Blink-182‘s public and acrimonious split from Tom DeLonge appears to be inching toward an amicable resolution as bassist-vocalist Mark Hoppus revealed in a new interview that the band have almost legally cut ties with the soon-to-be-ex-guitarist. “We are right now going through what so far has been a friendly divorce with our former guitarist,” Hoppus told Das Process (via NME). “Hopefully things clear up and it doesn’t get all manager-y and lawyer-y and all that and we can move forward.”
While DeLonge abruptly and “indefinitely” left Blink-182 in late January after refusing to commit to recording a new album, he didn’t officially and permanently quit the band that he co-founded with Hoppus. “There are legalities involved with this,” Hoppus told Rolling Stone. “As Tom pointed out, he technically didn’t quit the band. Then it gets all lawyer-y, which I will leave to the attorneys and managers.”
DeLonge’s reluctance to formally depart Blink-182 handcuffed the group’s desire to plot out future plans and prompted drummer Travis Barker to declare that DeLonge should “man up and quit.” The band recruited Alkaline Trio guitarist Matt Skiba to fill in for DeLonge at the band’s Musink festival set. With a “friendly divorce” from DeLonge on the horizon, Blink-182 is now opening up to the possibility of recording a new LP with Skiba.
“I think that’s a great idea and it’s something we have discussed,” Skiba told Alternative Press about recording with Blink-182. “It’s something I would be very excited to do and I’ve known the Blink guys for about 15 years, and we’ve become good friends. Playing songs I haven’t written with Mark and Travis is a blast, so to go in and create music with them would be amazing.”
However, Skiba reiterated that he is not a full-time member of Blink-182 because there are “some things that those guys need to figure out before we can start saying I’m a permanent member. But that is a hope of mine.” While Blink-182 are settling their legal issues, Skiba will hit the road with Alkaline Trio this summer.
Since leaving Blink-182, DeLonge has already released his To the Stars . . . Demos, Odds and Ends and mapped out his massive 2015 plans. [Rolling Stone]
