DeLonge performs in 2011. Photo: Ethan Miller/2011 Getty Images

Not long after causing a media ruckus with band-breakup drama, Blink-182 co-founder Tom DeLonge is back in headlines — this time, with aliens. Paper published a Q&A yesterday with the guitarist that makes nary a mention of his music but dives deep into his passion for investigating the extraterrestrial. Over the course of the last few decades, DeLonge — who founded a website dedicated to his obsessions — claims to have read 200 books about UFOs and secret space programs, cultivated high-level government sources who share underground intel with him, and had his phone tapped. Here are some of the most interesting quotes from the interview, which includes riveting anecdotes (whether you believe them or not) about mind control, eerie camping trips, and cryptic threats.

On the government’s obsession with his phone:

I’ve had my phone tapped. … Years ago, there was somebody who was gathering 150 hours of top secret testimony specifically for Congressional hearings on government projects and the US secret space program. … The top 36 hours that summarized the best parts of all of that footage, I had it hidden in my house for a period of time, and during that time I was flying this person out along with somebody that was Wernher von Braun’s right-hand assistant.

On mind control:

At the time I didn’t know it, but [von Braun’s assistant] was being awoken in the middle of the night with clicking and buzzing noises and falling on the ground vomiting, every morning at 4 a.m. I know now that those are artifacts from mind-control experiments, where the same technology that we use to find oil underground, we can zap somebody at the same frequency that the brain operates on, and it can cause some really horrific things to happen.

On taking rides with strangers:

One time I remember bringing up a very specific craft that I believe we’re building, in secret, to emulate the phenomenon that our government has been observing for decades. … [T]his engineer looks at me, this guy is 70 years old, and he goes, “You better be real fucking careful about what you’re talking about.” And I go, “Okay, so I’m close.” And he goes, “I’m not fucking kidding with you. You better be really fucking careful.” And he calls me up the next day and he goes, “I’ve had calls about you. If someone comes and asks you to get in their car, don’t fucking get in the car.”

On camping in Area 51: