Blink-182 To Tom DeLonge: 'You Don't Have The Balls To Be Honest'

27 January 2015 | 2:30 pm | Staff Writer

Things get uglier in the Blink-182 split saga...

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The Blink-182/Tom DeLonge split saga that erupted overnight has take another turn, with band members Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker claiming the guitarist and vocalist "doesn't want to do Blink" and "didn't have the balls" to call his bandmates and be honest with them on his plans.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Hoppus and Barker confirmed that while DeLonge's earlier post about not quitting the band was "technically" true, the Angels & Airwaves leader was not active with Blink at this point, which was his decision.

"We booked January 5th to go into the studio. On December 30th, we get an e-mail from Tom's manager saying that he has no interest in recording and that he wants to do his other, non-musical stuff and that he's out indefinitely," Hoppus explained.

"There's a flurry of e-mails going back and forth for clarification about the recording and the show and his manager sends [an e-mail] back saying, 'Tom. Is. Out.' Direct quote. This is the exact same e-mail we got back in 2004 when Tom went on indefinite hiatus before.

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"Every single thing that we've heard from his camp — from e-mails from his manager to our production team — was, 'Tom is out indefinitely. For the foreseeable future, Tom is done,'" he added, admitting he wasn't "that surprised" by the email because DeLonge's attitude "had been not excited and not interested" in the lead-up to the band heading back into the studio.

Barker also claimed that DeLonge's post came about because he was "bummed" the truth had finally come out about his lack of interest in Blink, which has been brewing for a while.

"I think he's just bummed because Mark and I were finally honest," the drummer said.

"We always covered up for him before. It was always, 'We're going to record an album,' then 'Tom refuses to get into the studio without a record deal.' So everyone does hella amounts of work to get a record deal and now Tom isn't part of Blink-182. It's hard to cover for someone who's disrespectful and ungrateful. You don't even have the balls to call your bandmates and tell them you're not going to record or do anything Blink-related. You have your manager do it.

"Everyone should know what the story is with him and it's been years with it. When we did get back together after my plane crash, we only got back together, I don't know, maybe because I almost died. But he didn't even listen to mixes or masterings from that record. He didn't even care about it. Why Blink even got back together in the first place is questionable."

Hoppus and Barker announced DeLonge's indefinite departure from the punk-rock outfit in a statement overnight, which led to DeLonge's denial over social media earlier today.