Thomas Mathew Delonge

Thomas Matthew DeLonge,
Born December 13, 1975.
Tom DeLonge was born in Poway, California and was raised there by his mother and father. His first instrument was a trumpet bought for him at age nine and though this didn’t go as well as hoped he first picked up a guitar at age 15 and didn’t put it down. DeLonge taught himself basic chords, and in a short time, quickly picked up the basics of guitar. He has an older brother, Shon and a younger sister, Kari. Tom was expelled from Poway High School during junior year after being caught drinking at a school basketball year and went to Rancho Bernardo High School where he met Mark Hoppus through his sister, Anne Hoppus, but returned to Poway High during his senior year where he was voted Homecoming King (despite not being on the ballot). In 1992, Tom formed the band BLINK with Mark Hoppus and newly made friend Scott Raynor, found at the school’s Battle of the Bands however due to legal reasons with supposed plagiarism involving an Irish techno band of the same name, BLINK renamed to Blink-182. Becoming a musician was not his first calling. “I was originally going to be a firefighter. I was in the San Diego Cadet Program,” says DeLonge. Some of his earlier influences were the Descendents, Screeching Weasel, Dag Nasty and The Cure.
In 1998, Scott Raynor was replaced by Travis Barker in the middle of a tour when Raynor’s drinking became a serious problem. Though he agreed to go to rehab, the band continued without him. Travis was on tour with The Aquabats, another band touring along with Blink-182. After sitting in on two shows Barker formally joined Blink-182. It was here that Blink-182 quickly vaulted to success. They became the face of pop-punk in the late 90′s and early 00′s.and together released Enema of the State, which was met with a huge amount of mainstream success, spawning three hit singles. Follow-up Take Off Your Pants and Jacket went straight to No.1 on the Billboard 200.

In 2001, Tom DeLonge started the company Really Likeable People (RLP) and founded clothing label Atticus with fellow band mate Mark Hoppus and childhood friend Dylan Anderson. RLP currently oversees Macbeth Footwear (also founded by Tom DeLonge in 2001 providing footwear, apparel and accessories, including vegan and organic products) and Loserkids.com.

In 2002, Tom started a more serious side project with Travis Barker and close friend David Kennedy. This side-project was formed to experiment with and record ideas DeLonge felt were not “Blink-friendly” and although Tom handled bass duties, the band hired Kennedy’s friend Anthony Celestino for the corresponding tour. Guests on the album included Mark Hoppus from Blink-182 on the song “Elevator”, and Tim Armstrong from Rancid and Jordan Pundik from New Found Glory on “Cat Like Thief”. Box Car Racer put out one self-titled album, and have since been inactive. In 2003, Blink-182 released their self-titled album, but in 2005 DeLonge decided to leave the band, allegedly due to mounting tensions and communication difficulties, creating a rift between him and the other members of the band.
Blink-182 announced an ‘indefinite hiatus’ in February 2005. Later this year he began writing music again with friend David Kennedy. They recruited Atom Willard and Ryan Sinn, and Angels & Airwaves were soon created. With more mature influences such as U2 behind him, they released their debut album We Don’t Need To Whisper on May 20, 2006. During the recording of their second album, I-Empire (November 6, 2007), Ryan Sinn left the band due to “Personal Reasons” and was quickly replaced by former 30 Seconds to Mars bassist Matt Wachter. It was during this time a beta release of Tom’s newest side-project ModLife, a website that connects fans with bands, artists and personalities using live video broadcasts, text messaging, video blogs, mobile updating and twitter feeds first launched. The full launch took place after being met with great success in June 2008 and by November had expanded to include “usersites” which allow registered users to create their own microsites within ModLife. Each user can design their own page, post blogs, photos and videos, add friends, and communicate with other fans.

During ModLifes early beginning Angels & Airwaves also released a documentary, Start The Machine, that focused on the break-up of Blink-182, the genesis of Angels & Airwaves, and the making of We Don’t Need to Whisper. It was released on DVD on June 17, 2008. Filming went on over the 3 years from Blink-182’s hiatus and during this time, Tom DeLonge and David contacted Mark Eaton and asked him to direct this documentary. Both DeLonge and Kennedy had known him for years and Eaton was trusted with the quality of the documentary completely; DeLonge never saw it or approved or disapproved anything before it was submitted to film festivals; he had “nothing to do with putting it together”. Eaton would later go on to direct the videos for “Secret Crowds” and “Breathe” by Angels & Airwaves as well. Members of ModLife were able to buy this DVD for half price, instead of the initial retail price.
Whilst on tour, Tom covered Blink-182 songs such as “Down”, “I Miss You”, “Not Now” and “Reckless Abandon” along with Boxcar Racer songs “There Is” and “My First Punk Song” live on tour with Angels and Airwaves and in January 2009, Angels & Airwaves began producing Love, their third studio album and feature length film. After being delayed from Christmas 2009, Love will be officially released worldwide February 14, 2010 free of charge due to “corporate underwriting.”

Following Travis Barker’s Learjet crash, DeLonge’s former band mate, Mark Hoppus, posted on his blog (Himynameismark.com) on November 18, 2008, that all three band mates had communicated for the past couple of months after Barker’s plane crash, which killed 4 people and left Barker and DJ AM in critical condition.

It was later established that Tom had heard the news on TV whilst at an airport and upon arrival, sent Travis a letter including two photographs; one of Blink aboard a submarine in the Middle East and another of himself and his two kids. “One was ‘Do you remember who we were?’ and the other was ‘This is who I am now,’ ” DeLonge says. “No one knew if Travis was going to live or if he would play drums again. It was a good moment to put the shit aside.”

An announcement made by MTV.com on February 5, 2009 that Blink-182 would reunite to present an award at the 51st Grammy Awards. This presentation marked the first time the trio had been together on stage since 2004. Before presenting the award for Best Rock Album, the band announced that they were reuniting; this announcement was followed shortly by a message posted on the band’s website. Tom was quoted as saying “live life as if it was the last record played on the the jukebox”. On February 9, 2009, Tom opened up to Extra about the Blink-182 reunion saying: “When you’re in a band, you have this unspoken bond. You’re kind of family with your boys. We took a break for a little bit. I think when Travis had the event happen to him it was something that pulled us back together… we always knew it was inevitable, we just needed something to break the ice” though on February 10, Tom DeLonge posted a blog on Modlife stating that, “Angels and Airwaves is never going to go away.” This brought an end to any lingering rumors of a possible break-up of the band due to the reunion of Blink-182.

Currently on tour across the United States along with Weezer, Panic at the Disco, Chester French, Asher Roth, All American Rejects, Taking Back Sunday, and Fall Out Boy, their planning to release their newest album around late 2009 or early 2010. It has also been confirmed by band mate Mark Hoppus in an MTV interview that there will be a 2010 European tour.

Personal Life

DeLonge lives with his wife Jennifer, daughter Ava Elizabeth (born July 15, 2002), son Jonas Rocket (born on August 16, 2006), German Sheperd Grey, and Labrador Retriever Chloe in Rancho Santa Fe, California. He is the owner of Macbeth Footwear, which he founded. He has sold his share in Atticus Clothing, which he founded together with Mark Hoppus and another friend. He has also been politically active during the 2004 and the 2008 presidential races. In 2004, he supported the Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. In 2008, he supported the Democratic nominee Barack Obama and called him “the John F. Kennedy of this generation.”

Though not as many as bandmate Travis, Tom has quite a few tattoos over his body each with personal meanings to him. Most notably is his left arm on which he has a full sleeve leading onto his chest. Included in the sleeve is a UFO, representing his personal opinion that, as his song states, “Aliens Exist”. Ever since he was young he believed in Aliens and bought a computer for the sole purpose of researching them. He has done many interviews discussing his obsession with the paranormal and even shows his collection of tapes, books and other records held in his personal collection containing information on the unknown. The Mark, Tom and Travis Show’s cover art depicts aliens watching the show and on the Blink-182 documentaries Urethra Chronicles he goes into detail about how excited he is to meet them. He has posted blogs on his site ModLife discussing such things and it is now common knowledge about him.

Instruments

Fender Guitars worked with DeLonge to create the Tom DeLonge Stratocaster (signature guitar) which consisted of a solid alder body fitted with a single Seymour Duncan Invader Bridge pickup. It was controlled by a lone volume knob adding to its simple design. In 2002, whilst touring with Box Car Racer, Tom began collaborating with Gibson to create a new Signature Model. He started off by using a standard Gibson ES-335, with all but the bridge volume knob removed, and the bridge pick-up replaced with a Seymour Duncan Invader bridge pick-up. The Neck pick-up was left in place. This guitar was eventually covered with many different stickers including band stickers and clothing line stickers from Atticus, Macbeth and Famous Stars and Straps. This guitar can be seen in BoxCar Racer live photos and in the studio videos for the Untitled Album. In one of the videos, a prototype for his signature is seen. it is the same brown colour as the model which would later be released, except for some differences. These are, an orange stripe instead of cream, with a matching orange headstock, a single wrap-around tailpiece and a metal volume knob. In 2003, Gibson released his signature model, the Tom DeLonge Signature ES-333, which has only been available since its release in Brown and Cream, with a Natural neck and headstock. The Tom DeLonge Signature starts with Gibson’s classic semi-hollow body design and then extends it into punk rock with an overwound ‘Dirty Fingers’ humbucking pickup. Its thick, distorted tone is the signature sound of DeLonge’s band Blink-182.
On Angels & Airwaves albums, We Don’t Need to Whisper and I-Empire Tom has used his signature Gibson ES-333 for all of his live shows. However, he has a number of touring guitars, which he has had made in a few different colour combinations, including all-black, cream and black, natural and black, and white and black. Since the blink-182 Reunion, he has been seen using his original brown and cream guitar (which now has a blink-182 ‘smiley logo’ sprayed painted onto the body), his natural and black guitar (which has now been abused with burns, scrapes and stickers), and a new black and white guitar, which is a custom Baritone version of his standard signature guitar, made for playing the song Obvious, and other down-stepped songs. Epiphone has since come out with a lower cost version of the Tom DeLonge signature guitar, manufactured overseas, but fitted with the same Dirty Fingers humbucker.
From very early on in Blink’s career, Tom has used Mesa Boogie and Marshall Amplifier Heads and Mesa Boogie matching Cabs. These featured a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier Head and a Marshall JCM900 Head run in unison, with 3 Mesa Boogie 4×12 Cabs. Since the 2009 reunion, Tom has been using a different set-up for live shows. He now uses 2 Fender ’65 Twin Reverb Amps and 2 VOX AC30H2 Amps.

Other Accomplishments

Tom directed the video for Taking Back Sunday’s song “This Photograph is Proof” in 2004 and made a cameo appearance as the Burger Jungle drive thru clerk in the movie Idle Hands and in the music documentaries: Riding in Vans with Boys, The Urethra Chronicles and The Urethra Chronicles II: Harder Faster Faster Harder. Tom also made a cameo appearance in the blockbuster film American Pie with his fellow band-mates in Blink-182, acting in a scene while one of their songs, “Mutt”, played in the background. Tom made a cameo appearance in The Simpsons with fellow band-mates, while “All The Small Things” played in the background.