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Most interviews with 45-year-olds dont involve dick jokes or the phrase terminal velocity.
I wouldnt expect him to bother doing so now.
I have this side thats very focused on kind of New Age concepts, physics, and esoteric studies.
I also have this other side of me.
This kind of eternal youth that doesnt ever really want to grow up.
Sometimes they fight with each other.
We connected to talk about the latest stage of that plan:reviving his art-project-as-band Angels & Airwaves.
Its hard as hell to do in a short, little time.
But it makes me really proud.
It was always meant to be different from every other band.
I feel like were getting there.
Walk me through what was going through your head while playing Lollapalooza.Its always nerve-racking playing at a festival.
You have so many people watching you.
I definitely brought back dick jokes in a way that I havent done in a long time.
I think someone called it Angels & Dick Jokes.
They all loved it.
We went the opposite direction, where we started saying dad jokes.
I thought that shit was really funny because it just seemed so tame.
But with Angels & Airwaves, its somewhere in the middle.
Its not too extreme, but its not too clean, either.
But now theyre all meshed together.
Theyre all wearing 90s clothing [laughs].
They all look like theyre out of aSeinfeldepisode.
But weve now been around for 1314 years.
The best growth sometimes, in my opinion, is to not run from all the parts of yourself.
Its incorporating all those parts of yourself onto the new path that youve carved.
Blink was very much who I am.
Im not all serious.
I think what youre seeing now with this video is a more complete version of me.
Thats, what do you call it?
Im unashamedly myself unapologetically myself.
Any of those old jokes you regret?Oh my God, theres so many.
Well, I dont regret them.
Because at some point, we all realize we should wear seatbelts.
You were tackling other things in life.
With these jokes, its the same thing.
I think people get eaten alive for jokes they made in the past.
Its hypocritical, number one.
Everyone is acting as [if] theyve never done something stupid when they were younger.
Number two, were a product of our time.
These types of things are very, very important for us to acknowledge and to grow and learn with.
I was listening to Mark Hoppuss recent Apple Music Radio showepisodewhen you were a guest.
It sounds like you two are in a good place.Yeah, we are.
Same thingwith Mark getting sick.
It brought the three of us back together again.
Thats how brothers are; none of the other stuff really matters.
What matters is our health, our families, and our core happiness.
How do you navigate it?I dont ever really pay attention to it.
And then I let it go.
I dont really have security in my ego [laughs] to think that Im the one doing that.
I can rationally break it apart and say,This band obviously grew up listening to Blink.
Their melodies are constructed the same way.
I can do that, and I can go through the science of it and break it down.
But I dont assume it.
I dont walk around thinking Im important.
I kind of have a general feeling that people just dont understand me, period.
They thought I was crazywhen I left Blink.
They thought I was crazy when IsaidI was working with people in the government.
Now people are like, Fuck.Maybe hes not so crazy.
Im just used to people thinking that I am because Im always thinking much further down the line.
It takes people a little bit of time to catch up.
All I hope is that people start to go, I really like what this guy does.
Hes doing it authentically.
Is there any pop-punk that excites you?Theres this band calledTurnstile.
Oh, yeah!Turnstileis from Baltimore; theyre a hard-core band.
Im a big fan of them.
Im a big fan of a band calledThe Story So Far.
Sometimes its hard in punk because punk is a vehicle thats not overly complicated.
Pop-punk is always a tricky place to live in for me.
Thats the thing: Pop-punks not meant to be just catchy and fast.
It sounds like we need moreDescendents.You speak the truth, my brother.
You mentioned earlier the validation that came from the government acknowledging UAPs and your work with To the Stars.
Then [there was] theNew YorkTimesarticle.
Then the show on the History Channel we did calledUnidentified.
I was at a few well, I wont get into that stuff.
We forced the Department of Defense to acknowledge that UFOs are real.
We really did do something that has triggered an international conversation.
They cant not brief the Senate and congressional committees.
Thats how other things work.
I think this issue needs that.
Im really cautiously optimistic that were moving in that direction.
How has President Biden been responding to UAPs?I do know that hes aware of the issue.
I dont have access I bet you I could find out!
But I havent really tried to figure out what hes doing.
Thats really literally all I know.
Its like SpaceX is doing a much better job at being NASA than NASA in some ways.
People are like that with elections.
People are like that on COVID.
Its just how the world is.
What I found is that you meet people occasionally who just cant have that discussion.
Theyre not ready for it.
Im really passionate about that.
Its not because Im some pawn of the CIA [like] people say.
Im very passionate about getting people to think differently than they do now.
Do you believe that in your lifetime, youll tour space?Oh my gosh.
I dont know if Ill be doing that.
But we did just do ouralbum-announcement release in space.
It went up on a satellite.
They played the music; they took the vinyl records up there.
My music has been in space twice now.
Our first movie,Love, went up to the space station and they watched it up there.
The astronauts sent me photos of the DVD up there.
I can say my musics been out there a couple of times and maybe thats enough for now.
Music doesnt always work that way unless its a live concert or something.
But the challenge of getting there and directing that symphony is very difficult.
Its very easy to make it bad.
And its very hard to make it good.
I like that challenge.
But I couldnt only do it.
But I dont want to tour all year, every year.
So I definitely am trying to find a balance of a few diverse things in my life.
Would you ever write or release a solo LP of just new Tom DeLonge songs?I dont know.
I have very little time.
Ive thought about doing some atmospheric Brian Enokind of background-music stuff for peoples houses.
Alexa, play Toms music for the house.[Laughs.]
I guess, yeah.
Like a hipster day spa, where all the men are naked.
That would go over very well in Williamsburg.Right?
Thats all I got.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
