Former Blink-182 guitarist Tom DeLonge has said that he quit the band to focus on investigating the apparent threat of UFOs.
DeLonge quit Blink-182 in January 2015, and has since released ‘Sekret Machines’, a book that blends sci-fi elements with real life accounts of purported UFO sightings and alien abductions.
But he now says that UFOs are a ‘national security issue’, and claims that he was unable to combine his investigations with guitar duties in Blink-182.
He told Mic: “Dealing with something that’s a national security issue, and you’re being gifted with the opportunity to communicate something you’ve been passionate about your whole life — something that has the opportunity to change the world over time — being a small part of that is enormously important for my life path.
“But I can’t do everything. I can’t tour nine months out of the year with enough time to do the enormity of what I’m setting out to do.”
Meanwhile, Blink-182 are gearing up to release their seventh album, California, on July 1, which is the first record to feature new guitarist and Alkaline Trio singer Matt Skiba.
The first song to be released from the album, ‘Bored to Death’, debuted in April – closely followed by new tracks ‘Built This Pool’ and ‘Rabbit Hole.’