“We played music together and we decided we’re going to play music together again,” Travis Barker told the Grammy audience when Blink-182 reunited to present the Best Rock Album award Sunday night. For Blink, it was their first time onstage together since December 2004, two months before the band went on an indefinite hiatus. Now that the band has confirmed a new album is in the works, Rolling Stone is taking a look back at their history in a new photo gallery: Blink-182’s Rock Show.
Blink-182 formed in 1992 in Poway, California, but it wasn’t until 1998 that guitarist Tom DeLonge and bassist Mark Hoppus recruited Barker to play drums on the band’s best-selling album, 1999’s Enema of the State. The band stuck around for two more albums, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket and Blink-182, before its big break. Hoppus and drummer Barker went on to form +44 while DeLonge started up Angels & Airwaves.
Following the 2008 jet crash that nearly took the life of Barker and DJ AM, Hoppus blogged that he was hopeful that a Blink reunion could happen after admitting that he and DeLonge were once again friends. “Hi. We’re blink-182. This past week there’ve been a lot of questions about the current status of the band, and we wanted you to hear it straight from us. To put it simply, We’re back,” the band said in a post-Grammy statement on their Website. “We mean, really back. Picking up where we left off and then some. In the studio writing and recording a new album. Preparing to tour the world yet again. Friendships reformed. 17 years deep in our legacy.
“Summer 2009. Thanks and get ready… ” the band says to conclude the statement. To help you get ready, check out our photo gallery capturing Blink through the ages, from the Dude Ranch era with drummer Scott Raynor to their stint on the Warped Tour to their little people-backed performance at the MTV Music Awards. Bonus points for predicting exactly how the trio’s tattoo collection grows exponentially over the course of five years: Blink-182’s Rock Show: Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker’s Journey
