Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesUPDATE: DeLonge adds, via his rep: "The ONLY truth here is that I have commitments that limit my availability this year. I love Blink-182 and I'm not leaving."
__________________________
Dammit!
Singer-guitarist has once again put Blink-182 on the backburner—or has he?
Earlier today, L.A.'s KROQ-FM reported receiving a statement from a publicist for Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker announcing DeLonge's indefinite hiatus from the skater-punk-rock trio, which has been around since the early 1990s.
"We were all set to play this festival and record a new album and Tom kept putting it off without reason," Hoppus and Barker said in the statement, referring to the upcoming 8th Annual Musink Music and Tattoo Festival.
"A week before we were scheduled to go in to the studio we got an email from [Tom's] manager explaining that he didn't want to participate in any Blink-182 projects indefinitely, but would rather work on his other non-musical endeavors. No hard feelings, but the show must go on for our fans."
The rep said that Matt Skiba of the Alkaline Trio will be replacing DeLonge for the Musink fest (as well as continue to record and tour with Alkaline Trio) in March and Blink-182 still plans to honor all existing performance commitments.
Hoppus also tweeted this morning, "blink-182 life. For life."
But DeLonge just posted the following on Instagram: "To all the fans, I never quit the band. I actually was on a phone call about a blink 182 event for New York City at the time all these weird press releases started coming in... Apparently those releases were 'sanctioned' from the band. Are we dysfunctional- yes. But, Christ.....#Awkward #BabyBackRibs."
According to Rolling Stone, DeLonge—who also fronts the alt-rock band Angels & Airwaves—had first posted a selfie on Instagram with the sun setting behind him, but that has since been deleted.
The "All the Small Things" rockers previously went on "indefinite hiatus" in 2005 after more than a decade together due to what their record label confirmed at the time were "unforeseen circumstances."
After Barker survived a plane crash that killed several others in 2008, the group got back in touch a couple months later and publicly reunited on stage as presenters at the Grammys the following year.
DeLonge said last July that Blink-182 was working on a new album, which will be (or would have been) their first studio LP since 2011's Neighborhoods. We'll see what happens!