Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus opened up about the simmering tension between his band and Green Day during the iconic 2002 Pop Disaster Tour, describing it as a “musical battle” that helped sharpen Blink’s edge at a pivotal time in their rise.
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The tour, which paired pop-punk’s elder statesmen with its ascendant newcomers, saw Blink-182 closing each night, despite Green Day being the band Hoppus idolized growing up.
“I literally waited for the day that Dookie came out,” he recalled in a recent interview with NME. “I was in line waiting to buy it.”
By 2002, Blink-182 were riding high off the back of their No. 1 album Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, while Green Day were in a quieter commercial moment between 2000’s Warning and their eventual resurgence with 2004’s American Idiot. That dynamic sparked what Hoppus described as an unspoken competition onstage.
“We walked in thinking we were hot sh–,” Hoppus said. “And Green Day walked in ready to fight — musically of course. They blew us off the stage the first few nights and we were like, ‘Oh s–t, we have to up our game.’ It definitely made us a better band.”
Though he emphasized there was no personal beef — “Billie was super nice to us” — the nightly battle for crowd dominance created a performance arms race.
“It was this back-and-forth about who could put on the better show and who could win people over,” Hoppus explained. “I think I inspired them so much they were like, ‘We have to kill Blink-182 with an awesome album called American Idiot.’”
The story is one of many anecdotes included in Hoppus’ newly released memoir Fahrenheit-182, in which the bassist and vocalist reflects on his cancer diagnosis, pop culture moments, and his decades-long music career.
Blink-182 are currently preparing to hit the road again with Alkaline Trio this fall, with their U.S. tour kicking off Aug. 28 in Hollywood, Fla.
