The current queen of Hollywood has to be Taylor Swift. The pop sensation’s Eras Tour Movie remains the leader at the weekend box office, fending off competition from a new Martin Scorsese movie (of all things). And every time she appears at an NFL football game supporting current boyfriend and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, she boosts ratings for a TV product that doesn’t need the help. Swift’s success at the multiplex has many of us wondering if other bands and artists could follow her lead – which Beyonce already has done with her upcoming film of the Renaissance tour. So when I got the chance to interview Blink-182 singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge in support of his directorial debut Monsters of California, I pitched him the idea, and got the ultimate Tom reply.
First of all, Monsters of California is terrific, and needs to be seen in a theater (where available) or on streaming. If you like what Tom DeLonge’s interested in – aliens, Bigfoot, government conspiracies, and the Southern California punk scene – the movie offers a little bit of everything. I loved it. But during our conversation, I asked DeLonge if Blink-182 would ever do a concert film similar to what Taylor Swift is doing, bringing a coveted live show to fans who might not be able to make it to a concert. Blink-182 just played the When We Were Young festival in Las Vegas, and also completed a worldwide reunion tour as the classic trio of DeLonge, Mark Hoppus, and Travis Barker. I know I’d pay to see them on the big screen, and DeLonge weighed in on it, saying:
It always comes across the desk every few months. Some version. We've talked about doing something on this next tour that we just launched, like, today. Tickets go on sale on Friday. We've definitely talked about versions. You know, Taylor is a phenomenon. She can demand ticket sales. You and I both know how hard it is to get people to want to go to a movie theater. I don't know if people would come to see Blink in a movie theater for the music, but they might come for the dick jokes (laugh). So maybe we focus on that?
If you have paid any attention to Blink-182 over the years, you know that a staple of their live shows is the hilarious banter back and forth between life-long friends Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus. Quite often, it seems like the duo is as interested in cracking each other up on stage as they are with entertaining the audience. Blink-182 fans have gone so far as to make montages of the verbal interplay between DeLonge and Hoppus on stage. And yes, dick jokes often are involved.
Tom DeLonge is right about one thing. Taylor Swift is a rare phenom, and she has the drawing power to bring audiences out to theaters over and over. Hell, even Christopher Nolan credits Swift with possibly saving the theatrical model. That’s high praise. For the moment, DeLonge just wants his fans to see Monsters of California, a love letter to the Amblin movies he grew up on that also works in so much of what he’s learned over the years about extraterrestrial life, the debate between faith and science, and the desire to understand as much as possible about what exists beyond our planet. With dick jokes, of course.
