Mark Hoppus thinks going public with his aggressive blood cancer battle has “healed friendships” with his Blink-182 bandmates.
Mark Hoppus believes going public with his aggressive blood cancer battle has “healed friendships” with his Blink-182 bandmates.
The 53-year-old co-vocalist and bassist for the punk band – which is comprised of Mark, Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker – was diagnosed with a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in June 2021 and underwent a bout of treatment before being given the all-clear.
And, he said if it was not for making the announcement, his friendship with fellow vocalist and guitarist Tom, whom he had “no communication for years” would have still been fractured.
Mark is quoted by the Daily Star newspaper’s Wired column as saying: “It healed broken friendships and broken relationships. It healed my broken friendship with Tom.
“So much good came out of people finding out that I was not doing so well, that it really helped me a lot and it fortified me. There were stretches of years where Tom and I wouldn’t talk at all. We wouldn’t talk on the phone, we wouldn’t text, there’d be no communication for years at a time.
“But then tragedies happened – Travis’ plane crash or my sickness – and then Tom calls up and is like, ‘How are you?’ All the bad blood and the grief and the animosity, hard feelings just melt away, and it’s friends and brothers.”
Following Mark’s announcement, the band reunited after splitting in 2005, and they released an LP called ‘One More Time’.
Now, the rock star – who, along with his bandmates are touring the US this summer and are planning a European tour in 2026 – has teased a new record and gigs.
The ‘All the Small Things’ hitmaker said: “We appreciate all the hard work that it took to get here and how lucky we are to get to have this band and these moments together.
“We announced a brand new tour. We’re thinking about the next record and things like that.”
And he admitted “there’s no better feeling” than when he is performing on stage with Tom and Travis.
Mark continued: “When I’m on stage with Travis behind us and Tom on my side, there’s no better feeling in the world.
“That is when I feel like the universe is right.”
Mark Hoppus believes cancer diagnosis ‘healed friendships’ with bandmates
