Writer: Michael Eaton | Photographer: Peter Dawson
There’s a chalk drawing on the sidewalk with the words “Jack” and “Dad” scrawled on it. In the backyard is a swimming pool where we wait, ignorant that only few feet away, Toto drummer, Jeff Porcaro, died of a heart attack at 38. The subject of this interview, Mark Hoppus and his band, Blink 182, have never faced such tragedy. Nor have they worn rock’s other dirty laundry.

    With son Jack in his arms and appropriately pretty wife, Skye, at his side, Hoppus enters our field of vision, walks over and introduces himself. There are no bloodshot eyes, no deviated septum, no burnt fingers, no broken teeth, no needle marks. Aside from Hoppus’ six o’clock rooster hair and his bookend tattoos: the name Jack on the left wrist, Skye on the other, the Hoppus family could be here to remake Andy of Mayberry. No detox, no failed relationships, no skeletons, no closet. So what in the world are we gonna talk about? Well, darkness isn’t the only interesting topic, as it turns out.
—CA

Risen Magazine: How did having a kid change your life?
Mark Hoppus: It sounds cliché and when I talk to people who don’t have kids and say that it changes your life and makes you look at the world in a whole new way…That’s everyone’s common experience when they have kids and it’s a cliché, but it’s true. You realize that your kid learns by the way you do things and it makes you think about how you act around them. Your kid learns what’s funny by what you think is funny, or being frustrated by what you do when you’re frustrated. You have to think the whole time… I want to be a good example to my kid, so I try to be a better person.

RM: What was your style like as a grom?
MH: My style as a little kid? I was pretty straight-laced until junior high. Then my whole life changed when I started skateboarding, and then I was introduced to music and I kind of found my way from there.

RM: How was your association with Hurley?
MH: We’ve always taken the stance that we were so thankful to Bob [Hurley] for everything he’d done for us. Hurley helped us out so much when we were starting out. I mean they sent us on tours, they promoted our tours. Anything that we could do for them we felt was small in comparison for what they did for us. They were and are such good friends to us. Hopefully we helped them out as well. Bob and Paul [Gomez] are the coolest people in the world.

RM: What were some of your lowest moments?
MH: We would get some shows out of town and load up my mom’s station wagon and drive for four and a half hours to play for 20 people, or whatever. But just the ability to go do that was a dream come true.

RM: What kept you guys together after touring so much?
MH: We came back and said, “We want to approach this in a totally different way.” So we sat down and played each other music and said, “What do you like about this song?” Like a Beach Boys song, or a song from The Cure, or The Police or DJ Shadow. All different kinds of music and we’d talk about what we loved about all these songs. We really got down to what we loved about music. We would have an idea, put it down, work on it for a few weeks, then go back… We would record a song and any idea that we had we pursued. After Enema of the State, everybody was saying, How you gonna’ follow that up? We just tried to make the same record again. We weren’t really happy with that, so on this record we thought, If we want to have a song where Travis is playing a snare with jazz brushes while there’s a keyboard playing, we’re gonna’ do that. If we want to have a hip-hop beat over punk rock guitars, we’re gonna’ do that. So, we tried all these different ideas and really pushed ourselves.

RM: What advice would you give to an artist/dreamer?
MH: I would say follow your heart and your passion. If you’re a painter, go to art school. If you’re a songwriter, write songs. Do whatever, get into the music industry. There are too many people stuck in jobs that they hate cuz they were too afraid to go and try something out. There’re always things to fall back on, but you only get a few chances to do what you love.

RM: Did people ever have other aspirations for you, tell you you’d be a great CPA or something?
MH: [Laughs] Um, not really. I’m really fortunate that my mom always completely supported me, even to the point that I dropped out of college and lived at her house for five years before our band started to catch on. She said, “You can always go back to college; there’s plenty of time. People in their 50s and 60s go back and get their degrees.” The band was starting to get a little buzz…. My dad was always very supportive too, but he said, “Have something to fall back on.” He was more realistic about it. Imagine your son comes to you and says, “I want to play in a punk rock band rather than go to college.” He was like, “Well, when this thing falls through make sure you have an actual job at the end of it.”

RM: If you could spend one year in perfect happiness and not remember anything, would you?
MH: [Laughs] I don’t remember anything anyway, so yeah, definitely. My wife says all the time, I just told you that yesterday; don’t you remember? I’m terrible like that. [Laughs]

RM: How do you deal with temptation on the road?
MH: I would never put myself in a situation where I would have to make a decision at all. I wouldn’t even put myself in the same room where I would be tempted. I would never want to make my wife feel like she would have to even worry about that.
RM: If you found out a year later that Jack had been switched at the hospital, would you try to correct the problem?
MH: I would just worry that his real parents would want to meet him, but I would be like, Hey, we love your son, you love our son, so…

RM: When he wants his fist tat, are you takin’ him?
MH: Yeah. [Laughs] It’s one of those things like…I don’t know, yeah, why not? Maybe I’d try to talk him out of it or maybe I’d say “Life is fun.”

RM: What mistakes have you made that you want to correct?
MH: [Laughs] Honestly, I think I try my best at whatever I do. When I make a mistake it’s not because I’m not trying hard.

RM: Do you have any regrets?
MH: Knock wood, [knocks on wood] no. Life’s too short to regret things. As long as you’re true with yourself, you can be sorry for something you did, but I try to think about what I’m doing so that I don’t have regrets. I don’t ever hold grudges. I try and have a good balance in my life.

RM: Who do you admire most?
MH: I admire my mom a lot. She has a really good heart and always looks out for other people before herself. She’s probably the first person that comes to mind.

RM: What’s the number one lesson you’ve learned from her?
MH: We were talking about marriage and love when I was a kid and she said, “Love is never a 50-50, it’s more like a shifting 60-40,” and it’s true. With your wife and loved ones it’s never equal. Sometimes you’re pulling somebody else along and sometimes they’re pulling you along.

RM: Did you have a good relationship with your father?
MH: I had a great relationship with my father. He taught me a lot about thinking and about reason and responsibility; my dad was always real big on responsibility and punctuality. I cannot be…Like I was 10 minutes late showing up here today and I was sweating in my car. I hate being late because of him. He was always so punctual. I don’t care if other people are late at all, but I always try to be the first one there.

RM: If you could wake up tomorrow morning with one new quality, what would it be?
MH: Like a super power?

RM: Whatever.
MH: [Chuckles] To be able to not have to fly. [Laughs] Teleporting, that’s a good one. We just flew from Australia to London and it was 24 hours long, with like a stopover in Singapore. I have a passport this thick [holds fingers several inches apart]. I love looking at all those stamps, because along with knowing that I’ve had all those rad experiences there’s at least 10 hours of sitting in a chair. Teleporting would be rad. It’s rad sometimes to get stuck in traffic and just zone out and listen to music.

RM: What is your greatest talent?
MH: I think I’m good at understanding other people’s points of view. When I grew up my parents got divorced and I was always the mediator between them. I was always trying to make sure that my mom was cool and my dad was cool and that I was cool in between them. I felt like I was always stuck in between. Before I do something I think of how it will affect other people. It’s kind of a curse in some ways, but it’s also kind of a gift.

RM: Wha