Tom DeLonge discussed what would have been the next Blink-182 album featuring himself in his new Ernie Ball: The Pursuit of Tone documentary series episode. Alternative Nation transcribed the quotes.
“I was working on a batch of songs that were the beginning of ideas that would have been the next Blink record. It wasn’t developed into anything spectacular, but I think you hear little bits and pieces of things that could have been. But I think the most important song out of that batch, and I released them as Demos, Odds, and Ends under my own name, but there is a song called ‘The Invisible Parade.'”
He said the song was inspired by his brother in special forces, and the idea of coming back home from war. “The idea of an invisible parade to me was these guys come back, and there’s no one cheering them on.” He added that he didn’t think Blink-182 would have needed to change too much of the song musically, “It all started with a chord progression. I had this chord progression, and I played it, and I didn’t think we needed anything more than that.”
He also discussed how he is different from his former Blink-182 bandmate Mark Hoppus.
“I used to tell Mark in Blink that I admired him because he was always satisfied with Blink. It satisfied him that it was an incredible thing, we were given such an incredible thing, we were so lucky to have it, and all those sort of things. I agreed with all those things, but for some reason it’s not stopping my desire to go out and learn more, and try more, and push myself more, and be surrounded by other people that I find are completely fascinating. You’re not going to see me do things that are the easy play, it’s just not going to happen. You’re going to see me do things that I have no business doing.”
He also said during the documentary, “There’s a lot of musicians that like to sit back and go: ‘I tour for the admiration and the money, and I like being famous, and I like the big paychecks, and that’s all they ever wanted.’ For me, that’s not – I’m after understanding the world we’re in and how to make it a better place.”
