Fahrenheit-182: A Memoir By Mark Hoppus (April 8, 2025)

[boxelder]

5 hours ago, bobbo11290 said:

Was there any explanation as to why Jerry refused to produce Ava but was fine with +44. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guessin a nutshell it was bc Jerry essentially took Mark and Travis’ side in the break up and thought Tom was a douche for how he handled the end of blink, but did mark delve into why in his book?

He doesn’t. Who knows. It could have been that, or it could have been that scheduled didn’t line up (Finn was busy with AFI in 2005-06). It also could’ve been Tom’s insistence on recording at home whereas Finn was more apt to using real studios

[bobbo11290]

58 minutes ago, boxelder said:

He doesn’t. Who knows. It could have been that, or it could have been that scheduled didn’t line up (Finn was busy with AFI in 2005-06). It also could’ve been Tom’s insistence on recording at home whereas Finn was more apt to using real studios

True. Can’t rule anything out. But Tom being that butthurt he didn’t attend the guy’s funeral? Someone he openly loved and admired? I feel like the “betrayal” and “side picking” theory makes the most sense. If it was just scheduling conflicts or even not reaching a compromise between proper studios and Tom’s home studio, idt Tom would’ve held that big of a grudge to shrug off his funeral.

[bobbo11290]

What’s also interesting is Jerry’s funeral was in late August 2008-possibly even early September. Mark started making blog posts about the band *possibly* reuniting in October, maybe November 2008? I specifically remember that. It was almost immediately following the plane crash incident. And I think they later confirmed it was October-November 2008 they made the decision to reunite. That being said, given how hurt Mark was by Tom’s snub, I’m surprised he forgave him so fast within a 3-4 month timespan, maybe even less. That’s even considering the trauma of Travis almost dying shortly beforehand. 
 

I also always theorized +44 commercially flopping and AVA not doing much better (they got dropped by geffen after I-empire, and went the independent route shortly after) was a big factor in them reuniting. An ego, keeping their musical identity and relevancy intact kinda thing, w/ blink being the only real vehicle for any of them to do so. With the separate project thing essentially failing, major labels running out of leniency to take their chances on them w/out blink, and them just not being ready to take the plunge (clearly seen in mark poking fun of Ava live on stage, shitting on “everything’s magic”, telling Tom to essentially fuck off with the beanie and to put on a cap and a strat, also live on stage) the first reunion had “failure” stamped all over it.  I always sensed from day 1 something was just so off about the reunion, even at the shows post Grammy announcement. You could just sense it. I even made a post about it 3-4 yrs back or so. And mark, kinda dancing around it, all but confirms it here…

[Champ182]

6 minutes ago, bobbo11290 said:

Mark started making blog posts about the band *possibly* reuniting in October, maybe November 2008?

say what?? I thought it was a complete surprise

[_Kyle_]

1 minute ago, Champ182 said:

say what?? I thought it was a complete surprise

my memory was that they were "friends" again by Oct-Nov, but nothing in a "we're obviously getting the band back together" sort of thing until 2009. I remember people being cautiously optimistic about it all until the grammys. 

[bobbo11290]

6 minutes ago, Champ182 said:

say what?? I thought it was a complete surprise

I can’t remember the site, but I promise I’m not delusional or pulling this out of my ass. He was pretty open about them *contemplating* it on some blog months before the reunion announcement, saying shit like “if blink were to get back together, it’d have to be under the circumstances of being able to say ‘hey man, I’m not feeling this, let’s try this’”. Oddly enough what he said was the mindset for the second reunion, and even odder what didn’t happen at all for the first/neighborhoods/when he first brought it up in late 2008.

[boxelder]

16 minutes ago, bobbo11290 said:

I can’t remember the site, but I promise I’m not delusional or pulling this out of my ass. He was pretty open about them *contemplating* it on some blog months before the reunion announcement, saying shit like “if blink were to get back together, it’d have to be under the circumstances of being able to say ‘hey man, I’m not feeling this, let’s try this’”. Oddly enough what he said was the mindset for the second reunion, and even odder what didn’t happen at all for the first/neighborhoods/when he first brought it up in late 2008.

I definitely remember the October or November post where he said “in the midst of this, we started speaking again”.  It’s not such a crazy concept that Travis‘s plane crash was so shocking and life altering that it wiped away any ill will about the funeral. He might have carried that with him, but the plane crash was so severe that it became undeniable that they needed to reunite

I think that you’re also very astute and correct in the fact that the side projects had failed to lift off. At the end of the day, it must’ve been tough to lose so much money on the +44 tours and wounding also for AVA to be relegated back to warped tour. Reuniting was a way to regain their sense of pride.

[WPGBlink]

34 minutes ago, bobbo11290 said:

True. Can’t rule anything out. But Tom being that butthurt he didn’t attend the guy’s funeral? Someone he openly loved and admired? I feel like the “betrayal” and “side picking” theory makes the most sense. If it was just scheduling conflicts or even not reaching a compromise between proper studios and Tom’s home studio, idt Tom would’ve held that big of a grudge to shrug off his funeral.

This was easily one of the biggest revelations in the book for me. I'm not totally shocked with how things played out with Tom in those years, but damn, that was a tough look. 

[boxelder]

It was Mark’s pckrset blog or whatever, that got folded into bompa in 2010 and then summarily deleted shortly thereafter. it had tons of blog posts about +44 era stuff. Some of it is available via the Wayback machine at the Internet archive.

[Elisa]

Yeah, the post starting with "in the midst of everything" was a big deal back then because it was the first time he ever mentioned the name Tom on his blog.

[Champ182]

Great memory everybody! Now that I re-read this I do remember it and remember feeling really happy for them as people/friends.

“in the midst of everything else that has happened lately, tom, travis, and i have all spoken together. first through a number of phone calls, and then a couple of weeks ago we all hung out for a few hours. they’ve all been great, very positive conversations. we’re just reconnecting as friends after four years of not talking. it’s a good thing. obviously the first question for a lot of people will be “does this mean a blink-182 reunion?” the answer is none of us know. we haven’t talked about it at all. right now it’s just good for the three of us to see one another, reconnect, and let the past be the past. the events of the past two months supersede everything that happened before. life is too short.”

https://www.altpress.com/archive_5119/

Also the fact that things went to shit AGAIN and then they were able to pull it together AGAIN in an actual real way, is incredible haha.

[_Bagel]

53 minutes ago, WPGBlink said:

This was easily one of the biggest revelations in the book for me. I'm not totally shocked with how things played out with Tom in those years, but damn, that was a tough look. 

Yeah. That's rough. I always envisaged they maybe had muted respect at the funeral and saw each other but I'd get why that would incense Mark. However, his animosity is likely was in part what drove Tom away. Onions and layers

[twelve]

1 hour ago, bobbo11290 said:

True. Can’t rule anything out. But Tom being that butthurt he didn’t attend the guy’s funeral? Someone he openly loved and admired? I feel like the “betrayal” and “side picking” theory makes the most sense. If it was just scheduling conflicts or even not reaching a compromise between proper studios and Tom’s home studio, idt Tom would’ve held that big of a grudge to shrug off his funeral.

I find it a bit hard to believe that Tom didn’t go to Jerry Finn’s funeral for that reason. It just doesn’t sit right with me, because the way I see Tom, he’s the kind of person who, in times of tragedy, puts aside any past bad blood and reconnects with people. And I have this memory of him being on tour with Angels & Airwaves - Warped Tour, if I’m not mistaken - and talking at several shows about a friend who had cancer, and I believe he was referring to Jerry Finn. He seemed genuinely emotional, asking the crowd to send positive energy and hoping for his recovery. So why would he have held on to any negative feelings after Jerry’s death? It just doesn’t make sense to me.

[twelve]

11 minutes ago, twelve said:

And I have this memory of him being on tour with Angels & Airwaves - Warped Tour, if I’m not mistaken - and talking at several shows about a friend who had cancer, and I believe he was referring to Jerry Finn. He seemed genuinely emotional, asking the crowd to send positive energy and hoping for his recovery.

I’ll have to double-check this, because my memory definitely tells me he mentioned cancer, but Jerry actually had a brain hemorrhage, right? Still, I associate that memory with Jerry Finn. As I get older, I start to worry that I might be creating false memories...

[WPGBlink]

Can't recall Finn ever having cancer or that being the story.

Mark said in the book he was out having lunch, fell to the floor (ended up being a brain hemorrhage), and then sadly never woke up from a coma in the hospital.  

[boxelder]

It also could be completely innocuous at the end of the day — Tom was busy on the road, or on a preplanned vacation, or something. Maybe he and Finn weren’t that close after all and the bond was stronger with Mark. Who knows. It tracks that Mark would let it incense him at the time, but who knows what was happening.

[thongrider]

14 minutes ago, twelve said:

I’ll have to double-check this, because my memory definitely tells me he mentioned cancer, but Jerry actually had a brain hemorrhage, right? Still, I associate that memory with Jerry Finn. As I get older, I start to worry that I might be creating false memories...

We all do.

[twelve]

35 minutes ago, WPGBlink said:

Can't recall Finn ever having cancer or that being the story.

Mark said in the book he was out having lunch, fell to the floor (ended up being a brain hemorrhage), and then sadly never woke up from a coma in the hospital.  

Yeah… my brain is probably mixing up two different things, maybe because they happened around the same time. AVA’s last show on the Warped Tour that year was on August 17. Jerry Finn died on August 22.

[WingsWithBlink]

23 hours ago, Scott. said:

I got premium so it’s included in that. Mark sounds like AI though. It’s a little off putting 

I have premium and it says I have to buy it

[Patient #48273]

20 minutes ago, WingsWithBlink said:

I have premium and it says I have to buy it

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