Blink-182's Mark Hoppus reveals why the band bailed on its Fyre Festival set
Aux Features FYRE FESTIVAL
It’s easy to forget sometimes that the disastrous Fyre Festival was actually supposed to be a music festival, not just an orgiastic bacchanal set against mountains of burning cash. Pusha T, Tyga, Major Lazer, Disclosure, and Migos were all slated to headline, as were pop-punk heroes Blink-182, who were one of the first acts to publicly announce they wouldn’t be performing. Now, in a new interview with NME, frontman Mark Hoppus has revealed why the band bailed, and it appears to have amounted to all the/ small things.
“We had indications kind of early on that there were problems,” he said. “Our production crew was having problems getting even the most basic of answers as to staging, power and things that you would normally have well in advance of the show.” Hoppus adds that the band “continued in good faith,” as “electricity and a stage” is all they need to rock, but the straw that broke the camel’s back was, funnily enough, drummer Travis Barker’s fear of flying.
“Travis doesn’t fly,” he continued, “so he was going to have to get on a boat for several days to get there then our production crew just said, ‘I don’t think that this is going to happen, I think we should pull out now’. That’s when we issued our statement.”
Hoppus called the two documentaries chronicling the festival “shocking but not entirely surprising,” and even addressed Seth Rogen and The Lonely Island’s upcoming comedy about a failed music festival. When asked who would play them should Blink make an appearance, he replied, “That has to be Ryan Gosling for me, of course. Matt [Skiba, frontman] would be played by someone goth-y like Crispin Glover and Travis would be played by Machine Gun Kelly.”
First off, MGK makes total sense, what with the tattoos and his history of playing tattooed drummers. And though Glover’s too old to play a guy who wears tight black tees, we’re now obsessed with him acting out the scene where Skiba draws upon his pagan witch energy to doom the festival. Yes, that happened and, yes, we want that movie.
39 Comments
Everyone at Fyre Festival waiting for Blink-182 to show up:WEARAREEYEEEW
I’m ready for Crispin Glover’s “How do you do, fellow kids?” momentplus, the poor guy signed on to be in a Bryan Fuller show and now American Gods is a stinker, I hope he can escape that contract somehow…witch energy?
American Gods is a stinker? That’s too bad to hear if that’s the case. I remember when it came out it was all the rage. Did they pull a True Detective, where the first season was so great and then the second one was very lukewarm?
The first season was very promising. Not all the way there but it threatened to become great at any moment. Then they drove off Bryan Fuller. Several of the best cast members dropped out. I watched two episodes of this season and they were a steep steep drop-off, heard the third was worse. Of the people who are left, other than McShane and Glover, they really needed Fuller to keep them from being one-note petulant (Emily Browning), hammy (Pablo Schrieber, Orlando Jones who is just insufferable), or just really dull (Ricky Whittle the lead)
Agree. The first season was irritatingly lit and directed but at least had great scripts. This season is a dud. Too bad. Maybe they’ll reboot it in a few years. (joke, but not really).
Fuller has developed a My Bloody Valentine pacing that rewards in the long-run but man does he take his time. I really wish he had run Star Trek Disco instead of American Gods, I’d like to see what he has to do with quick pacing.
I love Bryan Fuller as much as the next guy, but drove him off? It was reported that Season 1 came in $30 million over budget and they still had to cut at least one planned episode. Then they asked for even more money for Season 2… good luck with that.
What are the other shows on Starz, their stars, their esteem, and their budgets? Presumably Fuller himself wasn’t asking for $30MM more in his pocket, he wanted to make a better show. Considering that AG was the ONLY thing I watched on Starz…since Ash v. Evil Dead ended and since Party Down (though I want to check out the Greg Araki show) if they want to compete then maybe they should have thought twice about losing Gillian Anderson and Kristen Chenoweth. Outlander is only going to get your grandma damp for another season or two, that channel is basically dead. Also noting that, while I don’t think Shadow should have got a BJ, the idea of making him less painfully boring was a good one…maybe making him a creep would be good.
All I can think of is the scene in Dewey Cox where Dewey is getting ready to play with his fellow 6th graders…
“but the straw that broke the camel’s back was, funnily enough, drummer Travis Barker’s fear of flying”Not really funny “ha ha” so much.
I wonder why Travis Barker doesn’t like to fly?
I remember seeing an old David Letterman interview with Crispin Glover for one of the Back to the Future movies. At one point, he enthusiastically said “I can kick” and showed David Letterman, putting a karate kick at head level in the air over by the desk. Dave sat back in his chair, speechless with a stunned look on his face. They suddenly went to commercial and Crispin was not there when they came back.
yep infamous moment.
Has to be the first one since it’s the only one he’s in.
He’s strong! He can arm-wrestle.
Fucking genius.
I remember seeing the interview when it came out. So old.
LSD is a hell of a drug.
That wasn’t for Back to the Future or any of its sequels; Glover’s part had already been recast for BttF2 (and, infamously, Robert Zemeckis used prosthetics and other practical effects to suggest that Glover was in the sequel; Glover sued the producers, which led to clauses in Screen Actors Guild contracts prohibiting the practice). Supposedly, he was on Letterman to promote River’s Edge, but he showed up as his character from an indie film called Rubin and Ed. Since that film didn’t actually come out for a few years, a lot of people thought that his goofy (and nearly-Letterman-face-breaking) act was some sort of arch commentary on criticisms of his acting in River’s Edge, in which he was playing a meth head, IIRC.
I remember that. There was some debate about whether he was in character, debuting some bizarre performance art, or just high off his ass.
Imagine rolling up in that boat and nearly being swamped by all the people swimming out to escape the island. It would have been like Titanic, rich people and all.
If I were Travis Barker, I’d never want to fly again either.
Yeah, I’m not sure there’s anything “funny” about his fear of flying…
No kidding.
I’m surprised this wasn’t further explained in the article. Travis is very lucky to be alive and he’ll probably do whatever he feels is necessary to keep it that way.
A boat for several days? To the Bahamas? Was it gonna be a rowboat?
He usually takes one of the Queen Mary’s
And though Glover’s too old to play a guy who wears tight black teesTo be fair, so is Skiba.And yes, I am grumpy that Alkaline Trio hasn’t made a good album since 2003 and still find it beyond the pale that Skiba is in Blink 182.
Glad to see I’m not the only one unimpressed by Crimson. If I had to pick a post-Good Mourning album to listen to, it would probably be This Addiction.
I probably owe it to them to give some of the more recent stuff a listen, but with Crimson and Agony & Irony I saw a distinct buttward trajectory and gave up on them. Once you’ve gone butt, you can never really come back.
I mean, they’re all definitely less good than the first 4. I think I listened to Irony and Agony once, and I have no desire to go back and try again. The three albums since then aren’t butt, but they’re still pretty much “meh”.
I demand a higher standard from my most beloved artists. Meh=Butt.Either write good songs or go sell real estate. Or if you’re Fat Mike, both.
you must not have heard Is This Thing Cursed which was their best since Good Mourning
“Fear of flying” is an interesting take on barely surviving a fatal plane crash.
Holy shit I forgot about that!
No one said it’s not a justified fear.
I was at the concert—not by choice—in which he’d just performed before getting on that doomed flight. The concert was held to celebrate the grand opening of a T-mobile store. It was not a good show. Perry Farrell opened and was fucking terrible. Just a straight-up abomination to hear.
Matt Skiba… is the singer for… Blink-182…???Wtf.