Tom DeLonge On blink-182: "Contrary To A Lot Of Talk Out There… I’m Super Thankful For That Band"

While there's been some confusing online back-and-forth this year between Tom DeLonge and blink-182, the frontman has been speaking about his former band onstage while touring with Angels & Airwaves – clarifying that things are all good between the two parties.

At a recent gig at the House Of Blues in Chicago, Tom spoke of his positive relationship with ex-bandmates Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker, and how they "still talk".

"I started another band called blink-182, and I definitely want to let you guys know, contrary to a lot of talk out there in internet land, I’m super, super, super thankful for that band," Tom told the crowd. "I love that band – I started that band, by the way. I love Mark and Travis, we still talk, we’re all good. Everything is awesome and people don’t know, so they say a bunch of weird shit on the internet.

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"But I’ve always been one of those guys that wants to do something different all the time. I’m like, 'How do I really really challenge myself to feel things that are different to what I feel now, and how do I do that with other people, and inspire the people the way that I’ve been inspired?' So that’s kind of been my path for a long time. It started with Boxcar Racer, and then Angels & Airwaves."

Check out the fan-filmed footage of Tom's speech below:

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Before hitting the road, Tom revealed a couple of months ago that he was back in the studio with Angels & Airwaves.

Tom also told Kerrang! recently that there will not only be a new AVA record this year, but also an accompanying film.

“This album is with a movie, and the movie – which I co-wrote – is going into production in July,” he said. “There will be an album-movie combo, but much more commercial and much bigger in scope. It’ll dig into the fact that the universe is a little bit more tricky and unexplainable than we like to admit.”

Of course, the vocalist/guitarist is also already incredibly busy with his company To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science, and he admitted that sometimes it can be overwhelming having so many different projects on.

“A lot of times I question what it means to be happy – I go, ‘Be careful what you wish for – is it really making you happy that you have all these projects?’ I don’t want this much work, and I’m not trying to ask for it, but it’s kind of what’s needed to accomplish some of the things I’m doing,” explained Tom. “I mean, where I’m going to end up is doing one major motion picture and album a year, and then I would work the next year – that kind of thing.

“I’m supposed to be writing so many books and so many classified government contracts (laughs). I’m the chairman of the board at my company, so I’m involved in those things, but I’m kind of involved in a really cool way, where I go, ‘What’s going on?’ and I get to have those conversations and meet with our partners in the Department of Defense or wherever they’re at, and we get to deal with these subjects and what I’m passionate about, so I’m in the game – the biggest game on Earth! I get to do that, but I still get to be myself, and the company will be financing its own movies and all that stuff. So I get to spearhead an entire massive art piece, and that’s something no rock’n’roll band on Earth has ever been able to do. I mean, Pink Floyd did The Wall, which is the best thing ever, but it was kind of avant-garde and it was a one-off – they didn’t do it again. I’m trying to go, ‘Well, how do we get teams of artists working together on each one of these projects, and we do it over and over again in different ways?’”

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