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Thomas Matthew "Tom" DeLonge, Jr. (born December 13, 1975) is an American rock musician. He is the guitarist and one of the two lead vocalists for the pop punk band blink-182 as well as the guitarist and lead vocalist for the alternative rock band Angels & Airwaves. He founded the band Boxcar Racer with his close friends Travis Barker and David Kennedy.
Tom DeLonge was raised by his mother, Connie and his father, Thomas in Poway, California. He has an older brother, Shon, and a younger sister, Kari. Tom was expelled from Poway High School during junior year after being caught drinking at a school basketball game. He then went to Rancho Bernardo High School. When he returned to Poway High School during his senior year, the students voted him Homecoming King, despite the fact that he wasn't even on the ballot. Becoming a musician was not his first calling. "I was originally going to be a firefighter. I was in the San Diego Cadet Program,” says DeLonge. Some of his influences are the Descendents, Screeching Weasel, Dag Nasty, U2 and The Cure.
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When DeLonge attended Rancho Bernardo High School, he was introduced to Mark Hoppus through Hoppus' sister, Anne. Tom had previously met Scott Raynor at a school's battle of the bands and decided to form a band together that would become Blink-182, originally just "Blink" but the band had to change for legal reasons with supposed plagiarism from an Irish techno band. Raynor was replaced with Travis Barker in 1998 because of drinking problems. Travis was on tour with The Aquabats, another band touring along with Blink-182. After sitting in on two shows Barker formally joined Blink-182. With Travis on board Blink-182 released Enema of the State, which was met with a huge amount of mainstream success, spawning three hit singles. Follow-up Take Off Your Pants and Jacket went straight to No.1 on the Billboard 200. In 2003, Blink-182 released their eponymous album. DeLonge then decided to leave the band, allegedly due to mounting tensions and communication difficulties, creating a rift between him and the other members of the band. Blink-182 announced an 'indefinite hiatus' in February 2005.
Following Travis Barker's Learjet crash, DeLonge's former band mate, Mark Hoppus, posted on his blog (Himynameismark.com) on November 18, 2008, that all three band mates had communicated for the past couple of months after Barker's plane crash, which killed 4 people and left Barker and DJ AM in critical condition. This post fueled rumors among fans that a reunion was imminent. Adding to the speculation was an announcement made by MTV.com on February 5, 2009 that Blink-182 would reunite to present an award at the 51st Grammy Awards. This presentation marked the first time the trio had been together on stage since 2004. Before presenting the award for Best Rock Album, the band announced that they were reuniting; this announcement was followed shortly by a message posted on the band's website. Tom was quoted as saying "live life as if it was the last record played on the the jukebox".
On February 9, 2009, Tom opened up to Extra about the Blink-182 reunion saying: "When you're in a band, you have this unspoken bond. You're kind of family with your boys. We took a break for a little bit. I think when Travis had the event happen to him it was something that pulled us back together... we always knew it was inevitable, we just needed something to break the ice." Blink-182 are currently on tour across the United States along with Weezer, Panic! at the Disco, Chester French, Asher Roth, All American Rejects, Taking Back Sunday, and Fall Out Boy, they're planning to release their newest album around late 2010. It has also been confirmed by Mark Hoppus in an MTV interview that there will be a 2010 European tour.
Box Car Racer was a side-project from two members of the band Blink-182, featuring guitarist Tom DeLonge and drummer Travis Barker. DeLonge formed Box Car Racer to experiment with and record ideas he felt were not "Blink-friendly", along with Travis Barker. David Kennedy from Hazen Street completed the group and an eponymous album was recorded. Although Tom handled bass duties, the band hired Kennedy's friend Anthony Celestino for the corresponding tour. Guests on the album included Mark Hoppus from Blink-182 on the song "Elevator", and Tim Armstrong from Rancid and Jordan Pundik from New Found Glory on "Cat Like Thief".
Tom DeLonge is the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for Angels and Airwaves. Other members in the band include high school friend and former Hazen Street guitarist and Box Car Racer guitarist David Kennedy, on drums former Rocket from the Crypt and The Offspring drummer Atom Willard, on bass former The Distillers bassist Ryan Sinn. AVA is influenced by a number of bands including U2, Pink Floyd and The Cure. They released their debut album We Don't Need to Whisper on 20 May, 2006. On April 23, 2007 it was announced that Ryan Sinn would not be playing at the Free Earth Day concert at the M.I.T. campus due to difficulties within the band. And was later replaced with Former 30 Seconds to Mars bassist Matt Watcher. The band's second full-length album entitled I-Empire debuted on the Billboard 200 Chart at No. 9 and sold 66,000 in its first week.
On June 21, 2008, DeLonge launched Modlife, a social-networking site and online operating system for musicians, bloggers and businesses. DeLonge's purpose is to "fix" the music industry. The band then released a documentary involving their music, titled Start the Machine.
Love is the third studio album by Angels & Airwaves, which will be officially released worldwide on February 14, 2010 after being delayed from Christmas 2009. It will be released free of charge due to "corporate underwriting." They began producing it in January 2009 but progress was slow due to Tom Delonge's original band Blink-182 being on tour. On February 10, Tom DeLonge posted a blog on Modlife stating that, "Angels and Airwaves is never going to go away". This brought an end to any lingering rumors of a possible break-up of the band due to the reunion of Blink-182. In April 2009, Atom Willard joined Social Distortion.
Angels & Airwaves recently uploaded a new video to their website, giving people the first official glimpse of their new album Love. The trailer contained a section of the song "Riot", which was previously previewed by David Kennedy. Also seen in the trailer was a piece of artwork that contained a new Angels and Airwaves logo, which has similarities to the Masonic Square and Compasses. This new logo also contains the Latin words "et plumbum mundus per lumen" which translates to "and lead the world by light" in English. This video also stated that the release of the album was to be on Valentine's Day of 2010. Along with "Riot", David Kennedy has previewed two other new songs from the album called "Triumphant" and "Open Water" via Modlife. "Riot" was leaked by an Angels and Airwaves fan site and subsequently posted on YouTube.
DeLonge lives with his wife Jennifer, daughter Ava Elizabeth (born July 15, 2002), son Jonas Rocket (born on August 16, 2006), German Sheperd Grey, and Labrador Retriever Chloe in Rancho Santa Fe, California. He is the owner of Macbeth Footwear, which he founded with Mark Hoppus (who has now sold his share in the company). He has sold his share in Atticus Clothing, which he founded together with Mark Hoppus and another friend. He has also been politically active during the 2004 and the 2008 presidential races. In 2004, he supported the Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. He also created a vegan footwear line through his company Macbeth Footwear.
DeLonge has also been known to endorse fan sites of his work. One site, Toms Angels - a place devoted to all of Tom's past, present and future work, sent a badge to him with the letters 'TA' in the site's logo on, and he has been spotted wearing it at performances or meet and greets.