Blink 182’s Mark Hoppus has spoken candidly the months he spent fighting stage 4 lymphoma back in 2021. He also spoke of emotional fallout that followed the catastrophic episode.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, the Blink-182 co-founder reflected on the mental and physical toll of chemotherapy, saying bluntly: “I really thought I was going to die.”
Diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma at 49, Hoppus kept fans updated throughout treatment, but what he didn’t share at the time was how close he came to the edge. “The physical pain and exhaustion of the chemo, mixed with the steroids and all the other drugs, just crushed me for months on end,” he said.
Even after his September 2021 announcement that he was cancer-free, the road back certainly was not easy. The trauma also didn’t end when the treatment did. He’s since spoken openly about the depression that crept in—the weight of survival and the quiet question of what comes next.
At one point, he admitted to telling his wife, “I don’t know if I can do this,” during a moment of breakdown in their living room. When she asked if he was thinking about ending his life, he was. “It was pretty dark,” he said.
Hoppus has always been the steady centre of Blink. Balancing Tom DeLonge’s UFO tangents and Travis Barker’s headline magnetism with self-awareness and humour, to a large extent Hoppus has always been the connective glue. But this version of him feels different. Here he’s raw, exposed and stripped down. In turn, he’a also more human than ever we’ve ever seen him before.
Hoppus’ honesty has certainly resonated with fans too, especially as Blink-182 continues their reunion run. Hoppus being here at all, let alone playing huge shows again, feels like a victory most didn’t see coming. And perhaps that’s enough.
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