Mark

Full Name: Markus Allen Hoppus
Birthdate: March 15, 1972
Resides in: Carlsbad, CA
Marital Status: Married
Bio: Markus Allen Hoppus was born in California. He spent most of his life here, but his father was a weapons engineer for the United States Navy, so his family had to move from house to house. When Mark was 14, his parents divorced, and he moved out with his dad. Mark got his first bass from his dad and his dads friends as a reward for helping to paint the house when he was 15. When Mark was 16, he returned to Cali and began to reside in the city of Ridgecrest. After high school, Mark had dreampt about becoming a high school english teacher, so he enrolled at a local college. Sadly, he was never able to finish college to fulfill his dream; but better things came as his sister's friend was dating Tom DeLonge. Mark's sister introduced the two as they shared a common interst in punk rock.

Tom

Full Name: Thomas Matthew DeLonge
Birthdate: December 13, 1975
Resides in: Encinitas, CA
Marital Status: Married
Bio: Thomas Matthew DeLonge was born in sunny Poway San Diego, California. Tom had a pretty good family life, though he stil managed to be a jouvinille delinquent on the side. Tom was also introduced to alcohol at a young age, which eventually got him kicked out of school at 14, for drinking at a basket ball game. One of the things that Tom was well known for was for waking up his parents in the middle of the night by playing a bunch of non-sense from the trumpet. At this point, he wasn't very talented with music, but things would soon change after Tom signed up for a church camping trip. It was there where Tom fell in love with the guitar. One of his fellow campers had brought along a guitar, and Tom spent more time fooling around with the guitar than he did doing the camp activities. For Tom's birthday, he was paid a visit from a friend that worked at the dump. His friend had found a perfectly playable guitar that someone had thrown away. Tom later heard of bass player named Mark that was just into punk as Tom was, so they got together and formed a little group with a friend that Tom knew from school named Scott Raynor.

Travis

Full Name: Travis Landon Barker
Birthdate: November 14, 1975
Resides in: Riversiede, CA
Marital Status: Long-term Relationship
Bio: Travis Landon Barker was given a drum set as a little boy by his mom. He played all the time and he came to become a very extraordinary drummer. Travis had played with many bands before he joined blink 182, but the last band that he played with was the Aquabats. Travis was asked to join blink 182 as a replacement for Scott Raynor. He had already learned all of blink 182's songs while filling in for Scott on tour with blink, so he was an excellent candidate for the job. Travis accepted the opportunity and became the new drummer for blink 182.

Scott Raynor's role in Blink (182)

As Mark and Tom began playing together, they needed a drummer in order to actually be a band. So Tom found a kid at school that played the drums. Tom's search led to 14 year old Scott Raynor. Although Scott was more into metal and hard rock, Mark and Tom soon persuaded him to leave metal and begin playing punk.

The Story of "Blink"

Mark, Tom, and Scott began to be known as blink. Before dreaming about becoming famous, they just wanted to play for people who enjoyed their music. Soon enough they started to play at local high schools. They weren't exacly honest in order to play at the schools, they told principals and administraters that they were an anti-drug band and they wanted to spread their message. They didn't normally play at the same school twice after the principals and staff heard what music they really played. Blink then moved on to playing at local clubs and pretty much anywhere they were allowed to play. After many shows, it was brought to the attention of the guys from blink, that many people enjoyed their music, so they went to a recording studio in San Diego and recorded a demo tape. They sent the tape to as many record companies as they could think of. After releasing Cheshire Cat under "Blink", another band under that name threatened to sue for copyright violations, so blink stoped production and re-released the album with the added 182 at the end to avoid the law suit. Years later while on a tour, Scott always needed to fly back home to his family for some reason. One day Scott didn't make it back in time for the show, so Mark and Tom asked Travis Barker from a band called the "Aquabats" to fill in for Scott. Travis went back stage and learned all the songs in record time just before blink 182 went on stage. Scott Raynor had to leave the band for some reason, and Mark and Tom set out to find someone to replace him. Fortuatly, they already knew someone that knew all the songs and that played them really well, so they asked Travis to replace Scott. Travis was already a fan, and gladly accepted the opportunity.