Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus on The Cure’s Robert Smith trying to “make out” with him: “I wish I had done it”

Blink-182‘s Mark Hoppus has spoken to NME about how he now “wishes” he had made out with The Cure‘s Robert Smith.

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The bassist first revealed the incident in his memoir Fahrenheit-182, published on April 8. He then told us in an interview that he had always admired The Cure, saying that listening to Simon Gallup “made me want to play bass.”

Hoppus also said that “it’s been a dream to grow up idolising The Cure,” adding: “I could sing you every single lyric from ‘Three Imaginary Boys’ up through ‘Bloodflowers’ word for word. He went on to say collaborating with frontman Robert Smith on the track ‘All Of This’ and their eventual performance together at a Blink-182 gig at Wembley Arena in 2004 was “beyond compare”.

He then spoke about Smith attempting to kiss him after the show, recalling: “We were hanging out backstage, and I went over to give him a hug and say thank you and that this meant the world to me. I went to give him a hug, and he tried to kiss me. I backed off, and he was like, ‘No, do it properly!’

“I was holding my wife’s hand in a packed room,” he continued. “I was like, ‘Nah!’ We were driving away, and my wife was like, ‘What a dream come true for you. What’s wrong? Why are you acting so weird?’ I was like, ‘Did you not just see Robert Smith try and kiss me?’ I was thinking, ‘Did that just happen?’”

Hoppus then said he called his drum tech to confirm the attempted kiss did actually happen. “He answers the phone, just laughing. ‘So you saw that, right?’ ‘Robert Smith trying to kiss you? Oh, I saw that!’”. Hoppus then admitted “I wish I had done it”, adding: “It would have been a much better story than, ‘It almost happened!’”.

In the same interview, Hoppus spoke about Blink-182’s old rivalry with Green Day, dating back to their shared 2002 ‘Pop Disaster Tour’.

He told NME that though he was a “huge fan”, touring with the pop-punk icons was “weird” because “Green Day were dipping at the time and Blink were ascendent. We were billed as co-headliners, but Blink were closing every night, and that was a strange sensation for us. Headlining over your idols is a little strange.”

“We showed up, we thought we were cool, we had a Number One record [‘Take Off Your Pants And Jacket’], we were the first punk band to ever have a Number One record, Green Day were on their way down for a little bit,” Hoppus added. “We walked in thinking we were hot shit and Green Day walked in ready to fight – musically of course, they were super cool to us the whole time.”

In the same memoir, Hoppus also said that he may have unknowingly assisted in the capture of Saddam Hussein, saying: “You’re welcome everyone.”

Blink-182 are heading on a massive US tour with Alkaline Trio this autumn, kicking off in Hollywood, Florida on August 28. See the full list of dates here and find any remaining tickets here.

The post Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus on The Cure’s Robert Smith trying to “make out” with him: “I wish I had done it” appeared first on NME.