wrote the same letter to Hoppus
and Barker a year ago, creating "a massive argument, the biggest
one yet actually" and added, "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 still care deeply for them
(bandmates). Like brothers, and like old friends. But our
relationship got poisoned yesterday. Never planned on quitting,
just find it hard as hell to commit."