The Untold Truth Of Mark Hoppus From Blink-182

Out of all the American pop-punk acts that popped up in the 1990s, few have achieved the level of success and enduring legacy of Blink-182. Over the course of almost three decades, the band has sold over 50 million records (via BMG), encouraging legions of fans to move their bodies to the group's loud, energetic riffs and lyrics laced with profanity and dirty jokes. 

However, only one member of Blink-182 has been part of every single iteration of the band, and it's none other than bassist and co-frontman Mark Hoppus. In many ways, one can argue that Hoppus is Blink-182. He proudly wears the band's own merchandise, plays their songs when he's driving, and has the distinction of being the only musician to play at every single Blink-182 gig, according to Kerrang!

That's not to say that Hoppus' life revolves entirely around his band, though. Throughout the years, the musician has pursued many interesting experiences and endeavors, all while continuing to make the kind of music that refuses to "grow up." He's also struggled with some serious health concerns. Here's the untold truth of Mark Hoppus from Blink-182.

Mark Hoppus was born on March 15, 1972 (via IMDB). In an interview with Risen magazine, Hoppus described himself as a "pretty straight-laced" kid growing up. His parents separated, and Hoppus found himself bridging their gap when needed. His father introduced him to music via songs by the Beatles, Billy Joel, and Elton John. Interestingly, the first album that he owned, which he bought with his birthday money, was Michael Jackson's "Thriller," according to the BBC.

His punk rock journey began when he took up skateboarding and started listening to punk. Hoppus credits "Silly Girl" by the Descendents for pulling him into the genre: "Then I wanted to hear everything I could by the Descendants (sic), then from there I got into Bad Religion, then from there I got into Sonic Youth ... and then my brain blew up and I was 15."

Hoppus didn't undergo formal musical training; instead, he learned to play the bass guitar, a gift from his father, by listening to his favorite bands' songs and trying to play them (via the Sydney Morning Herald). He also used a bass amp that he bought with money he earned from painting his father's house. This gave him a unique perspective: "I think you would learn how to paint by painting, rather than reading books about painters or painting and I think it's the same with music. You learn by doing and getting influences from other artists."

In an interview with the BBC, Mark Hoppus shared that as a teenager, he went through what he called a "super gnarly Cure phase." He emulated his idol, the Cure's lead singer Robert Smith, by wearing black eyeliner and imitating the rocker's hairdo at school. Underneath the makeup and messed-up hair, however, was a brief but meaningful plan to pursue a different career path: as an English teacher. According to Hoppus, he had always loved science, math, and learning, and his teaching aspirations were influenced by the fact that he came from a family of educators (via Risen magazine).

Perhaps in pursuit of this short-lived dream, Hoppus attempted to finish college at Cal State San Marcos (via the Los Angeles Times). However, this quickly came to an end as Blink-182 was gaining success. It also helped that his mother was extremely supportive of his musical journey, even letting Hoppus live at her house for half a decade. "You can always go back to college," she reportedly told Hoppus. "There's plenty of time. People in their 50s and 60s go back and get their degrees."

To be fair, Hoppus' father also expressed support for his son's punk rock dreams, but was a bit more grounded and practical whenever he gave advice. He always reminded Hoppus to "have something to fall back on" in case a career making songs full of toilet humor didn't work out for him financially.

Mark Hoppus' punk rock aspirations started to take shape in 1992 (via the Los Angeles Times). That was the year when he met someone who would change his life forever — and indirectly cause him to walk with crutches for a few weeks.

At the time, Hoppus' sister Anne was dating a musician she went to school with. According to Kerrang! Radio, her boyfriend happened to be buddies with a fellow musician who was looking to start a band, a teenager named Tom DeLonge. When Hoppus met DeLonge, something just clicked. As DeLonge shared in an interview with MTV: "When I first met Mark, we were running around naked, doing weird stuff. We were up skateboarding until late hours of the morning, antagonizing security guards, and we were just always having fun."

In a guest appearance on MTV's "Ridiculousness," Hoppus told a funny story from their youth. Apparently, in an attempt to impress DeLonge, he bragged about learning how to climb a telephone pole, and proceeded to do exactly that. Unfortunately, he didn't know how to climb back down, so he ended up jumping and injuring both heels. While he managed to avoid having to walk around in casts, he was bandaged up for a while.

Less than a decade into Blink-182's rise to superstardom, another important milestone happened in Mark Hoppus' life. As the band was rehearsing the video for the single "All The Small Things," Hoppus met an MTV talent executive named Skye Everly; little did he know that she would someday end up marrying him. According to Blender.com, things weren't exactly warm between them at first. Tom DeLonge had a habit of playfully teasing Hoppus with every girl they'd meet, jokingly asking them if they'd like to go out with Hoppus. When DeLonge asked Everly this question, she replied with a straight, simple "No."

Somewhere along the line, however, things worked out for Hoppus and Everly, who started steadily dating. In fact, on the 2000 live album "The Mark, Tom & Travis Show," Hoppus changed a lyric to sneak in his would-be wife's name (via Kerrang!). According to Life & Style Magazine, Everly and Hoppus were married that same year.

Hoppus and Everly have a son called Jack. On multiple occasions, Hoppus has publicly gushed about his son, even changing his Twitter name to "dad" for an entire year. One particularly memorable instance was in a segment from 2011's "The Other F Word," a documentary that featured punk rockers who were also fathers. In true punk rock fashion, Hoppus was especially proud of his son for "spewing forth an impressive stream of unparliamentary language," according to Kerrang!

Despite Mark Hoppus' indelible association with Blink-182, the punk rocker has been part of at least two other musical acts: +44 (or Plus-44) and Simple Creatures (via Kerrang! Radio).

In 2005, DeLonge left Blink-182, in part due to a rift in the band that allegedly began when he and drummer Travis Barker worked together on DeLonge's pet project, Box Car Racer. In an interview with MTV, DeLonge claimed that the collaboration was "really hard" for Hoppus to accept, citing this as the reason why Hoppus and Barker started +44 while Blink-182 was still together. However, Hoppus denied this in an interview with B182.com, clarifying that +44 was formed only after DeLonge quit the band. As DeLonge focused all of his time and attention on his new band, Angels & Airwaves, Hoppus and Barker recruited the Nervous Return's Shane Gallagher and Mercy Killers' Craig Fairbaugh. +44 released their own songs during this time, including "When Your Heart Stops Beating" and "Cliffdiving."

2009 saw the trio reconciling and reuniting after Barker survived a horrific plane crash. They released a comeback album in 2011, and played together for four more years before DeLonge left the band a second time. Replacing him with Matt Skiba from Alkaline Trio, Hoppus and Barker continued to release new music as Blink-182. Since then, Hoppus has collaborated with All Time Low's Alex Gaskarth to form the musical duo Simple Creatures. In 2019, they released their debut single, "Drug" (via Wall of Sound).

Aside from playing the bass and singing on stage, Mark Hoppus has found some success in other pursuits, both related and unrelated to music. For starters, Hoppus has produced music for other popular bands, such as Idiot Pilot, New Found Glory, the Matches, Motion City Soundtrack, and PAWS (via AllMusic).

In addition, Hoppus used to co-own two companies, Atticus Clothing and Macbeth Footwear. According to Atticus Clothing's official website, Hoppus co-founded the company with Tom DeLonge and a mutual childhood friend, Dylan Anderson, in order to support lesser-known musical acts. However, at around the time when things soured between Hoppus and DeLonge, the former made the decision to sell his shares of Atticus Clothing, Macbeth Footwear, and another brand, Loserkids. Hoppus told B182.com that they simply "stopped being fun" for him.

Hoppus also has his own clothing line, called Hi My Name is Mark (HMNIM). Hoppus co-founded it with his friends in 2012 "to make great things together and work with people and brands who share our aesthetic and sense of humor."

Mark Hoppus is a born performer, and not just as a musician. Over the years (and typically alongside Travis Barker and Tom DeLonge), Hoppus has made quite a few appearances on numerous TV shows and video shorts (and even a movie).

According to IMDB, Hoppus' first role in a full-length film was in 1999's "American Pie," in which he played one of the members of a garage band. In the same year, Hoppus appeared alongside DeLonge on the CBS TV production "Shake, Rattle and Roll: An American Love Story," portraying the 1960s American music duo Jan and Dean (via MTV). His other TV stints include 2002 guest appearances on "MADtv" and "Haunted," as well as a 2012 appearance on the British comedy show "Never Mind the Buzzcocks."

One guest slot that appears to have particularly stood out in Hoppus' memory, however, was his 2003 appearance in "Barting Over," the so-called 300th (but technically 302nd) episode of the long-running cartoon "The Simpsons." As MTV reported, the band recorded their lines for the episode, which also featured skateboarding icon Tony Hawk. In a blog post, Hoppus described it as a "wow, this is unreal" moment for him. "It still makes my day every time I think about it."

When a powerful 8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit Japan's Tōhoku region in 2011, many artists pledged to help  through various calls for donations and fundraising initiatives. Hoppus and the rest of Blink-182, which had just reunited at the time, pledged their support as well.

MTV reported that Hoppus created an account on eBay, through which he auctioned off some unique memorabilia from the band's history. The items included a sheet containing handwritten lyrics for their song "The Rock Show" (which reportedly drew in over $17,000 in bids), the sign that hanged from their door during the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards (which got a bid of over $3,000), a promotional CD of their single "What's My Age Again" (which raised over $2,000 in bids), a hand-painted "Blink" bunny figurine that went for $1,000, a used backstage pass that someone bought for $905, and the orange sweater that Hoppus sported in the music video for Blink-182's 1997 hit "Dammit" (which received a bid of $2,226.99). The band reportedly donated all the proceeds of the auctions to the American Red Cross.

Ironically, Blink-182's reunion happened at around the same time Mark Hoppus and his family decided to move to an entirely different continent. In 2011, they flew from California to London, with the intent of living there for an extended period of time. According to contactmusic.com, this was in fulfilment of Hoppus' longtime dream, formed by years of performing in the United Kingdom and spending the previous Christmas in London with his family. As Hoppus shared in an interview with Kerrang!: "Each time I've been to the U.K., I always want to move there... We want to experience it for what it is and feel like locals." (via contactmusic.com).

According to Hoppus, one of the things he was really looking forward to in terms of life in London was the opportunity to support his favorite British soccer team, Chelsea. In an interview with ESPN, he jokingly took note of how different U.K. sports fans were from U.S. fans. "Once you declare your loyalty to a team, every person who doesn't support that team, it's their job to ruin you, to tell you [that] you're an idiot and to tell you that you made the wrong choice."

Despite the fact that they enjoyed their stay there, it turned out to be a temporary relocation. In 2014, Hoppus and his family moved back to California.

It's not uncommon to learn that celebrities are jerks in real life, which is why it's always refreshing to hear stories of movie, TV, or music stars doing some genuinely good things for other people or the planet. There are many such stories attached to Mark Hoppus, and one of the most interesting ones is that he saved a drowning deer in the middle of a cold lake.

As Kerrang! reports, Hoppus shared the entire incident, which took place on Idaho's Redfish Lake, via an Instagram video post. Hoppus described the deer, which he spotted in the middle of the lake as he was floating on a boat, as ​"panicked, shivering, panting, tired, [and] swimming in circles." Hoppus decided to sail as close to the deer as possible, unsuccessfully attempting to pull it up due to its sheer weight. Ultimately, Hoppus was able to herd the deer back to shore, towards safety.

Another fun anecdote of Hoppus being a pleasant and accommodating person came from a Reddit user in 2014. The man posted online about wanting to high-five Hoppus, saying that it was his lifelong dream. As luck would have it, Hoppus saw the Reddit post and responded. He coordinated with the man and made his longtime goal come true (via RockSound.tv).

Had Mark Hoppus decided to pursue radio or TV hosting, it seems like he would have done quite well for himself. Proof of this is the fact that Hoppus has hosted at least three podcasts, as well as his own TV show.

He started his first podcast, "The Morning Zoo," in 2005. In an interview with B182.com, Hoppus shared that Apple approached his manager about hosting a music podcast, which was still a bit of a novelty at the time. It ran for about a year, but came back in 2014 as "Hi My Name Is Mark." Hoppus' second foray into podcasting lasted nine episodes, before he stopped once again in 2016. In 2020, Hoppus started a third podcast called "After School Radio," which tackles the music, musicians, and overall culture that spanned and shaped his musical career.

One of Hoppus' early TV hosting stints was alongside bandmate Tom DeLonge, for a 1999 MTV production called "You Idiot!" A decade later, TV network Fuse got Hoppus on board as the regular host of "Hoppus on Music" (initially called "A Different Spin with Mark Hoppus," as per their official PR release). Running from 2010 to 2012, the show featured Hoppus interviewing various artists and celebrities. At one point, he even sat down and talked to DeLonge and his band, Angels & Airwaves.

Hoppus shocked his fans in June 2021, when he revealed via Twitter that he has cancer (via Insider). In the social media update, he shared that over the course of three months, he had been undergoing chemotherapy, and that he still had "months of treatment" in his future. He did not go into detail about the type of cancer he had.

Less than a month later, fans got more information about Hoppus' bout with cancer directly from the musician, via a Q&A on the Twitch live streaming platform. As Insider reports, Hoppus stated that he was diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma stage 4-A (or as he succinctly put it: "My blood's trying to kill me"). Hoppus also revealed that he had the same type of cancer as his mother had endured, and that she had successfully defeated it (and breast cancer twice).

On July 19, 2021, Hoppus had a promising social media update for his fans, saying that the chemotherapy was working (via WRAL). "I'm so grateful and confused and also sick from last week's chemo. But the poison the doctors pump into me and the kind thoughts and wishes of people around me are destroying this cancer," he said, and affirmed that he was "gonna keep fighting."