In the early 2000s, Blink 182’s frontman Tom DeLonge was ready to explore other creative avenues. You may be familiar with one of his other musical projects — Angels and Airwaves — whose far moodier sound was inspired by 80s New Wave, a far cry from Blink’s sunny pop-punk anthems. In 2001, DeLonge and Travis Barker created a side project Box Car Racer as an additional musical outlet. However, all it did was cause tension within the band when Blink’s Mark Hoppus was left out.
Trouble was on the horizon, and creative differences weren’t the only problems. At the height of their fame, Barker had become so addicted to painkillers that he told Billboard his bones became brittle and he felt suicidal. In 2004, the band was forced to cancel the first gig of their Australia tour so that he could go home and recover. DeLonge, who was saddled with crippling back pain from an injury, also wound up addicted to painkillers at the same time.
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Finally, like many rockstars, the pressure of fame simply took its toll. Blink 182 were massive at the time and the public could scarcely get enough of them, and Barker even had his own TV show, “Meet the Barkers.” Inevitably, the media circus that surrounded them became overwhelming. In an interview with BBC Radio 1, DeLonge explained “The band got so big that the machine running the band took over. We were burnt out, we needed a break, but the machine won’t let you do that.” The band called it quits, announcing a hiatus to legions of heartbroken fans.
