Books & Audiobooks
The exaggerated list of “best things I’ve done in 2025” includes: put Mark Hoppus’ latest book on hold and read it in one sitting. I grew up (and am still growing up) listening to blink-182. I was a fan circa Cheshire Cat, Dude Ranch, and Enema of the State onwards, including side projects like Boxcar Racer, +44, Angels and Airwaves, and I still bop along to Diamonds and Guns by The Transplants when it comes up on my playlists. I got a guitar when I was 16 (thanks, Mom!) because I wanted to learn how to play blink-182 and write songs because of how their music made me feel: comfortable in my own awkwardly-fitting skin. Seeing the release of the book felt a little bit like suburban punk rock kid Christmas. JNCO jeans went out of style, but Hoppus’ writing still hits all the right notes.
Fahrenheit-182 satisfies a nostalgic (i.e. Millennial) urge to read about the back stories from the blink-182 universe as it describes the life of a literal rock star. Don’t get it twisted, however, as Hoppus writes, not from the grandeur of celebrity but the humility of someone who had a lot of awesome experiences but never lost sight of the forest of the world for the trees of possible self-important celebrity status. It shows in the stories he chooses to tell and recalls as the most important things to share with readers. Post-cancer, the memoir reads with more urgency not for wanting to get pen to page post haste but for wanting to share stories that matter and were top of mind through his experience with cancer. It’s a book about blink-182, but it’s also a bunch of stories about what matters most in life for anyone, which makes it a book for everyone.
What I wasn’t expecting but loved were all of the stories of the people who made blink-182 possible. We meet people who made a deep impression on Mark as blink-182 grew to be the globally beloved band they are today: producers, other bands, managers, studio execs, and more. I won’t ruin the endings of those stories for you, but I will say that in a world that is often described as cold, commercial, cutthroat, and other affectionate terms, Hoppus infuses the music and entertainment industry with humanity where it isn’t machines making things happen, but people powering ideas and bringing them to life. It also paints a picture of the grueling reality of what it took to “make it” in the 90s and 00s: living out of a van, not knowing when you would eat next, or if the next gig would provide enough money to get you to your next venue, or whether any of the work you put in would ever be worth it. It was a salient reminder that the songs we sing aloud in our cars or that deeply move us can come at a cost to those writing and releasing them. Is it a cool gig to be a celebrity band? Absolutely. Hoppus even says so in the book. I still, however, hope fans read it, and feel overwhelming gratitude. It reminded me of the way I felt when hearing the bubblegum-punk track Fell in Love on the recent release One More Time, hearing hints of Travis’ love story with Kourtney Kardashian: thrilled that someone who brought me so much joy through their music, gets to know a lot of joy in turn.
The book also sets the record straight on a few would-be feuds that slow news days might be quick to turn into gossip wildfires: what happened to Scott after Dude Ranch, the truth behind the feuds and fights between Mark and Tom, the feuds with other bands who had little care for blink-182 once they signed with a major label, and more. He doesn’t say it, for example, but it’s clear that songs like “Man Overboard” are about the struggles that the band had with former drummer Scott’s drinking. Hoppus doesn’t mince words, but he also doesn’t turn pen into sword so that it cuts the past deeply. He writes from a place of care that lets readers and fans in on how something actually happened. What I enjoyed most about this was the behind-the-scenes look at the story of his very own happy ending with his wife, Skye.
As far as music memoirs go, Fahrenheit-182 is standard-issue. The ground it covers in just over 350 pages is the stuff of punk-rock fairytales where the world may be a terrifying place but for a moment your punk-rock childhood heroes win the day and beat airplane crashes, band breakups, and cancer to play another day. I devoured this with the delight of a lifelong fan. Hopefully other blink-182 members tell their stories, or talk music in books. Until then, if you need me, I’ll be working (not that hard at all) to cement my place once more in Spotify’s Top 0.001% of blink-182 listeners the rest of the year while savouring the still-new-book-smell of Fahrenheit-182.