Watch Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus Play Bass for the First Time Since Cancer Diagnosis
Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus is in the middle of a battle with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma that leaves him fatigued much of the time, but earlier this week, he felt well enough to pick up his bass and play for the first time since his diagnosis. As you can see from this video of his Twitch stream, he played along to the 2005 Blink-182 song “Not Now.”
“Not only is this the first time that I’ve tried to play these songs in well over a year, this is the first time that I’ve felt well enough to play my bass since I was diagnosed,” he said. “This is the first time I’ve picked up my bass in a few months, even.”
Hoppus went public with his diagnosis earlier this month. “My classification is stage IV-A, which means, as I understand it, it’s entered four parts of my body,” he said. “I don’t know how exactly they determine the four part of it, but it’s entered enough parts of my body that I’m stage IV, which I think is the highest that it goes. So, I’m stage IV-A…The cancer isn’t bone-related, it’s blood-related. My blood’s trying to kill me.”
One day later, he shared extremely encouraging news with fans. “Scans indicate that the chemo is working! ” he wrote on July 19th. “I still have months of treatment ahead, but it’s the best possible news…I’m so grateful and confused and also sick from last week’s chemo. But the poison the doctors pump into me and the kind thoughts and wishes of people around me are destroying this cancer. Just gonna keep fighting.”
Blink-182 haven’t played in public since a January 18th, 2020 gig at the Los Angeles Forum. Their future plans are unclear, but Travis Barker has hinted that a reunion with estranged guitarist/singer Tom DeLonge is a possibility.
“Never say never,” Barker told Rolling Stone in June. “I talk to Tom all the time. We send funny texts and stuff. The times of bad blood and the misunderstandings between us are so over with. It’s all love. We all three talk, and we’re all friends. So, yeah, I will never say never. I think if the time was right and it just made sense…”
DeLonge has done little to discourage such talk. “Everyone wants to know, ‘Are you guys gonna play again?’” he said to Rolling Stone last year. “Yeah, of course we are. We just gotta figure out the timing, how it works for everybody.”
