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Blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus says that the band breaking up led him to having suicidal thoughts. Blink-182 first split in 2005 and then again in 2014.
In his new memoir Fahrenheit 182, Mark Hoppus revealed that Blink-182 splitting up led him to such a low place that he began ‘finding comfort in the thought of suicide.’ Hoppus is a founding member of the iconic pop punk bank, which was formed in Southern California in 1992 by Hoppus, Tom DeLonge, and then-drummer Scott Raynor, who was eventually replaced with Travis Barker.
The band’s first break-up came following the release of their acclaimed Untitled album in 2003. While Blink-182 would reunite in 2014, they would again separate in 2014 before Hoppus’ cancer battle broke them back together in 2022.
“When Blink fell apart, I lost everything. I lost my direction, I lost my confidence, I lost my sense of self. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do or who I was supposed to be. I’d hear one of our songs playing in a store and have to walk out,” Hoppus writes in his new memoir Fahrenheit 182, according to People.
“I sank lower and lower. I could tell I was near the bottom when I started finding comfort in the thought of suicide: If it gets bad enough, I can always just kill myself. I started talking to a psychiatrist who put me on medications, which helped a lot. It let me take a breath. It allowed me the space in my own head to say, ‘You’re being a dick, Mark. Knock it off.’”
In 2021, Hoppus’ mortality was truly tested as he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in the summer of 2021, which ultimately led to the band reuniting for a second time. Two years later, Blink-182 released the album One More Time…, the band’s first record with Hoppus, DeLonge and Barker since 2011’s Neighborhoods.
Blink-182 is considered to be one of the most successful bands of their generation, having has sold over 50 million albums worldwide.