BLINK 182 - DELONGE BLAMES BLINK-182 BREAKUP ON DIFFERING FAMILY VALUES

Former BLINK-182 member TOM DeLONGE insists the reason he decided to quit the successful band was because he valued spending quality time with his family over partying like a rock star. DeLonge has since gone on to form ANGELS AND AIRWAVES, while the other two former members of the group, TRAVIS BARKER and MARK HOPPUS have formed the band +44. He explains, "When you're in a band, it's just as much of a business as it is a family. I started the band when I was 16 years old and now I'm 30. "You do a lot of changing between those years and when I look back on it in hindsight I think the three of us were just completely different people with different priorities. "It was an incredible learning experience, an incredible time for myself, but I think just having families and knowing what you want to do for the rest of your life really makes you kind of look at things through a different kind of prism." DeLonge claims that deciding to leave the group was difficult, but he ultimately decided to put his family first. He adds, "It was a tough time. I mean, I didn't want the band to end and I didn't want anything other than that band to be the biggest band in the world, but it became really apparent to me that first and foremost, I needed to be a certain type of father and husband to my family and I wasn't able to do it in that situation. "I'm a guy who works off being able to see things and I couldn't see that happening anymore, but I saw something really special happening in the next part of my life and that's when Angels and Airwaves happened.