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The Tom Delonge Thread


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30 minutes ago, Olidamus said:

Well I do think they are very jaded hence why there is no conversation you could have with them which would have any meaning..... they have seen and heard it all. I asked mark about the book he was reading figuring I could offer something other than the usual.... it bombed.... should have kept my mouth shut.

What book? What did he say?

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idk, there's no way you can get a sense of someone's personality from a brief, after-show conversation. imagine playing music like this and literally dozens of people coming up to you begging for an autograph, a photo, or even a simple conversation. you're bombarded, and know that some people are going to leave disappointed... because you've got limited time, you've just played a show and are tired, and some fans are fuckin weird. at points, mark, trav, and tom have all been very generous and kind to fans. take for example these vids:

but he can't that cordial all the time. sometimes, you just have a bad day. @Olidamus perhaps caught him at one during the soundcheck to the untitled shows... perhaps he was fighting with his family, or tom was acting standoffish and weird that day. you can't always be 100% "HELLO, I'M MARK, HERE TO SPEAK WITH YOU FOR 30 MIN ABOUT EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN, AND THEN DO THAT WITH THE NEXT GUY, AND THE NEXT GUY." these people aren't just entertainment robots, here to please you. that's the same line of thinking that when an artist takes a political stance, some will go "just stick to music"

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Yeah, they have been nice at time, but I think those are exceptions to the rule.

 

AUTOGRAPHS DON"T LiE. That's all I am going to say. I am a big autograph collector, and it is stunning how little Blink signed material there is from 1999-2004.

Find me a signed enema album, go ahead, find me one for sale. You won't. Not now and not in the past. Same goes for TOYPAJ or Untitled. Maybe there is 1 or 2 that have been sold. The stuff is so rare.

 

This without question, speaks to their inaccessibility and avoidance of fans. These guys toured all over the place during those years. And there is very little signed material.

 

@Ry-Bread you know what I am saying.

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@Olidamus yeah it's definitely obvious that at their peak, they were not accessible and didn't mingle much at all. Which again, I can understand. It sucks for fans, but I get it. I've been around tons of MLB stars on the field, at practice, after practice, etc. It's INSANE what they have to deal with 24/7, and nowadays everyone sells autographs so it's 10x worse. So while it sucks that the guy flew from across the world and couldn't get an autograph/picture, I understand Mark's position where if you stop, you gotta sign 100, and waste your time. But on the contrary, I've met superstar athletes who treat others how they wish to be treated, and do all the time...so it can go either way, it just depends on how jaded you are really. You don't know until you are in that position. You'd like to think you would be respectful, but if your car is surrounded by fat old men with binders of stuff to sign and sell on eBay every day, you may think differently very quickly.

Obviously in most one on one situations out in public, Mark/Tom are cool, as are most celebs/athletes if you approach them respectfully. I've read and heard countless encounters of them being nice at Disney World/Padres/Dodgers games, grocery stores, etc. 

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7 minutes ago, _Kyle_ said:

remember when they signed all those xbox consoles? the meet and creeps? they did stuff.

I remember tom's signature was at it's laziest then. There was this video I remember where he was literally just writing a "t" as his sig.

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They did sign SOME stuff, they did autograph signings for TOYPAJ.

But it was still very little.

So this is a true story: When I saw Blink in 2004, there was a huge fence, then it went down a steep hill, then Blink's buses were like 200 feet further away. Security wouldn't even let people stand by the fence. Literally they didn't even want us to get in a "Hey" on the very off chance someone happened to be walking by.

Concerts use to be run by gestapo. I remember if you were caught taking pictures, they'd seize your camera. That's why there is so little footage from those days. I saw it happen. Security would tap you on the shoulder and request your camera or kick you out.

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16 minutes ago, horchata said:

I remember tom's signature was at it's laziest then. There was this video I remember where he was literally just writing a "t" as his sig.

i always thought that signature was so cool!

....still do :)

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34 minutes ago, horchata said:

I remember tom's signature was at it's laziest then. There was this video I remember where he was literally just writing a "t" as his sig.

I have it linked in my Signature Study. They only signed that stuff because they were forced to and Tom wanted it over as quickly as possible.

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3 hours ago, Kay said:

I think none of them are down to earth. the closest would be Travis but that's because he's had the hardest time of it - he wasn't ultra famous whilst still mentally maturing - he worked crappy jobs and did his thing and then accidentally joined a band that was about to explode.

Even after all the fame and money (some of which he didn't even get, like from writing royalties on Enema and TOYPAJ) he had rough relationships and almost died. 

Unlike the other two, he's had much more of a 'life' in a way that would (hypothetically) make him more empathic. 

I'm not saying the guys haven't had problems - but the most emotional and inspired work Tom ever did was BCR, which was partially because of being hauled up in hospital in agony after his back problems. he's had family deaths and he had that small cancer experience but outside of those things he's essentially made a living and a whole life out of being a goofball playing music with friends. 

Mark is kind of the same deal.

I'm not saying Mark and Tom haven't 'lived' or 'suffered', or even that they didn't work to get blink where it got - but they didn't really 'struggle' for their art, and got very famous very young and have ridden the wave ever since. Travis is the only one of the three that actually had problems from the get go, and that's the sort of thing that will keep you more grounded to the real world. 

I agree with your overall point, but that last paragraph is a bit misleading. Mark and Tom worked their asses off to get famous. They toured in a shitty van like crazy across North America. They did most of their marketing on their own. They recorded most of their early stuff on their own. They earned everything through hard work and elbow grease. Details of all the things they had to do on their own is mentioned in Tales From Beneath Your Mom as well as different interviews. 

I would say that too much time has passed and now they have become detached from their modest early lives and the fame and fortune has changed their mindset and behaviour though. 

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9 minutes ago, Kvothe said:

I agree with your overall point, but that last paragraph is a bit misleading. Mark and Tom worked their asses off to get famous. They toured in a shitty van like crazy across North America. They did most of their marketing on their own. They recorded most of their early stuff on their own. They earned everything through hard work and elbow grease. Details of all the things they had to do on their own is mentioned in Tales From Beneath Your Mom as well as different interviews. 

I would say that too much time has passed and now they have become detached from their modest early lives and the fame and fortune has changed their mindset and behaviour though. 

huh?

Also: How is this different from other small touring bands?

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1 minute ago, thongrider said:

huh?

Also: How is this different from other small touring bands?

Didn't they record some of their tapes in Mark or Tom's garage? And, if I recall correctly, they recorded Dude Ranch in like 2 days with very little oversight? 

And how are other bands relevant when discussing how hard Blink worked in their earlier days? I don't see how that's related. 

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1 hour ago, horchata said:

I remember tom's signature was at it's laziest then. There was this video I remember where he was literally just writing a "t" as his sig.

Yup Mark called him out on it. I think this was on the making of Untitled.

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2 hours ago, Kvothe said:

I agree with your overall point, but that last paragraph is a bit misleading. Mark and Tom worked their asses off to get famous. They toured in a shitty van like crazy across North America. They did most of their marketing on their own. They recorded most of their early stuff on their own. They earned everything through hard work and elbow grease. Details of all the things they had to do on their own is mentioned in Tales From Beneath Your Mom as well as different interviews. 

I would say that too much time has passed and now they have become detached from their modest early lives and the fame and fortune has changed their mindset and behaviour though. 

Yes, I've read it. I'm not saying they didn't work hard, but compared to what Travis was dealing with at the same age is very different. I mean yes blink worked for it but they had super supportive middle class families supporting them through it. Travis had lost his mother and did not remotely have that financial backing in his youth - it's definitely different.

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