Will Blink-182 Reunite?

11/20/08 12:30pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

Former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker's plane crash has triggered a Blink-182 reunion of sorts... but it's an off-stage one.

Former Blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus wrote in a Nov. 18 blog entry that he and Barker had been talking with former bandmate Tom DeLonge and had even "hung out for a couple hours," which Hoppus says led to "very positive conversations." Of course, all of this has inevitably led to questions about whether the gross-out pop-punk trio will reunite on stage or in the studio.

"we're just reconnecting as friends after four years of not talking," Hoppus wrote. "it's a good thing.

"obviously the first question for a lot of people will be 'does this mean a blink-182 reunion?' the answer is none of us know. we haven't talked about it at all.

"right now it's just good for the three of us to see one another, reconnect, and let the past be the past. the events of the past two months supersede everything that happened before. life is too short."

Blink-182 split in 2005 over creative differences, but the break-up was apparently not an amicable one, as there were rumours that Hoppus felt he'd been "betrayed" when DeLonge started his Box Car Racer side project. Barker and Hoppus went on to form +44, while DeLonge started Angels & Airwaves. Hoppus has also been working on a song for a movie with film scorer Richard Gibbs, and is producing a record for rockers Our Lunar Activities.

Barker told Metromix Los Angeles in July that he hadn't spoken to DeLonge in three years.

Hoppus also reflected on Barker's plane crash in his blog post.

"travis is a brother to me, and since the crash he has gone through more than i can even imagine. from the day after the plane went down, when i saw him in the burn unit out in georgia, to the hospital here in LA, to seeing him at home, his recovery is nothing short of amazing. every day gets a little better.

"and not only is he my brother, but also the best drummer and musician i've ever seen. the man was born to play drums, and it is great to see him starting to get back into the studio and behind his kit."

Barker recently said on MTV's Total Finale Live, the three-hour final episode of Total Request Live, that he'd gone back into the studio.

"It was like riding a bike," he offered. "It was really exciting to know I still have my chops.

"It still felt good. I still can make it around the kit. Everything felt so right, so I'm thankful to be able to play."

The cockpit recording from the Sept. 19 plane crash in Columbia, S.C. has just been released, and the pilot can be heard telling air traffic controllers that he was "going off the end of the runway" just before the plane crashed, killing him and three others on board. Barker and DJ AM (real name Adam Goldstein) suffered severe burns, but were the only survivors.

Co-pilot James Bland is heard asking for emergency vehicles, saying, "Roll the equipment, we're going off the end."

Air traffic controllers responded by telling other planes to stay out of the area because there was an emergency situation, and another pilot replied, "We see it down there. It doesn't look good."