What's His Age Again? Blink-182's Mark Hoppus (Now 53) Looks Back.
In early March, Mark Hoppus, the singer and bassist for the long-running pop-punk trio Blink-182, and his wife, Skye, were special guests at a Sotheby's modern and contemporary art auction in London. The sale featured a piece from their collection, a rare Banksy titled 'Crude Oil (Vettriano),' up alongside works by Yoshitomo Nara, Gerhard Richter and Vincent van Gogh.
'It was such rarefied air that we've never been a part of before,' Hoppus recalled at his home a week later, outfitted in chunky black glasses, a Dinosaur Jr. long-sleeve T-shirt, navy blue Dickies and Gucci Mickey Mouse sneakers. The painting sold for nearly $5.5 million, part of which will go to charity.
It would have been hard to predict such a highfalutin turn for Hoppus back in 1999, when Blink-182 released its magnum opus, 'Enema of the State,' which catapulted the band to MTV 'Total Request Live' stardom and sold five million copies domestically. The video for the album's first single, the jocular 'What's My Age Again?,' famously features the band members running unclothed through the streets of Los Angeles. ('Naked dudes are so ridiculous,' Hoppus said. 'It just looks comical to me.') Blink-182 followed up that LP with its first No. 1 album, 'Take Off Your Pants and Jacket,' two years later.
Despite Blink-182's reputation for high jinks, naughty puns and charmingly adolescent hits like 'All the Small Things,' Hoppus is remarkably thoughtful in person. Jim Adkins, whose group, Jimmy Eat World, supported Blink-182 and Green Day on a 2002 tour, said in an interview that Hoppus exhibited 'human empathy.'
'I know 'Mark from Blink-182 is emotionally mature' might seem like an oxymoron if you don't know him,' Adkins admitted, 'but I would say that.' Image Blink-182, from left: Mark Hoppus, Travis Barker and Tom DeLonge in 1999. Credit...Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
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Los Angeles Times
7 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Turnstile's Brendan Yates on what the hardcore band's new album might be about
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Los Angeles Times
7 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
With ‘Dogma's' re-release, director Kevin Smith's prayers for his cult classic have been answered
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Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
Lost Turner oil painting found after 150 years
Turner's first ever exhibited oil painting is to be put up for auction after being lost for more 150 years. The Rising Squall, features a dramatic view of a former hot spring and spa in Bristol seen from east bank of the River Avon, before Clifton Suspension Bridge was built. It made its way around the world and returned to the UK but was unknown as a Turner masterpiece for more than a century. His signature was revealed after the painting was cleaned last year. The artwork will displayed in a public exhibition at Sotheby's, in London, between 28 June and 1 July before it is auctioned with an estimated value of up to £300,000. More news stories for Bristol Watch the latest Points West Listen to the latest news for Bristol Julian Gascoigne, Sotheby's senior specialist, said: "It's a fascinating and very instructive insight into his early style." He added the painting represents Turner, famed as a watercolourist, as a teenage artist with "ambition and skill" in his early experiments an oil painter. The painting made its debut at the Royal Academy in 1793, three days after Turner's 18th birthday, before being bought by Reverend Robert Nixon, a customer of his father's barber shop. Reverend Nixon's son inherited the painting after his death, Mr Gascoigne said, adding it then fell "into obscurity" having last been exhibited in Tasmania, Australia, in 1858. Mr Gascoigne said: "Bristol would have been a very natural place for a young artist based in London to get to relatively easily and relatively cheaply, but would provide him with the sort of dramatic, sublime, picturesque landscape that he was seeking." There was early mention of the painting in obituaries of Turner's life but for at least a century it was mistaken for a watercolour, meaning it was missing from the catalogue of his exhibited oil paintings. Up until the discovery last year during a restoration project, experts believed Turner's earliest exhibited oil was the Fisherman at Sea painting. Follow BBC Bristol on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630. Tracey Emin love letter to light up Turner gallery Watch: How Turner's masterpieces inspired a BBC Weather forecaster Turner prints on show for first time in 100 years Sotheby's
