'I thought I was going to die': Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus told wife to prepare life without him after cancer diagnosis
Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus has revealed he genuinely believed he was going to die following a shock stage 4 cancer diagnosis four years ago.
The 53-year-old musician said the news came without warning, turning his life upside down within days. Speaking to Radio X’s Chris Moyles, Hoppus recalled: “It was four years ago today. I was playing video games and I was talking to my son who was away at college and I felt a weird thing on my shoulder. And three days later I was going ready for chemo. That quick.”
Hoppus was diagnosed with stage 4 diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, an aggressive form of blood cancer. He described the treatment as brutal, both physically and emotionally. “The chemo was awful, it was brutal. The good news is my form of cancer, the doctor told me I had a 60% chance of getting through it and never having to deal with it again.
“But the bad part was the chemo was one of the worst that you could undergo and it was bad. I don’t recommend it. Zero out of five stars. But it saved me so it was all good.”
As the illness progressed, Hoppus began preparing his loved ones for life without him. “It was awful and I really thought that I wasn’t going to make it. I thought I was on the wrong side of that 60%,” he admitted. “I was mentally preparing for my family moving on and what my wife was going to do after I was gone and who was going to help raise my son.”
Now in remission, the singer says he’s grateful for the second chance and being able to continue his life and career. He said: “So to be here with you all today and to sit next to Captain Crap Beard is just a dream come true.”
Hoppus’s health scare also helped repair personal rifts within the band. His long-time bandmate Tom DeLonge, who had exited Blink-182 amid tension, reconnected with Hoppus during the ordeal.
In a 2021 interview with Apple Music, DeLonge explained how a routine legal matter unexpectedly brought them back in touch: “I reached out to Mark because I needed him to sign this piece of paper that had to do with my divorce. Only because of that call did I learn he had cancer. And he told me on the phone. I was like, ‘Wait, what?’”
What followed was a renewed friendship. “Now, we talk multiple times a day. We’ve been able to completely repair that friendship and really cut to the depth of who we are as people and what this is all about,” DeLonge said.
The reunion eventually led to DeLonge officially rejoining the band in October 2022, and the release of their latest album, One More Time, in 2023.