| Hoppus and Delonge, with their friend, drummer Scott
Raynor, decided to form a band in 1992. They were under the name "Duck
Tape" until their third show, when Delonge said he liked another name ...
"blink". It was around this time that Hoppus, who was attending
college at the time with vague hopes of being a high school English
teacher, started working at the local record store. Here he was given
financial stability along with the gigs the band needed to get Blink
started on its road to success. Hoppus knew the band would be gigging on
the weekends so he told his boss at the record store he would need the
weekends off. He finally was able to quit his job in 1996 when the band's
touring schedule
began to take off. Only one thing got in the way. An Irish techno band
already had been using the name "Blink" and threatened them with a court
case, so they changed their name to blink-182. Rumors have suggested they
chose the "182" because that is the number of times Al Pacino says "fuck"
in the movie "Scarface" or the amount of times Delonge counted Hoppus
blinking in one minute (to name but a few) but the band have stated that
the figure was picked randomly. In 1997, after the release of their second album Dude Ranch, blink-182 went on tour with The Aquabats (whose drummer at the time was Travis Barker). Raynor's  dismissal from blink-182 was rumored to come when he did
not show up for two weeks of shows because of a personal reason. Barker
performed instead. Raynor was given the choice to go in rehab or quit the
band. He spent a weekend to decide and then rang up to say he would go to
rehab but he was told that he was no longer in the band (this is from an
interview with Scott Raynor). Barker learned the entire set list in about
two hours before a show, and eventually left The Aquabats to become the
band's full-time drummer.In 1999, they released their first album with Barker, Enema of the State. They later released two more studio albums, Take off Your Pants and Jacket and a Self titled album before going on an 'indefinite hiatus' on February 22, 2005 |