As if Blink-182 reuniting their classic lineup wasn’t exciting enough, Mark Hoppus has revealed he’s working on a memoir about his career with the band and recent battle with cancer. In a red carpet interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the singer and bassist said he was “finalizing the deal” for the book, which he started writing earlier this year.
“I’m not that far into it yet but I’m writing a book about my life and experience in Blink and what I’ve gone through over the past year or so,” Hoppus said about the project, which he described to THR as a combination of a music memoir and medical journey. “We’re finalizing the deal and I’m really happy with the way that’s coming together. I’m excited to tell my story.”
Hoppus also spoke about accidentally revealing his battle with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma when he posted a public photo on Instagram Stories meant for his “close friends” list. At the time, he understandably wasn’t ready to open up about having cancer just yet.
“I didn’t say anything about being sick for the longest time because I was so scared and overwhelmed by the whole thing,” he said. “My world got really, really small. Like, I closed down and it was just my family and dear friends that were in my life. I was in the hospital chair for my third chemo session when I accidentally posted it to Instagram. I remember staring at it and people started calling, like my publicist, manager, and friends. All of a sudden, it was like, oh, damn, I really screwed it up.”
However, Hoppus was met with “an overwhelming outpouring of support and love, not only from the world at large and people on Instagram and Twitter and Discord, but to old friends that I had fallen out with 20 years ago.” This helped convince him to stop “being so afraid” and instead be open about his battle.
One of those “old friends” was former (at the time) Blink-182 bandmate Tom DeLonge, who later became the first person to share the news that Hoppus had completed chemotherapy in early September 2021. Several weeks later, Hoppus announced he was cancer free.
As Hoppus later shared in an August 2022 interview with People, a home visit with DeLonge and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker before he began chemotherapy left the trio in “a really great place.” Fast forward to earlier this week, and the band is officially back together for a massive 2023-2024 world tour that includes headlining slots at Lollapalooza’s trio of Latin American festivals in 2023 and When We Were Young 2023. They also announced a new single called “Edging,” set for release on October 14th.
For North American audiences, a Live Nation pre-sale will run from Thursday, October 13th at 10:00 a.m. local time to Sunday, October 16th at 10:00 p.m. local (use access code PUMPKIN). Tickets for the general public follow on Monday, October 17th at 10:00 a.m. local time; grab yours via Ticketmaster.
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Tagged: Alternative Music, Memoir, music, music blog, NEWS, Pop Punk