Thomas Matthew DeLonge, Jr. (born December 13 1975), is best known as one of the founding members of and guitarist/singer in blink-182. He lives with his wife Jen, his daughter Ava, and German Shepherd dog Grey, in Encinitas, California. Jen is currently pregnant with their second child.
Biography
Early Life
Tom DeLonge was raised by his mother and father in California, U.S.A. He has an older brother (Shon) and a younger sister (Kari).
Tom was expelled from school during junior year because he was caught drunk at a school football game. Upon return to the school, all of the students voted him Prom King during the senior prom. This was part of a scheme to anger the school administrators who had a mutual dislike for him.
Political Activity and Views
During 2004, Tom played an active part in the campaign to elect John Kerry as President of the United States. He was involved many rallies and spoke to different groups asking them to support John Kerry's election bid. In some cases, Tom and also fellow members of Blink 182 aligned themselves with Punk Voter and had various political links on their websites. On 10th May, He spoke to Rolling Stone and said if President George W. Bush won the election, he would move to Canada (echoing similar comments by other celebrities). He did not follow through however, as he still currently lives in America. He also happens to be very aware of breast cancer and has sponsored events like Keep A Breast with his company Macbeth Shoes.
blink-182
Tom was given his first guitar from his friend. Tom's friend's father found the guitar in the trashcan and gave it to his son who later gave it to Tom. Tom met Scott Raynor at a party and they decided to make a band. They needed a bass player. Upon getting kicked out of school Tom attended a new alternative school where he met Kerry Key and his girlfriend Anne Hoppus. Tom apparently whined non-stop about wanting to be in a band. Fed up with him, Anne introduced Tom to her brother, Mark. A connection was immediately made between the two, and Mark joined the band. Tom, Scott and Mark called themselves Blink. At first blink had some success but an Irish Techno band also possessed the name Blink and threatened them with a lawsuit. They added the numbers '182' to the end of their name, which according to the band have no significant value. Tom continually makes a new meaning of the numbers in interviews. Examples include Mark's ideal weight, the number of four letter "F" words in Scarface spoken by Al Pacino, and the number of times the three existing and Scott combined have had intercourse.
Angels and Airwaves
Angels and Airwaves is Delonge's new alternative rock band, which he formed after blink-182's indefinite hiatus in February, 2005. Joining him are his former bandmate from Boxcar Racer, David Kennedy, on rhythm guitar, The Offspring drummer, Adam "Atom" Willard, and Ryan Sinn, former bass player for The Distillers. The album is due to come out May 23rd and will be entitled "We Don't Need To Whisper".
Instruments
For the earlier parts of his career, he played a custom Fender Stratocaster fitted with a humbucking pickup in the bridge position. He is also seen to be playing a Gibson Les Paul and a Fender Telecaster in some videos.
Fender later released a Tom DeLonge Signature model Stratocaster with only a single Seymour Duncan Invader humbucking pickup. Since this model lacks any other pickups, it does not have the associated tone knobs and pickup switch.
In more recent times, Tom has started using a custom Gibson ES-335, painted brown with cream stripes. Gibson has since released the Tom DeLonge Signature model ES-335 with a Dirty Fingers exposed-coil humbucker. In his new band Angels and Airwaves, Tom uses the same Gibson guitar, but with a new color scheme of a white guitar with a black stripe.
Discography
Albums made with blink-182
Studio records
*''Buddha'' (1993) *''Cheshire Cat (album)|Cheshire Cat'' (1994) *''Dude Ranch'' (1997) *''Enema of the State'' (1999) *''Take off Your Pants and Jacket'' (2001) *''blink 182'' (2003) *''Greatest Hits (blink 182 album)|Greatest Hits'' (2005)
EPs and live albums
*''Flyswatter'' (1992) *''The Mark, Tom, and Travis Show: The Enema Strikes Back'' (2000)
Albums made with Box Car Racer
*''Box Car Racer'' (2002)
Albums made with Angels and Airwaves
*''We Don't Need To Whisper'' (2006)
Copyright Citations
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