Dear Superstar: Tom DeLonge

When Blink-182 went on hiatus early last year, singer Tom DeLonge all but disappeared. He didn’t just withdraw from the pop-punk band that had clocked some 12 years together and 10 million in record sales; he also withdrew from his wife and daughter and rethought his life. Then he thought some more.

Today he knows where he’s headed — his new band, the unabashedly anthemic Angels & Airwaves, hits with a new CD this month. But DeLonge, 30, still has his head in the sky as he sits in the group’s rehearsal studio. It’s in Carlsbad, California, about a half-hour north of his San Diego home. The walls are covered with murals of planets, twinkling stars and deep-space scenes, and DeLonge sounds like an astronaut himself. The new CD, he says, thinks big.

“The two things I want to tackle are love and war, the best and worst of mankind,” says DeLonge. “We’re starting to be aware of things like quantum physics and time travel and mapping the human genome. And yet we’re still creating war as if there were no other ideas.”

We ask what his new band will have that Blink didn’t. He reflects before answering.

“Lasers,” he says finally. “The last six months of Blink I was fighting really hard to get lasers, and somehow they just didn’t want them. So now we’re going to have lots and lots of lasers, so strong they burn the retinas of everyone in the audience. Everyone’s gonna need surgery.”

Describe that last Blink show: What was it like backstage?
blinkgrrl86, Nashville
It was crazy. We were playing in Ireland. People were screaming so loud — it seemed like Beatlemania or something. We were freaking out backstage, trying to fix things, trying to work things out. After 10 years of being a band it was all coming out. We were trying to figure out what everyone needed to keep the band going. The funny thing was, we figured it out on that tour for that very last week. It was when we came home that the problems came to a head. But what can you do? I truly feel it’s the end.

What’s the best lyric you’ve ever written, and what’s the worst?
3hive72, Noblesville, IN
When I was writing songs for [side project] Boxcar Racer, I was in a lot of pain: I’d broken a disc in my spine and it was tangled up with my sciatic nerve and I was on so many different meds that I couldn’t stand for more than five minutes at a time. My wife had just become pregnant and there was a lot of pressure about starting a family — and then 9/11 happened. Out of that came some lyrics I’m really proud of, about the idea that love conquers war and pain. The worst lyric, obviously, is from one of our biggest songs, “Carousel”: “Talk to you every now and then/I never felt so alone again/I stop to think at a wishing well/My thoughts send me on a carousel.” It’s totally freshman stuff, what you write when you’re a little skateboard punker who doesn’t know how to write lyrics.

Is it true that you were your high school’s homecoming king? Was there a crown involved?
ronsoson, Salem, SC
When I was a junior in high school I went to a basketball game with my friend and he passed out in the doorway. Three or four of us got booted out of school that night for alcohol consumption. But after a friend’s dad threatened to beat up one of the school administrators, we got allowed back in time to graduate. The homecoming dance was coming up, and I gotta think it was out of spite for the administration rather than my good looks that I won the homecoming king thing. But there was no cape, no crown. I was gypped.

How often do you check your MySpace page?
whatsmypageagain, Moorpark, CA
Almost daily, and I love it. It’s so funny, kids are like, “You won’t read this, Tom, but if you do, here’s what I want to say …” To tell the truth, this is the first time in my entire life I’ve ever paid attention to what the kids are saying. I feel like it’s a really rad education for me to understand what my fans are going through.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?
xcalibrr1963, Hackettstown, NJ
This really weird fish egg in some crazy village on the coast of Japan. We went to this little wooden house, took off our shoes, sat down and got served this really crazy egg. This one little thing the size of a pea explodes on your tongue like Satan took a dump in your mouth.

What advice would you give young bands like Fall Out Boy or My Chemical Romance?
ellbough, Mystic, CT
Two things: One, no matter what, never ever settle, never think that you’re as good as you can be. Always look for the chance to make your songs better. My other advice for up-and-comers — and those guys are established rock bands — is to find out who you want to be and let that person show. Blink was really known for its humor, so when we wanted to go out and do something more serious, there were problems. I wish we had thought about it a little bit earlier — we really played that “we don’t fucking care” card for so long that it became a trap.

Hey, geek boy: Who is your favorite Star Wars character and why?
eamoslw, Bristol, CT
When I was a kid it was Boba Fett — he was the sickest with his helmet, his rocket launcher and that rad armor. But now I’d have to say Darth Vader, because he was pretty rad in the last movie, all in black with the long hair and so incredibly strong.

You’re the co-proprietor of a successful clothing line. Which product endorsement did you maybe consider but then reject?
thebestwerd, Houston
The sad thing is, we’ve done a lot of products we probably shouldn’t have, like Honda or Yoo-Hoo. But what it boils down to is that we’ve always gotten something we could use out of it. When Blink was a smaller band and couldn’t afford to put on a light show, we let Honda sponsor our tour so we could bring our first lights into a club. We’re such whores … [Laughs]

How is your 3-year-old daughter Ava most like you?
muco175, Alpena, MI
I remember hearing my entire life: “Wipe that smirk off your face.” Now I see my daughter, and she always has this smirk on her face as though she thinks she’s a little smarter than you. She likes to push the buttons and her sense of humor is just ridiculous. She would have fit in perfectly well with my old band.

You campaigned for John Kerry in 2004. Do you think he should run again in 2008?
bcud0ll, Pine Bluff, AR
He should, because he’s built up a lot of political capital — he’s a step ahead of everybody else, he knows the process. I know because I’m good friends with his stepson, Chris Heinz; we talk all the time. Kerry knows why he didn’t win. It was because he truly believed he should win being the better candidate, not by playing dirty — and the Republicans play as dirty as they can.

You’re making a full-length movie to go along with your new Angels & Airwaves CD. Do you have an all-time favorite rock flick?
wcohen, Homer, LA
I know the cool thing to say is The Wall, or maybe 24 Hour Party People. But I really like Rattle and Hum. I’m a huge U2 fan. It’s a really cool take on a band’s journey to do something different.

How “emo” are you?
xxangeltearsxx, Larchmont, NY
I guess I’m pretty emo. Everyone seems to hate that word now, but I think it’s a great thing when bands are in touch with their emotional side.

What do you miss most about former Blink bandmates Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker, and what do you miss the least?
promisedme, Casper, WY
What I miss most is Mark’s sense of humor, and watching Travis playing his instrument night after night. He’s the best drummer on the planet, and Mark’s so funny. I miss trying to make Travis laugh, because he wouldn’t always laugh at our jokes. I guess the thing I miss least is just all the misunderstandings at the end of our career. We weren’t 16-year-olds anymore. I don’t miss the feeling of the three of us not understanding each other.

What’s the most extravagant thing you ever bought with your Blink money?
lilbigmac002, Termo, CA
The very first time I spent a lot of money on something, I bought a BMW. It was the first nice car I owned. I remember sitting there signing the paperwork, and suddenly going, “What the fuck am I doing, I just spent 60 grand on a car! Oh my god!” Then I drove off the lot and I was like, this is fucking awesome! I just sped away. It looked like Knight Rider, the sickest little vehicle.

What’s the craziest thing your younger brother shon saw while serving in Iraq?
moiradawg, Vaughn, NM
He’s a Special Forces guy. The very first missions of the entire war were his — he was on a team that took these really high-powered boats and inserted Navy SEALs to take over all the oil platforms before the war started. They knew that they were rigged to blow and if they didn’t get there quick enough it would create an ecological disaster so massive we wouldn’t even be able to go into the Persian Gulf for 15 years or something. They went out at midnight, three or four hours in pitch black. He said you just heard “Boots on! Boots on!” crackling over radios all along the Gulf, then a minute and a half of total silence, and then hundreds and hundreds of missiles whistling just over your head, coming from destroyers out on the ocean. When they started exploding miles away on land, he said he felt the multiple shockwaves hitting his chest.

What size sock were you wearing in the “What’s My Age Again?” video?
sunnyflower2004, Mcalester, OK
I don’t remember. But I do remember that we had to do numerous takes naked. We thought it was a funny idea, but the shoot was at eight in the morning in downtown L.A., and we realized, “This is the dumbest idea, who fucking thought of this?” The director says “We’re ready, robes off.” We’re all pasty white and hairy. And right when we dropped our robes this car drove by, honked the horn and yelled “you fags!” We thought, “This is the start of a beautiful career.”