Credit: Jack Bridgland / Press

Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus learned “how to play bass again” following cancer battle

Thu 19 October 2023 10:20, UK

Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus has revealed he had to learn “how to play bass again” following his fight with cancer.

Hoppus was diagnosed with 4-A diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in 2021 before undergoing successful treatment and eventually becoming cancer-free. His health battle helped bring Blink-182 back together with Tom DeLonge recently telling Apple Music’s Zane Lowe: “I remember telling my wife, ‘I don’t think I’m ever gonna 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 was the only thing I wanna do.’”

DeLonge added: “When he told me he was sick, that’s the gnarliest… like, nothing matters, really.”

Blink-182 are now set to release their new album One More Time on October 20th and are currently on a world tour, which recently included dates at The O2 Arena in London. However, making the LP has been a long road for Hoppus as he fought to get back to full fitness and up to speed on his instrument.

Speaking to Lowe in the newly released full-version of the same interview, Hoppus said of his health struggles: “Healing through the band, once I was clear of the cancer diagnosis and got the all clear, I was still a fucking hollow, just shell.”

“Shitty, 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,” he continued.

The bassist continued: “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.”

Watch the interview below.