Tom DeLonge: I don’t want Blink-182’s legacy ruined

Tom DeLonge says that he doesn’t want want Blink-182‘s legacy to “get f***ed with”.

The punk/pop group’s former frontman has no hard feelings towards his old bandmates Travis Barker and Mark Hoppus deciding to carry on with the band with new singer Matt Skiba, but doesn’t want the band’s history to be ruined by what they do next.

He said:

“I love those guys. The only thing I think about is, I want them to be happy. [But] I don’t want to the legacy of the band to get f***ed with. I do care about that. I don’t want an incredible legacy to be ruined.”

Tom’s departure from Blink-182 was acrimonious with Travis and Mark claiming they had all planned to go into the studio to make a new record in January 2015 but then received an email from the singer’s manager saying he had “no interest in recording and he wants to do his other, non-musical stuff and is out indefinitely“.

Tom refuted their version of events by stating he was handed a “60-page contract” which informed him the LP had to be finished in six months and that he would be prohibited from releasing music from other endeavours.

Tom still feels hurt now about how his departure from Blink-182 but he’s not going to let that get in the way of him progressing with his own career with Angels & Airwaves.

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, he said:

“If they would have come to me and said, ‘Hey, you’re really busy right now. We really want to do something, maybe we should get someone to fill in’ or something, I would have probably been fine with it.

“I don’t work on ego. It doesn’t define me. Is it awkward and weird? Yeah. Does part of me get bummed. Totally. But it doesn’t consume me.

“I’m doing some of the best stuff I’ve ever been involved in. People look in and they go, ‘How could you walk away from something like that?’ or ‘How could you not get p***ed?’ Well, because I am more than that.”

Tom’s comments come as Blink-182 released their first single, ‘Bored To Death’, with replacement Matt – who also is a member of Alkaline Trio. Listen to the the new Blink song here.