"blink-182 life. for life."

It's been a sad 48 hours for Blink-182 fans. Tom DeLonge, it seems, has left the band. Now, we all kind of know that post-hiatus, the band have had highs and lows. We all know that they go months without speaking but ultimately, they're pop-punk legends and when they're on form, they're a lot of fun. We also know that Tom hasn't been the best: he can just about play his guitar, his vocals are a tad shakey and he cares more about his other endeavors, but he is still an integral and loved part of Blink. It's not called The Mark, Tom and Travis Show for nothing!

So what's the deal?

Well, first of all statements were released claiming that Tom had indefinitely left the band and that Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba would replace him at Musink Festival later this year. That's cool, Skiba seems like a pretty rad guy, but is he Tom DeLonge? Definitely not. After this, Tom took to Instagram clearly stating he had not left the band. HAPPY DAYS but then some terrible words came to light. Mark and Travis were throwing about comments about Tom, calling his actions "ungrateful and disingenuous" and claiming that they were finally telling the truth on Tom's attitude towards to band. This led to a very unhappy Tom (why DeLonge face? etc) to take to Twitter to say "A year ago Mark and I spent a week on the phone with managers debating parting with Travis... Don't pretend there isn't more to this story." He quickly removed this tweet which seems pretty telling. Not too long after this Tom released a lengthy statement giving his side of the story which essentially said that his commitments weren't solely with Blink, he found it all very sad and felt the band's relationship had been poisoned. He ended by saying "Never planned on quitting, just find it hard as hell to commit."

So, where are we now?

Mark, in an exclusive interview with Alt Press, has now claimed "Tom doesn't want to be in Blink-182. It's obvious." but that him and Travis are totally cool with it.

Confusing, right? At this moment in time there has been no official statement about the future of Blink-182. Tom seems in a bit of a state of limbo where he hasn't said "I quit" but equally hasn't said "I'm committed." And as for Travis and Mark, they seem to want to go ahead with new material and live events without Tom, so maybe Blink-182 doesn't end here. Whatever happens, Blink-182 will never be the same without Tom and the fractures that have shown in the past 48 hours have been very sad, not only for the band but for all the fans too.

Blink-182 forever.