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Tom DeLonge Reveals He and Blink-182's Mark Hoppus Have 'Completely Repaired' Their Friendship

Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus
Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus

Getty Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge in 2011

Through the hard times, Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus are sticking by each other's side.

Blink-182's DeLonge, 45, and Hoppus, 49, are now in touch every day and have been "able to completely repair" their friendship after reconnecting as Hoppus battles cancer and DeLonge undergoes a divorce, the Angels & Airwaves frontman revealed in an interview with Apple Music 1's Zane Lowe.

"The way the universe works is strange because I reached out to Mark because I needed him to sign this piece of paper that had to do with my divorce," said DeLonge. (He filed for divorce from his wife Jennifer in 2019 after 18 years of marriage.) "Only because of that call did I learn he had cancer. And he told me on the phone. I was like, 'Wait, what?" (Hoppus revealed his lymphoma diagnosis over the summer.)

"We weren't really talking much at all, maybe once every couple of months, a little text here and there. But now, we talk multiple times a day," DeLonge continued. "We've been able to completely repair that friendship and really cut to the depth of who we are as people and what this is all about."

RELATED: Mark Hoppus Says He's 'Grateful' After Finishing Fifth Round of Chemotherapy for Cancer

Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus
Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus

Getty Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge in 2014

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DeLonge and Hoppus were the two original founders of Blink-182 back in 1992. DeLonge left the band in 2005 when the group went on an indefinite hiatus — at the time he considered his bandmates' priorities "mad different," according to an MTV interview. He'd go on to form Angels & Airwaves. Blink-182 would then reunite for several years before DeLonge permanently left in 2015.

In his interview with Lowe, DeLonge explained that Hoppus has "had a really difficult time, but he's doing really good right now," since his chemotherapy is working after several rounds.

Tom DeLonge; Apple Music
Tom DeLonge; Apple Music

Courtesy of Apple Music Tom DeLonge speaking with Zane Lowe

"I don't think he's jumping for joy, but he's emotionally supercharged from where he was. It's interesting how stupid and how much ego is involved with boys," DeLonge said. "We're just boys and bands. Women are so much better at this stuff than we are. I always tell my wife, 'Boys are weird because unless it's a big deal, we're either going to fistfight or we're just going to brush it under the rug. There's no gray area.'"

Earlier this month, DeLonge also shared a silly text exchange between the two on his Instagram after Hoppus revealed he was done with chemo.

"I wanted to be a good friend to @markhoppus and just give some modest advice on what he should do next, now that his chemo treatments have subsided and it looks like they may have worked wonderfully," DeLonge captioned the text exchange where he encouraged his bandmate to "f— as many things as possible."

RELATED VIDEO: Blink-182's Mark Hoppus Shows Off 'Giant Bald Head' After Revealing Cancer Diagnosis

During the interview, DeLonge — who shares children Ava, 19, and Jonas, 15, with his ex-wife Jennifer — shared that he nearly stopped making music.

"I didn't know if I was going to play music anymore. I mean, I was recording music with Angels and Airwaves, but since I left Blink, I was just building my company to the stars," DeLonge said. "I got involved with the people from the government and I was doing all that stuff. I was really thinking I wasn't going to be doing music professionally or as a full-time thing."

He continued, "I went through this crazy divorce that was really sad and tragic and dealing with that with the kids and family and whatever. And I was like, 'Okay, I think I need to figure out who I am, deep down in a visceral DNA level.' So I went back out with Angels and it just ignited and I was like, 'Oh my God, this band's been growing.' I was just putting out little EPs on my own every year or something. And then I was like, 'It's time to do this for real,' and so we did."

RELATED: Aliens Exist: Tom DeLonge on Leaving Blink-182 to Blow the Lid Off the 'Biggest Secret on Earth'

Along with working on the band's sixth album Lifeforms, he's also focused on being a dad to his two children.

"Everyone says, you can't be a friend. You got to be a parent. I completely disagree. I think you got to be a friend first so you can parent," DeLonge said. "You've got to be a pal with your kids to where your kids want to tell you stuff. But if you're only a parent and you're strict, then they're not going to want to tell you anything. It just starts there."

"You kind of make your way in here and there, but at the end of the day — they're teenagers," he added.