Mark Hoppus had to learn “how to play bass again” after chemotherapy

nme.com:

Blink-182‘s Mark Hoppus has revealed the struggles he faced with getting back into music following chemotherapy treatment for cancer.Speaking to Zane Lowe for Apple Music ahead of the release of Blink-182’s upcoming album ‘One More Time…’, Hoppus spoke of his now-squashed bad blood with Tom DeLonge, who he told Lowe there was “not a chance” that he would share a stage with again.“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 [Barker], 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,” Hoppus said.Hoppus was diagnosed with stage 4-A diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in 2021 but was declared cancer-free six months later.

When word got out that Hoppus was diagnosed with cancer, he realised that DeLonge was in his corner supporting him: “I got sick… But Tom was always like, ‘We’re going to get you through this'”.Once Hoppus and DeLonge had mended their relationship, the focus then turned to getting the band’s classic line-up back together, and the challenges that Hoppus faced in getting himself ready to perform music again, including having to learn how to play bass again and working with a vocal coach.“And 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.