Tom DeLonge Shares His Message to Matt Skiba

I will die on the hill that California (especially the deluxe version) is top 3 in Blink's discog. Skiba did great things for them

 

Good to see he’s been acknowledged. A really nice message aswell.

 

I hope they let him join in!

 

“Thanks for all the nice things you did. So we kicked you out”.

I have a feeling that Skiba won’t be bitter and gets this from a business perspective (and may have just been along for the ride since day 1).

Its nice to know and see to acknowledge his role in the band and mutual respect. Then to put in online to say “I’m not the bad guy who kicked him out” seems weird. Especially because it seems to have beat Mark and Travis to the punch (even if they grew disconnected).

Some bands don’t know how to handle their members. Blink is very much one of them. Skiba did good things. To have him make statements online about not knowing his status is just disappointing. It’s was fair game for Mark and Travis to want to break ties if they wanted, but Skiba work on a next record/EP with them.

At this point, I’m just looking forward to a new Trio record and a new Blink record. It’s not a messy “he said…” thing. Wish them both well

 

The music industry is so foreign to me. As much as I'm happy Tom rejoined the band, I'm a little sad that Matt probably learned he was being released through an email from their management, perhaps after many months of being left in the dark.

 

for some reason, this message leaves a bad taste in my mouth. maybe I'm looking for the negative here but it makes me feel like mark and travis got some greener grass syndrome when they rekindled with tom and kicked skiba out. sorry blink but its never the same with an ex the second time around.

 

This was never said or implied anywhere.

 

genuinely don’t think there’s anyone else on this website who I roll my eyes at more on the majority of their posts

 

You can think this hasn’t been handled well, but that’s objectively a pretty classy message.

 

I kinda just feel like Tom said something because he had to. It was well said, and I’m excited to move on.

 

Seems to me like you overthink things way too much. Tom never said he was the one who kicked Matt out. This note was nothing more than validation and appreciation for the things Matt contributed to the band. A very classy gesture because it addressed the unspoken elephant in the room so to speak. I'm sure Tom and Matt have a friendship/relationship and he wanted address it privately and publicly so that there was no bad blood and so that the public wouldn't waste time speculating like you just did.

 

I'm honestly surprised Tom shared this, but I'm glad he did.

 

I mean, Matt had to know on the front end that this had a strong possibility of happening. I guarantee there are written agreements that if Tom wanted back in, he'd be back in. Mark and Travis probably had steady communication with Matt throughout the change. I feel like Tom was always the one terrible at communication with the rest of the band lol. Who knows though?

 

He's probably doing just fine. During the band's lengthy break since the last album, covid, and then Mark's cancer, he had to have sensed working with Blink was a long shot for a good while, anyway. I'm certainly grateful Mark has recovered and is able to tour again!

 

What about the third time?

 

I really, really, really hope Matt knew this was all coming and everyone's lawyers were involved in everything that happened over the last few days.

 

Matt seemed to hint at it a while back, I'm sure he knew and understood. he even said something along the lines like, "if this is the end then I'm extremely thankful for my time with the band"..

 

I mean people are talking about them kicking Matt out; I don’t think that was ever the case as he always knew the score. Hopefully they gave him clarity about it though as I know he was out of the loop a while back.

Telling that Tom said that about him not saying nice things to the press and ‘other people’ or whatever it was. Not a good thing if he’s been slagging him off to mutual friends.

Either way, I love Tom, I love Matt, I love blink, I love Alkaline Trio. Can’t we all just get along?

 

Great statement, very nice gesture to share that.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I'm curious as to how they handle the setlists for the upcoming tour in regards to songs with Matt. I would imagine they will play a couple of songs from the recent albums recorded with Matt but likely skew more towards the older stuff and album that's yet to be released.

 

it would be weird if they didn’t play bored to death since that was like their highest charting single, but if I had to guess I would guess they won’t play anything from the matt era

 

That’s my bet. I’m not sure how many Matt-era songs people want to hear anyways and we’re outside of the cycle for those albums. Would like to hear On Some Emo Shit or Bored to Death, though.

 

Skiba's response:

WHAT'S THE POINT OF SAYING THANK YOU NOWWWWWWWWWW

 

This is a nice message. However, I feel like the biggest sign of respect the band can give Skiba isn't through an open letter, it's through continuing to play some of the songs he wrote and recorded with the band. Don't pretend that Skiba's time in Blink never happened. Throw in a couple of Skiba-era songs on the reunion tour and give him a shout out at every show before playing them. That'll mean more imo.

 

I can’t get that chorus out of my head.FUCK what a comeback!