He has remarked that "Silly Girl" by the Descendents was the "song that made fall in love with punk rock music that song changed life forever". Hoppus never took bass lessons, instead teaching himself by playing to bands such as the Descendents, The Cure, and Bad Religion. He earned money for a set of amplifiers by helping him paint his house. We probably looked like idiots." He received his first bass (a Mako) as a gift from his father, purchased at a local music shop in Annandale. He recalled, "I didn't know where I should stand or what I should do, so my friends and I bought some menthol cigarettes and smoked for the first time and tried to look as cool as we could. In his early high school years, he lived in Fairfax, Virginia, attending nearby Annandale High School during his second year he received his first bass guitar during this time and attended his first concert, They Might Be Giants, at the 9:30 Club shortly before his 16th birthday. Hoppus describes himself as "pretty straight" until junior high, when he began skateboarding and listening to punk rock. He later would describe his childhood as lonely, remarking, " was living by myself in the fifth grade." His father introduced him to the music of The Beatles, Elton John and Billy Joel. His father was often away earning a postgraduate degree in college. It upset me a lot." Following these events, he spent two years shuffling between his parents' homes with sister Anne, until he and his father moved to Monterey. I remember sitting outside my parents' room when I was seven years old, hearing the dulled voice of anger behind the door. He said, "When my parents argued, it was always behind closed doors. Hoppus describes himself as "pretty mellow" until his parents divorced when he was eight, which had a "drastic, unsettling effect" on him. Department of Defense, designing missiles and bombs for the town's Navy testing center.
His father, like many in Ridgecrest, worked for the U.S. His maternal great-grandparents, Aaron and Lempi Orrenmaa, were Finnish immigrants from Laihia. He later described Ridgecrest as being home to "geniuses, scientists, physicists, and then just complete strung-out meth-heads". Mark Allan Hoppus was born in Ridgecrest, California, on March 15, 1972, the son of Kerry Wernz and George "Tex" Hoppus (born 1947). Hoppus hosted a weekly podcast in 2005 through 2006, which returned in 2015, and he hosted his own television talk show, Hoppus on Music, from 2010 to 2012 on Fuse. He has previously co-owned two companies, Atticus and Macbeth Footwear, and created a new clothing line in 2012 named Hi My Name is Mark.
Blink-182 subsequently reunited in 2009 and continue to record and tour worldwide, but in 2015, Hoppus became the last remaining original member when DeLonge quit the band as well.Īside from his musical career, Hoppus has had multiple successes behind the recording console, producing records for groups such as Idiot Pilot, New Found Glory, The Matches, Motion City Soundtrack, and PAWS. Hoppus continued playing with Barker in +44 in the late 2000s. Two more records followed-the heavier Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001) and the more experimental untitled fifth album (2003)-before the band split in 2005 following internal tension. The band produced several rock recordings and toured exhaustively before signing to major label MCA to co-distribute their sophomore effort, 1997's Dude Ranch, which featured the Hoppus-penned hit " Dammit".Īfter replacing Raynor with Travis Barker, Blink-182 recorded Enema of the State (1999), which launched them to multi-platinum success. After he moved to San Diego in 1992 to attend California State University, San Marcos, his sister introduced him to Tom DeLonge, and they formed the band Blink-182 with drummer Scott Raynor. Hoppus became interested in skateboarding and punk rock in junior high, and received a bass guitar from his father at the age of 15. He is best known as the bassist and co-lead vocalist of the rock band Blink-182, as well as part of pop rock duo Simple Creatures with All Time Low frontman Alex Gaskarth. Mark Allan Hoppus (born March 15, 1972) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer.