Blink-182 Merchandise Appeal Grows as Mark Hoppus Talks Reunion – Part One

(Read Blink Merchandise Appeal - Part Two) In November, Mark Hoppus set the Internet abuzz with one simple blog post as the Blink-182 merch appeal grows.

It was the first time he'd updated his site, HiMyNameIsMark.com since his best friend (and bandmate) Travis Barker escaped a fiery plane crash in South Carolina, a crash that killed four people, including Barker's assistant, "Lil Chris" Baker — whom Hoppus was also close with — and security guard Charles "Che" Still. And while Hoppus' words about the death (and escape) of his friends were undoubtedly touching, they weren't what made message boards tick.

No, it was the last paragraph of the post, in which he wrote that, in the wake of the SC crash, he and Barker had begun spending time with their former Blink-182 bandmate, Tom DeLonge, who left the band under decidedly angry circumstances in February 2005. It was the first time they'd all been in a room together in more than three years, and to many, that meant just one thing: finally, after all that time, it sounded like Blink-182 were getting back together.

Of course, it didn't matter that within a few weeks, Barker had quashed those reunion rumors. For the first time in a long time, millions of Blink fans had hope. Especially since, after starting all the Blink talk, Hoppus had done little to deny it himself. In fact, he hasn't said much of anything since then.

Until now, that is. Late last week, Hoppus agreed to talk with MTV News about the past, the present and the future (all of which involve Blink-182). Here, in the first of our two-part chat with him — part two comes Wednesday — he addresses the impact of a single blog entry, repairing his relationship with DeLonge and the prospects of a full-blown Blink reunion.

On That Blog Post: "I'm amazed at the response from what I wrote on my blog. It's awesome that so many people want to know what's going on. And I know there are lots of questions people have, so I'm going to lay it all out here in this interview. I'm just speaking for myself here. The simple answer is, we're still reconnecting as friends right now. None of us know exactly what's going to happen. I do know that we're all very stoked to be talking again, laughing and letting the past remain in the past. But we're also coming together after an extremely acrimonious band breakup, a lot of anger and frustration with one another and four years of not talking. I think that we need to get back to a certain point as friends before we could ever take a stage together again, because that's what we always based everything on."

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