Blink 182 bassist Mark Hoppus has talked movingly about dealing with cancer in an extensive new interview with the Guardian.
Ostensibly, the reason is Hoppus’s new memoir Fahrenheit 182, which tells all about Blink’s rise and fall and recent resurrection. A key moment occurs when in 2021 the bassist finds a lump on his shoulder and is diagnosed with an aggressive lymphoma.
“I really thought I was going to die,” he says. “And, in a way, it absolutely was so freeing. I’d spent my whole life hyper-vigilant, thinking: what’s the worst thing that could happen? And, oh, it’s here now, I’m dealing with it and it still sucks.”
He explained that it had repaired his relationship with Blink guitarist Tom DeLonge: “The physical pain and exhaustion of the chemo, mixed with the steroids and all the other drugs, just crushed me for months on end.
"But it brought back friendships that I hadn’t had in years. It healed my friendship with Tom: from day one, he was like: ‘What do you need? I’m there.’ In that friendship and the love and support of people around me, I thought: you know what? I’ve had a pretty awesome life.”
Fans also rallied round, though that only started when Hoppus accidentally sent out a photo of himself on chemo drip to Instagram instead of the family Whatsapp group.
“The best mistake I’ve ever made, by far,” he says. “I suffered alone in silence for so long because I thought that, once it came out I had cancer, people’s opinions of me would change.”
Instead gifts, kind messages and videos flooded in from the group’s loyal fanbase. “That helped. I was finally able to say: ‘Yeah. I’m fucking scared, but, you know, I try to put on a brave face.’”
Hoppus is now cancer free and in terms of the band there is a happy ending too. Blink’s ninth album, 2023’s One More Time...became their third Number One album in the US, riding on a wave of nostalgia for millennial punk pop.
And DeLonge, who for a long time blew hot and cold about the band, now seems on board and fully engaged. In an interview with Spin last autumn, the guitarist confirmed “Blink will be the priority forever..I think this is a whole new beginning for the band.
"With what we’re planning on doing, who we’ve become, and how we’re doing it now I think it’s really, really exciting.”
