Wed, 21 Feb 2024
The band formed in the San Diego suburbs in 1991 when guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge — who'd first picked up a guitar as a teen at church camp — met bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus, who was in a garage-band in high school. Drummer Scott Raynor rounded out the trio, who originally called themselves Blink (they added the '182' when an Irish band with the same name threatened a lawsuit). With indie recordings and frequent performances at festivals and clubs, the band — whose early shows featured wet T-shirt and wet pants contests — slowly built a young, devoted following. Their fan base grew in the mid-1990s, when they toured with punk vets NOFX and Pennywise and appeared on the Vans Warped Tour.
The band attracted major label attention in 1997 with their fast-selling indie release Dud... More Biography