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Blink-182 are currently touring the world and prepping a new album, but before Mark Hoppus was diagnosed with Stage Four cancer in 2021, his then former bandmate Tom DeLonge wasn't sure if he'd ever play music again, let alone with blink. The guitarist revealed that he thought about quitting music in a trailer promoting the upcoming album, ONE MORE TIME...
“I remember telling my wife, like, ‘I don’t think I'm ever gonna play music again, I don’t think I'm ever gonna tour again,’” DeLonge recalled in the clip. “Until Mark told me he was sick, and then I was like, ‘That was the only thing I wanna do.’”
“When he told me he was sick, that’s the gnarliest… like, nothing matters, really," he added. “It wasn’t about fame or money or how big blink was or anything, it was like, ‘You’re gonna get through this s**t, and we’re gonna go dominate.’”
In the same clip, Travis Barker reflected on the deadly plane crash he survived in 2008, and how that and Hoppus' battle with cancer inspired the album's title track.
“On the album, ‘One More Time’ is kind of written about why does it take these catastrophes — like me being in a plane crash or Mark being sick — for our band to get back together?” Barker asked in the trailer. “I always knew that the brotherhood wouldn’t ever deteriorate or wouldn’t be there. I really feel like blink is us three, and as soon as we accept that, and don’t settle for anything less than that, I think that’s just the future.”
One More Time... is slated for an October 20 release, a year after its lead single "Edging" came out, and the title track is set to drop on Thursday (September 21).