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Tom DeLonge

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Tom DeLonge

Thomas Matthew DeLonge, Jr. (born December 13 1975) is an American musician, best known as the founding member of, and guitarist/vocalist in, bands Blink-182, Box Car Racer, and Angels and Airwaves.

Biography

Early Years

Tom DeLonge was raised by his mother and father in Poway, California. He has an older brother, Shon, and a younger sister, Kari. Tom was expelled from Poway High School during junior year after being caught drinking at a school basketball game[1]. He went to Rancho Bernardo High School, where he developed an interest in punk rock. Some of his influences have been The Cure, Descendents and Screeching Weasel. When he returned to Poway High School during his senior year, the students voted him Homecoming King, despite the fact he wasn't on the ballot[2].

Musical career

When Tom attended Rancho Bernardo High School, he met Anne Hoppus, Mark Hoppus's sister, which led to him meeting Mark Hoppus. In 1992, they hooked up with Scott Raynor to form Blink-182. When Raynor was replaced with Travis Barker in 1998, Blink-182 released Enema of the State, which had a huge amount of mainstream success. Follow-up Take Off Your Pants and Jacket even went to the number one spot on the Billboard 200. After Tom and Travis participated in the band Box Car Racer, a side project created by Tom in 2003, Blink-182 released one other album, before announcing an 'indefinite hiatus' in February 2005. Tom started the alternative band Angels and Airwaves soon after that. They released their debut, We Don't Need to Whisper in 2006. Their second album, I-Empire, is due November 6th, 2007.

He never spoke to Mark and Travis again, but he has covered the blink-182 songs "Down" and "I Miss You" with Angels and Airwaves, along with the Box Car Racer song, "There Is". One of the reasons he chose to play them is because he felt very proud of those songs and that he would have a hard time letting them go. He has been known to break into tears during the "I Miss You" cover.

He is the owner of Macbeth Footwear and Atticus Clothing, which he founded together with Mark Hoppus.

Personal life

Tom lives with his wife Jennifer DeLonge, daughter Ava Elizabeth (born July 15, 2002, also the Angels and Airwaves inspired logo), and son Jonas Rocket (born on August 16th, 2006 )) and German Shephard Grey in Rancho Santa Fe, California. He is 6 feet 4 inches tall.

Signature guitars

Fender Guitars worked with Tom to create a custom signature guitar which consisted of a solid alder body fitted with a single Seymour Duncan Invader Bridge pickup. It was controlled by a lone volume knob adding to its simple design. At first, the Stratocasters were fitted with a American 2-Point tremolo system and was later replaced by a hardtail bridge. It's neck consisted of solid maple with a rosewood fretboard, although there have been some custom Stratocaster's that were fitted with maple fretboards. The necks included a large 70's CBS headstock and Sperzel locking tuners.[3]

Since 2003, with the recording of the blink-182-album, DeLonge also has a signature Gibson ES-335 style guitar out available in brown with cream stripes. The Tom DeLonge Signature starts with Gibsons classic semi-hollowbody design and then extents it into punk rock with an overwound 'Dirty Fingers' humbucking pickup. Its thick, distorted tone is the signature sound of DeLonges previous band Blink-182.[4]

Discography

Box Car Racer

Angels & Airwaves

References

  1. ^ http://www.tv.com/tom-delonge/person/141738/biography.html
  2. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0217691/bio
  3. ^ http://www.epinions.com/content_183158214276
  4. ^ http://www.gibson.com/products/gibson/classic/tomdelonge.html
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