Mark Hoppus Says Blink 182 Are Officially Divorcing Tom Delonge

Now that it looks like the public fighting has died down and the tempers have simmered, Blink 182‘s Mark Hoppus has confirmed the band are trying to be all grown up, and are currently going through a “friendly divorce” with guitarist/space alien communicator, Tom DeLonge.

Speaking on the Das Process podcast, Hoppus confirmed the split was in the process of being official, though he stopped short of giving any official time-frame for the formalities to be finalised.

“We are right now going through what so far has been a friendly divorce with our former guitarist,” he explained. “Hopefully things clear up and it doesn’t get all managery and lawyery and all that and we can move forward.”

The Blink union started to publicly fall apart earlier this year, when the band members all started trading some pretty pointed verbal fisticuffs with each other, followed by an attempt on all parts to cool the tension, by basically saying, ‘Mummy and daddy still love each other, but they just can’t live together any more.’

“Tom and I have had a troubled back and forth relationship since forever,” added Hoppus in his recent podcast interview.

“Tom was my best friend for years and years and the thing is if you think about the people that you were friends with at the end of high school and the beginning of college…how many of those people are you still friends with? …We’ve been in the same van and bus and aeroplane and backstage room and stage for twenty something years.

“Tom is a great songwriter and a very creative person. He’s excited about stuff, he’s inspired me to do things that I never thought I could do and we’ve made great songs together and you know, no hard feelings.

“The love is still there,” he added. “Well, wait until after it gets all ‘managery’ and ‘lawyery’.”

The new-look, Delonge-less Blink has already been introduced to the world via anew band photo and live footage of the band performing with stand-in axeman, Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio. It hasn’t yet been confirmed if Skiba will be standing in for good.

Meanwhile, Tom DeLonge’s going to be pretty busy this year anyway releasing two Angels And Airwaves records, two solo LPs – including one filled with unreleased material and previously unheard Blink demos – plus a shitload of books, apparently.

For memories of a simpler time, peruse the Blink-182 gallery, below.

Gallery: Blink-182 @ Allphones Arena, Sydney 20.02.13 / Photos: Ashley Mar