Can a rock star do what generations of investigators have failed to manage — that is, find out what the government knows about UFOs?

Last year, Tom DeLonge, the co-founder of Blink 182, told the I-Team about his plans to create a multi-media empire based on inside information given to him by military sources he had cultivated.

Since then, DeLonge has taken some lumps, and his grand plan was nearly crushed by the WikiLeaks disclosures.

The rock star life was good for Tom DeLonge. he had millions of fans, sold millions of records, and would occasionally mention his obsession in song lyrics.

But since becoming more serious about UFOs, he’s managed to tick off just about everyone, especially the UFO faithful who’ve accused him of being a dupe, a fraud, a tool of the deep state, or delusional. DeLonge has persevered.

“This is the greatest story never told period, you don’t even need to sensationalize anything. It’s like science fiction, but more like science non-fiction,” said Tom DeLonge, founder of To The Stars.

Last year, when DeLonge showed us the headquarters for his new company, To The Stars, he revealed that he had talked his way into a seat at the UFO table, by somehow cultivating a group of high-ranking sources or advisors from within the defense establishment, the keepers of UFO secrets. He says he did it by making this pitch.

“They have been backed into a corner and need a way for this to get out and I went in there saying, there will never be congressional hearings on this. I understand and accept that but what I think can happen is that we can change belief systems,” DeLonge said.

What he offered to do was to invest millions of his own dollars into telling a different story. One that explained why the cone of silence had been dropped over UFOs, why misinformation was spread. In exchange, they told him things.

Tom DeLonge: “He says, ‘We found a life form..'”

George Knapp: “We found a life form?”

Tom DeLonge: “When we first found the vehicles, I know we brought in private industry, military, intelligence, a good diverse group of elevated thinkers and said, how do we handle this?”

Defending the military’s handling of UFO secrecy was too much for many researchers. They dismissed DeLonge as a profiteer, out to make a buck on flying saucers, and maybe of making it all up.

Then came WikiLeaks Presidential advisor John Podesta’s emails spilled out for the whole world to see and in the middle of them were multiple emails to and from DeLonge, naming his secret panel of advisors, and showing there had been high-level meetings of generals and military contractors to discuss UFO disclosure.

DeLonge had been telling the truth. In February, DeLonge accepted an award from the UFO Congress in Arizona, he has since acknowledged that his panel of advisors had been shell shocked by the leaks, and that his plans had been delayed but not derailed.

For the last few months, DeLonge has been almost silent about his plans. On his Twitter feed, he’s acknowledged delays in making his big announcement but says it’s still coming. There are other hints about who might be helping him. A former high-ranking CIA operative Jim Semivan wrote the forward to one of DeLonge’s books.

Astrophysicist and author Dr. Jacques Vallee did likewise. and a former defense department official named Chris Mellon has made public statements about UFO secrecy. If DeLonge has a new team of advisors, he may be inching closer to his original plan of using movies and TV and other media for a program of gradual disclosure, rather than a sudden announcement.

“I think they really do want us to know. I really do think they do. I do, at this point, feel like it’s going to be a tough thing to swallow for people and I think there are elements about it that people are not ready for,” Delonge said.

He had hoped to make some sort of announcement about his business plans by the beginning of June but it looks like that will be delayed until later this summer.

In the meantime, he’s reportedly in the studio recording a new album.