Tom DeLonge's relationship with his Blink-182 bandmates has been "poisoned".
The band hit the headlines this week when Travis Barker and Mark Hoppus released a statement claiming Tom had left the band. They then gave an interview to Rolling Stone making many allegations about the guitarist and vocalist, including that he had been uninterested in working with them and got his manager to tell them he was leaving via email.
Now Tom has hit back via a lengthy post on Facebook.
"At the end of the day, all of this makes me really sad. Sad for us. Sad for you - that you’re witnessing this immaturity. I know them very well, and their current actions are defensive and divisive. I suppose they’re doing this as a way to protect themselves from being hurt," he wrote.
"And even as I watch them act so different to what I know of them to be, I still care deeply for them. Like brothers, and like old friends. But our relationship got poisoned yesterday. Never planned on quitting, just find it hard as hell to commit. (sic)"
The musician gives his side of the story in the piece, explaining that the group have always been "dysfunctional" and spent long periods of time not talking to each other.
He insists he "loves" the band and has tried his best to make things work, but Travis and Mark made things difficult.
Tom also gives his version of what went on behind the scenes of the group's 2012 EP Dogs Eating Dogs. He calls this "the test", as before they began work on it he'd requested a meeting with Travis and Mark where they had all agreed to "be engaged and work passionately". However, he was furious with what he saw as his bandmates' lack of dedication.
"I was in the studio for two months and they came in for around 11 days. I didn’t mind leading the charge, but we had all agreed to give it 100%. And this time- no baggage. Despite that, we still somehow managed to self-sabotage," he claimed.
"At one point, squabbling and politics forced me to pull the EP down at a time when 60,000 fans were trying to purchase it. And that blew my mind. I’d been trying so hard but that moment ultimately broke my spirit. I then realized that this band couldn't lose the years of ill will. (sic)"
After this Tom decided never to put himself in the same position again.
Despite this, he admits they are "all accountable" for what the breakdown of their professional and personal relationship.
In their Rolling Stone interview, Travis and Mark claimed the band was all set to record new music earlier this month, but Tom pulled out at the end of December. He appears to confirm this, but his version of events is less inflammatory. Tom has another band called Angels & Airwaves and many other projects, and suggests he couldn't meet the terms of the Blink-182 contract he was given because of this.
"I told my manager that I will do Blink 182 as long as it was fun and worked with the other commitments in my life, including my family," he wrote. "But Mark and Travis know all of this.
"It’s not in my nature to fuel negativity about the legacy of the band on something as trashy as the Internet world. But I guess that’s another example of how I differ from most (sic)."
