'It's like divorce': Mark Hoppus on Blink-182's breakup and how cancer reunited them

There have been two big divorces in Mark Hoppus's life. The first was when his parents split up, and the second was when he split up with his band, Blink-182.

In his new memoir, Fahrenheit-182, Hoppus opens up about the loneliness he felt as a child following his parents' divorce. He says his story is not unlike many other Gen Xers who grew up as latchkey kids in the 1980s.

"I grew up in a military town and so growing up, there were friends that would just turn over all the time," he tells Q's Tom Power in an interview. "The only thing that I had that was permanent was my family. And when that broke apart, I was like, well, what else is there now? How do I go back to something stable?"

It wasn't until Hoppus discovered skateboarding and punk rock that the light returned to his life, and he found some of the stability he craved.

"Skateboarding was a community for the outcasts," he says. "It was like, if you don't belong anywhere else, come here. And that's how I felt like the punk rock community was. When I got introduced to punk rock, it was all about doing your own thing and being yourself…. Come to the shows. Come be part of this community. We're supportive of one another."

We're meant to be together. We're each other's lobsters.- Mark Hoppus on Tom DeLonge

That feeling of support and acceptance was amplified to a whole new level when he met his Blink-182 bandmate Tom DeLonge in 1992. "From the first moment that I met Tom, something special clicked," Hoppus says. "We're meant to be together. We're each other's lobsters — if you watch Friends, you'll get that reference."

That instant connection led Hoppus and DeLonge to form Blink-182, one of the biggest bands of their generation. In 1998, drummer Travis Barker joined the band as a replacement for founding member Scott Raynor.

But growing up has a funny way of changing things — and getting famous can complicate even the closest of relationships. Following disagreements about the band's future and recording process, a rift formed between Hoppus and DeLonge that resulted in several breakups and reunions over the years.

"Tom still wanted to do Blink, but not like Travis and I wanted to do Blink, and that was the main friction there," Hoppus recalls. "It's like divorce, really…. It felt like when my parents were fighting. We were doing the same thing in the dressing room, night after night after night, arguing about touring and recording and stuff like that."

In 2021, Hoppus was diagnosed with cancer, which turned his life upside down. But he says some good came out of it as well. Not only did his diagnosis help him appreciate his loved ones more, but it also served as the impetus DeLonge needed to reach out and check up on an old friend.

"It healed broken friendships and broken relationships," Hoppus says. "It healed my broken friendship with Tom…. Tom calls up and is like, 'How are you?' And all the bad blood and the grief and the animosity [and] hard feelings just melt away, and it's just friends and brothers."

The full interview with Mark Hoppus is available on our YouTube channel and on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Mark Hoppus produced by Vanessa Nigro.