In the five years since Blink-182's last album, the critically panned Neighborhoods, DeLonge has published a children's book, The Lonely Astronaut on Christmas Eve. He's written and produced an award-winning animated short film, Poet Anderson: The Dream Walker (not to mention, the three comic books tied to it) and launched Strange Times, a website devoted to extraterrestrial life, paranormal activity, cryptozoology, and conspiracy theories. He's currently working on a live-action film with Teen Wolf star Tyler Posey. When we spoke to Tom last fall, he was getting ready to release a upcoming sci-fi novel Poet Anderson: The Dream Walker (tied to the film, out now, the first in a trilogy). This spring he released another book, Sekret Machines Book 1: Chasing Shadows. All of this can be found under the company he launched to support it, To The Stars. All of it can be found under a central interest in space. The immensely exhaustive series of projects hasn't been part of the mainstream consciousness of who Tom DeLonge is in 2016, and how could it? That's a lot of stuff, and none of it is a catchy new single. The issue is how DeLonge's activity has been interpreted and misinterpreted, and how quotes have been taken from the man himself and presented like tracings of psychosis.

“ The immensely exhaustive series of projects hasn't been written into the mainstream consciousness of who Tom DeLonge is in 2016. The issue is how it's been interpreted. ” —

In a recent interview with Mic, DeLonge was asked what he's always asked—where his fascination with space and extraterrestrial life began. He answered: "We don't really call it 'aliens.' In pop culture, that's a term people throw out there, and rightfully so because the government spends a lot of time and a lot of money throwing that term out there. But it's much more complex than that. I first got into it in junior high. I don't know why. I just had some free time on my hands and I found myself at the school library looking for books on the subject matter. [In] the beginnings of my career with [Blink-182], you have a lot of free time in the van, traveling across the country for 12 months, so I found myself getting a lot of really interesting books that challenged the way I thought about stuff." The conversation shifted towards Blink-182 directly, with the journalist mentioning that DeLonge put the band on hold to focus on the book Sekret Machines. He replied: "Well it's not so much about Blink. It's about what I'm doing with my life now. When you're an individual like me, dealing with something that's a national security issue, and you're being gifted with the opportunity to communicate something you've been passionate about your whole life — something that has the opportunity to change the world over time — being a small part of that is enormously important for my life path. But I can't do everything. I can't tour nine months out of the year with enough time to do the enormity of what I'm setting out to do." This is where is gets tricky.

The story was immediately picked up as "Tom DeLonge Leaves Blink-182 To Study Aliens." The fact that whatever he's exploring that he himself referred to as a "national security issue" has lead people to question his sanity, in addition to mocking his interests. It has left Tom in a cycle of reactionary quotes, informing all of us that UFOs are not the reason he's no longer an active member of Blink-182, and that he is simply interested in following this particular passion right now. After all, it's not a very popular time to be Tom: People look at Blink-182 and want the band as it's existed for two decades. They fail to realize the human aspect of being in a band, that it is totally fair that DeLonge is pressing pause on the music that made his career to pursue other interests. People forget that he's not just one of the numbers 1, 8, or 2. What's perhaps most mind-blowing about the entire situation is that DeLonge has been talking about UFOs and such for decades, and has done so eloquently. In the video above, a young Tom is seen discussing his involvement with government officials, dedicated to outing the secrecy of UFOs. It's from over a decade ago (judging by his appearance, we'd place it around 2001, Take Off Your Pants & Jacket-era Blink.) In 2000, a year after "All The Small Things," in Blink-182's now-infamous half-naked Rolling Stone cover story (penned by Gavin Edwards, who would go on to co-author Travis Barker's memoir, Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death, and Drums, Drums, Drums,) DeLonge brings up an interest in UFOs. It occurs near the end in a conversation about Tom's first Valentine's Day with his wife, Jen. A young DeLonge tells the publication, "There were aliens on TV, but my chick was right there, almost nude, you know? I couldn't decide what to do! If you can get me to not pay attention to the UFO show on TV, you've got me for life." Even then, it was complete obsession. The story also includes a parenthetical where Edwards writes, "He's 100 percent convinced that the U.S. government has concealed information about the existence of aliens."