In a new interview with Zane Lowe, the Blink-182 bassist opens up about his difficult recovery after doctors declared he was cancer-free following chemotherapy.
- Oct 20, 2023
AceShowbiz - Mark Hoppus needed to learn "how to play bass again" after his cancer battle. The Blink-182 rocker, 51, battled stage 4-A diffuse large B-Cell lymphoma in 2021 and, after undergoing chemotherapy, he was declared cancer-free six months later.
"Healing through the band, once I was clear of the cancer diagnosis and got the all clear, I was still a f****** hollow, just shell," he told Zane Lowe on Apple Music when reflecting on his recovery.
"S*****, weak brain eaten with the chemotherapy and pain and everything else. And then getting back in the studio to make this record was like learning how to play bass again, learning how to… the chemotherapy wrecked my vocal cords."
"I had to go to work with a vocal coach. I had to rebuild my throat. I had all this stuff had to rebuild to get to the point where we could go and walk on stage at Coachella and have one of the biggest shows of our career and have this album, which touch wood is one of the best albums we've ever written."
The group - completed by drummer Travis Barker and returning guitarist and singer Tom DeLonge - are poised to release new album "One More Time...", and it comes after the idea of having the three of them back together seemed impossible.
Mark admitted, "I didn't know that Blink would ever get back together or that I would ever share a stage with Tom. And I told management, I told Travis, I told everybody, I'm like, 'I'm not setting foot on stage again with that dude. Not a chance.' That's the truth."
"But I've always thought Tom was one of the best songwriters in the world and one of my favourite songwriters, but there was a lot of bad blood and there was a lot of stuff in the press and feelings and all this stuff."
Tom was there to support him during his cancer battle, which helped mend their friendship as they then focused on reuniting the classic lineup. He previously revealed how Mark's diagnosis inspired him to rejoin Blink in 2022, after he departed the group in 2015 and was replaced by Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba.
Tom said, "I remember telling my wife, 'I don't think I'm ever going to play music again, I don't think I'm ever gonna tour again.' Until Mark told me he was sick, and then I was like, that's the only thing I wanted to do."
