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Tom DeLonge

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Thomas Matthew DeLonge, Jr. (born December 13 1975), is best known as one of the founding members of and guitarist/singer in Blink-182 and rock supergroup Angels and Airwaves. He lives with his wife Jen, his daughter Ava, and German Shepherd Grey, in Encinitas, California. Jen is currently pregnant with their second child and according to the lyric leaflet for his band Angels and Airwaves' debut album We Don't Need To Whisper, he mentions the name Rocket, alongside his wife Jen and daughter Ava, confirming that he is indeed having a son.

File:Tomd.jpg
Tom DeLonge

Tom DeLonge was raised by his mother and father in California, U.S.A. He has an older brother, Shon, and a younger sister, Kari.

Tom was expelled from high school during junior year after being caught drunk at a school basketball game. As Tom went to another school, he met Anne Hoppus, Mark Hoppus' sister, which led to the beginning of blink-182. When he returned to the school, the students voted him Prom King during the senior prom.

Political activities and views

During 2004, Tom played an active part in the campaign to elect John Kerry as President of the United States. He was involved in many rallies and spoke to different groups asking them to support John Kerry's election bid. In some cases, Tom and also fellow members of Blink 182 aligned themselves with Punk Voter and had various political links on their websites. On 10th May, He spoke to Rolling Stone and said if President George W. Bush won the election, he would move to Canada (echoing similar comments by other celebrities). He did not follow through however, as he still currently resides in California. He actively supports breast cancer research, and has sponsored events like "Keep A Breast" with his company Macbeth Shoes (co-owned with Mark Hoppus).

Main article: blink-182

Tom was given his first guitar from a friend. His friend's father had found a guitar in a trash can and gave it to his son, who later gave it to Tom. Tom's first band, Big Oily Men, was just for fun. After getting expelled from his old high school on accounts of teenage drinking, Tom met Anne Hoppus at his new high school. She had overheard him making a prank phone call to a dentist's office, and found him hilarious. They soon became friends. Tom constantly expressed his desire to form a serious band, so Anne introduced him to her brother, Mark Hoppus, who had recently moved from Poway, California. The night they met, they came up with the name Duck Tape, and a small duck as the mascot. Duck Tape soon transformed into Blink. In need of a drummer, Tom tapped 14-year-old Scott Raynor, whom he had known from a Battle of the Bands contest. In 1992, the trio created a demo tape entitled Flyswatter. Their first concert took place at a bar. Since they were underage, they were only allowed to enter when it was time for their set. No one came to see them, after only one song Blink was shut off. After the show, a man came up to Tom, bought him a Snapple and said, "You deserve it."

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DeLonge performing with blink-182

Blink eventually got more popular, and on their first real tour, Tom DeLonge was arrested for underage drinking. As they reached newer heights of popularity, they were forced to add a "182" to the end of their name due to threat of legal action by an Irish band already operating under the name Blink.

Tom released 6 more albums with blink-182: Buddha; Cheshire Cat; Dude Ranch; Enema of the State; Take Off Your Pants And Jacket; and Untitled. The Mark, Tom, and Travis Show; and the blink Greatest Hits albums have also been released.

Blink also released two Dvds, released alongside and based on the albums and time periods of "Enema Of The State" and "Take Off Your Pants And Jacket". They were entitled "The Urethra Chronicles" and "The Urethra Chronicles II: Harder Faster, Faster Harder."

After years of touring and several multi-platinum records, Blink-182 underwent an "indefinite hiatus" in February 2005. Since then, DeLonge has been recording, filming, and touring with his new band, Angels and Airwaves. Mark is currently working in +44. Travis Barker is also in +44, and is also working with Rob Aston and Paul Wall in Expensive Taste. It has been said that after Tom Delonge and Mark Hoppus stopped talking Tom Delonge met a teenager, in Australia, named James. His email address has been granted to be added (jesus_rocks_life@hotmail.com)

Box Car Racer

Box Car Racer was a side-band created by Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker. While Blink took a break in 2002, the band was formed by DeLonge to experiment with and record ideas he felt did not fit in with Blink's sound.

Taking Travis Barker from blink-182 and David Kennedy who at the time was in the band called Hazen Street, they recorded their eponymous and only album Boxcar Racer in 2002. On the album Tom did all the bass work, but in live shows Anthony Celestino took over bass duties. Guesting on the album were Mark Hoppus from blink-182, Tim Armstrong from Rancid and Jordan Pundik from New Found Glory.

Angels and Airwaves

Main article: Angels and Airwaves

Angels and Airwaves is DeLonge's new alternative rock band, which he formed after blink-182's indefinite hiatus in February, 2005. Joining him are his former bandmate from Boxcar Racer, David Kennedy, on rhythm guitar, The Offspring drummer, Adam "Atom" Willard, and Ryan Sinn, former bass player for The Distillers. The album was released May 20 in Australia, May 22 in the UK and May 23 in the US, and will be entitled We Don't Need To Whisper. Their first single is called "The Adventure."

Instruments

For the earlier parts of his career, he played a custom Fender Stratocaster fitted with a humbucking pickup in the bridge position. He has also been seen playing a Gibson Les Paul and a Fender Toronado in some videos.

Fender later released a Tom DeLonge Signature model Stratocaster with only a single Seymour Duncan Invader humbucker humbucking pickup. Since this model lacks any other pickups, it does not have the associated tone knobs and pickup switch.

In more recent times, Tom has started using a custom Gibson ES-335, painted brown with cream stripes. Gibson has since released the Tom DeLonge Signature model ES-333 with a Dirty Fingers exposed-coil humbucker in this coloring. His Gibson can also be seen in some [non musical] videos to have a brown/plum body with bright/neon orange stripes. In his new band Angels and Airwaves, Tom uses the same Gibson guitar, but with 2 new color schemes: A white body with black racing stripes and a black body with black racing stripes. He used these guitars in his new video for "The Adventure", as well as his past few concerts.

Discography

Studio records

EPs and live albums

Albums made with Box Car Racer

Albums made with Angels and Airwaves

Trivia

  • He is 6'4"
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