Tom Delonge Had An 'Identity Crisis' Says Blink-182's Travis Barker

With the new Blink-182 album set for release in less than a month, drummer Travis Barker has opened up on the struggles leading up to founding member Tom Delonge's departure from the band last year, reportedly claiming that he and band mate Mark Hoppus did everything they could to make a new record with Delonge. 

In an interview with DRUM! Magazine (via Alternative Nation), Barker said Delonge would often give mixed signals about his ideas for Blink moving forward.

"We would do huge tours and the whole time Tom would be like, ‘We gotta make a huge album, we gotta get in the studio right when we get back.’ Then we’d never hear from him. He’d go ghost," Barker said. 

"After doing that for so long, the last attempt to make an album, he was like, ‘I refuse to be in the studio without a record deal in place.’ So, we go and sign this record deal, just so we can get this guy in the studio to work. Then he quits the band. You find yourself in this deal that he really wanted and now he’s not in the band!"

Though he and Delonge have recently publicly stated that the two now "talk on a weekly basis", Barker has suggested that the Angels & Airwaves frontman may have simply grown out of punk-rock music. 

"Make no mistake, Tom’s a great songwriter. I think he outgrew being in a punk rock band," Barker said.

"I think he wanted to change the sound of the band, which I don’t mind, if the sound progresses. It was hard to get in the studio with someone who was playing songs by other bands and trying to write songs just like them. It was frustrating. It was shouting out ‘identity crisis!’ to me. I think it was more of a personal thing than a band thing."

Barker said the band's forthcoming album, California (which sees Alkaline Trio frontman Matt Skiba replace Delonge), is their best in years.  

"This is the best group of Blink songs since Blink-182," he said.

"Very modern, yet still giving the fans what Blink-182 has always been. There’s a new energy. It’s the greatest energy the band has felt in years."

Shortly after the trio released the first single off the album, Bored To Death, Delonge released a statement on Facebook and suggested that reuniting with Hoppus and Barker in the future is on the cards. 

"We DO have a future together if we want it, but for now we are busy doing separate things," Delonge wrote. 

California will be released on 1 July.