Tom DeLonge considered retirement before Mark Hoppus' cancer brought him back to Blink-182

Tom DeLonge was about to hang up his guitar for good but when Mark Hoppus was diagnosed with cancer — retirement was the last thing on his mind.

In a new trailer for the band's forthcoming album One More Time, DeLonge revealed his uncertainty about his musical future. "I remember telling my wife now, like, 'I don't think I'm ever gonna play music again, I don't think I'm ever gonna tour again,'" the guitarist said. "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 was like the gnarliest… nothing matters, really," DeLonge continued. "It wasn't about fame or money or how big Blink was or anything, it was like 'you're gonna get through this s---, and we're gonna go dominate."

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge of Blink-182

"I got so sick of hearing Tom's positive s---. I really did," Hoppus responded. "Like, 'you're gonna do great, you're gonna get through this, you're gonna crush this,' on the days I just wanted to wallow. I don't wanna be positive!"

"When I found out that I got sick, I was really s---ty, weak, brain eaten with the chemotherapy, in pain and everything else, just a hollow shell," Hoppus said of his experience with cancer. "Chemotherapy wrecked my vocal chords. I had to go work with a vocal coach to get to the point where we could go and walk on stage at Coachella."

In the video, DeLonge also alluded to his time exploring UFOlogy and conspiracy theories. Zane Lowe told the singer, "Quite frankly, a lot of people thought you left Blink-182 to become professionally crazy." DeLonge responded, "I found myself in these weird oceans that I didn't know really how to navigate. I definitely didn't want to hold these guys back in any kind of way."

The band had previously broken up in 2005 as a result of DeLonge's desire to spend more time with family, which also led to the initial formation of Angels & Airwaves. The group came back together after drummer Travis Barker was injured in a plane crash that killed four people.

DeLonge left Blink-182 in 2014, and was replaced by Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba for the group's next two albums, California and Nine. DeLonge released his first and only solo album in 2015, titled To the Stars... Demos, Odds and Ends, and also released the album Lifeforms with his group Angels & Airwaves in 2021.

"For me, it was always heavy on my heart that our friendship wasn't mended," DeLonge said of that time away from the band. "All of us have lived through tragedies now, things that really tear apart pieces of your heart, and you've got to mend them back together and figure out how to be a better version of yourself."

Blink-182's One More Time drops Oct. 20. The new single "One More Time" releases Thursday.

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