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Cancer to Coachella: The Renaissance of Mark Hoppus.

Jack Wallace

24 May 2023

After spending the 90s and early 2000s trailblazing punk music as we know it today alongside Tom DeLonge, Scott Raynor and eventually Travis Barker as a bratpack known as Blink182 - singer and bassist Mark Hoppus found himself at the forefront of a battle with Lymphoma.

After spending the 90s and early 2000s trailblazing punk music as we know it today alongside Tom DeLonge, Scott Raynor and eventually Travis Barker as a bratpack known as Blink182 - singer and bassist Mark Hoppus found himself at the forefront of a battle with Lymphoma.


In April 2021, Mark received news that would rock his world when he was diagnosed with Stage 4 Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma and had revealed this by accident shortly after in June when he posted a photo on his instagram stories that was supposed to be for his "close friends" list.


Throughout the 90s, Mark released very successful albums with Blink182 from "Cheshire Cat" in 1995 to a personal favourite in "Dude Ranch" during 1997 and later the massively successful "Enema of the State" in 1999. Original Blink182 drummer Scott Raynor was booted from the band one year before "Enema of the State" and replaced by Travis Barker leading to the 2000s with the band becoming burnt out with drama unfolding between members with non-stop recording and heavy touring schedules over the past decade. Tom DeLonge went on to leave the band in early 2005 thus splitting the group up until 2009 on a sour note.


Once the band regrouped in 2009 and going on with the release of "Neighbourhoods" in 2011 - they found reasonable success but there was remaining friction between band members. Tom left again in 2015 due to his erratic behaviour and unable to commit to the band and was replaced by Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba whomst was the first and only person considered for the role of replacing Tom who has been the face of Blink182 since its inception.


Mark decided this time to continue on with the band alongside Matt & Travis finding success with the release of "Nine" in 2019. however on June 23rd, 2021, Mark Hoppus confirms his Lymphoma diagnosis. Tom has spoken on the Lymphoma diagnosis being incredibly tough to deal with but was able to mend his friendship with Mark as a result of it.


Once Mark had been cleared of his lymphoma, rumours began circulating everywhere that Tom may come back to Blink182. After cryptic tweets made by members of the band spread like wildfire across Twitter and other social media platforms, those rumours could be just about confirmed as Tom coming back to the band and finally in October of 2022, it was confirmed by the band that Tom was back and the band will be releasing a new album sometime later this year.


It is very safe to say the past two years have been a rollercoaster for Mark being at the absolute lowest of lows to now being able to experiencing all the highs alongside his best friends in Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker playing their first show back together in over 7 years at Coachella 2023 in California last month. Announced at the last minute and by total surprise, the reunion was finally complete. While Mark still has to go for screenings every 6 months, he remains optimistic that he will be clear of cancer for the rest of his life.

©2023 by The Ox Radio

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