Latest / DISGRACELAND / Blink-182: Tom Was Right. Aliens Exist. (Rewind)

Transcript

Blink-182: Tom Was Right. Aliens Exist. (Rewind) · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, guys, thanks for checking in here for another
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Rewind episode of Disgraceland. We're going back to our story
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: on Tom DeLonge from Blink-182 and his efforts around UFO
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: slash UAP disclosure. We originally released this story back on
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: January 28th, 2025. A lot has gone down since then. Okay,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: there's been a lot of stories in the news about
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: disclosure around this very topic. I would argue we've seen
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: more disclosure. There's been a pretty incredible... documentary that came
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: out called The Age of Disclosure. There was a Steven
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Spielberg movie. And I think everything we've seen since we've
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: released this episode now, granted, there's been a lot of noise,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: but I think on balance, everything we've seen has strengthened
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: the case this episode makes about Tom DeLonge from Blink-182.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Here it is. Check it out. If you heard it
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: back then, listen to it again with fresh ears based
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: on the news that's broken over the last Let's see,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: almost two years since this was released. And if you've
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: never heard it before, sit back, relax, and enjoy this
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: classic episode of Disgraceland. Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: This is a story about Blink-182, which means it's also
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: a story about dick jokes, about running through the streets
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: of Los Angeles naked, and about simple, infectious, juvenile pop punk.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: It's also a story about the truth, about what the
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: government does and does not want us to talk about,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: or even to think about. It's about a plane crash,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: a cancer diagnosis, and about a snot-nosed punk from Southern
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: California who was expelled from high school, but would eventually
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: find himself taking meetings with White House personnel. A snot-nosed
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: punk who, in his band, Blink-182 made great music. Unlike
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: that music I played for you at the top of
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: the show. That wasn't great music. That was a preset
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: loop from my Mellotron called Husker Du's Books About UFOs MK1.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: I played you that loop because I can't afford the
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: rights to blinding lights by the weekend. And why would
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: I play you that specific slice of 80s time machine cheese,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: could I afford it? Because that was the number one
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: song in America on April 27th, 2020. And that was
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: the day that the Department of Defense did something it
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: had never done before. Disclosed information to the public regarding
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: the likely existence of life from beyond this planet and
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: or this dimension. On this episode, dick jokes, government lies,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Aliens Exist and Blink-182. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Aliens exist. But don't take my word for it, or
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: anybody's word for it, for that matter. Look at the evidence.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: The federal government's actions, to be exact. Look at the
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: front page of the New York Times, where it was
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: reported in 2020 that U.S. intelligence agencies had established a
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: program called the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force to, quote,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: standardized collection and reporting of sightings of unexplained aerial vehicles, unquote.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: On the Times website and across the internet, you can
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: find videos of these so-called unexplained aerial vehicles captured by
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: naval pilots. Videos of aircraft moving in unearthly ways that
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: defy physics. Video footage the Times calls mystifying. If you
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: dig an inch deeper... you'll quickly learn about the legitimacy
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: of these videos. You'll find countless military personnel from the
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: last 75 years, many highly decorated, many who put their
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: credibility on the line, credibility they spent their entire careers building,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: detailing the very real experiences with similar logic-defying aircraft that
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: will lead you to only one possible explanation. Aliens exist.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: They're real. You know what else is real? What the
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: government does and does not want us to think. Up
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: until about seven years ago, it was very evident that
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: the government did not want us to think that aliens
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: did indeed exist or that they were real. No, that
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: type of thinking was wrong. It was wrong think. Very,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: very bad. That thinking was for crackpots who spent a
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: little too much time believing the headlines they read in
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: the supermarket checkout line. And there was a time back
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: in the 20th century when the government didn't want us
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: thinking or speaking about much more than God, country, and family.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: And this has all changed, of course. The government doesn't
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: care too much these days about God, country, and family.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: But back in 1966, if you used the wrong type
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: of language, language that, of course, encouraged subversive thinking, if
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: you demonstrated wrong think by using the wrong language in public,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: you'd go to jail. Ask comedian Lenny Bruce, who was
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: arrested for saying nine specific words. Ass, balls, cocksucker, cunt, fuck, motherfucker,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: piss shit, and tits. Then, six years later in 1972,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: comedian George Carlin had this to say about it.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: In poor taste, unseemly, street talk, gutter talk, locker room language,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: barracks talk, bawdy, naughty, saucy, raunchy, crude, lewd, lascivious, indecent, profane, obscene, blue, off-color, risque, suggestive, cursing, cussing, swearing,
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: and all I could think of was shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker,
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: and tits.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: That bit from Carlin's 1972 album Class Clown was played
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: on WBAI radio in New York in 1973. A complaint
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: was filed against the radio station and the Federal Communications Commission,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: the FCC, issued a declaration backing the complaint, holding the
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: radio station accountable. The complaint was filed in court, and
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: it went all the way to the Supreme Court, where
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: it was found that, yes, under no circumstance does the
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: government want you to say the words ass, balls, cocksucker, cunt, fuck, motherfucker, piss, shit,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: and tits on its airwaves. Count the snotty Southern California
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: pop-punk band Blink-182 among the innumerable counterculture subversives who didn't
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: get the Supreme Court's memo. That's Blink-182's live staple, Family Reunion,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: which is essentially George Carlin's seven words you can never
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: say on television routine set to music. The boys and
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Blink added fart, turd, and twat for good measure. And
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: that song was released as a promotional single in 1999. Now,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: there's no telling whether or not those lyrics were swimming
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: through Blink-182 guitarist and co-singer-songwriter Tom DeLonge's head back in
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: 1995 while he sat handcuffed in the back of a Jacksonville,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Florida police cruiser, busted for wandering the streets of Jacksonville
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: drunk and carrying an open container while on the group's
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: first real tour, Tom was in for a long night
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: in jail. A night where Tom's imagination would see him through.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: It was always Tom's ability to dream that delivered him
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: through the tough times. Through the monotony of a bored
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: suburban teenage existence. Through the bleakness of a grown-up prescribed
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: adult future in a cubicle or on a construction site.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Through his parents splitting up. through getting expelled from high school.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: They could tell him there was no future, but they
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: couldn't make him believe it. The local library back in Poway, California,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: gave his dreams wings. Books about UFOs and the Kennedy assassination.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Punk Rock gave him the audacity he needed to question authority. Chin,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Have You Seen Him? Charlie Don't Serve? California Uberalice? All
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: of the subversiveness that was at the core of the
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: West Coast punk ethos that Tom DeLonge raised himself on
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: made it very easy for him to call bullshit on
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: the official government narratives aimed at explaining away the topics
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: he obsessed over in his local library. The U.S. Air
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Force's Roswell report on the 1947 New Mexico UFO crash
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: and the report from the trumped-up Warren Commission on the
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: assassination of John F. Kennedy. Police. You ought to be
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: a mindless automaton to accept these explanations as anything more
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: than what they obviously were. Lies from a government hell-bent
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: on bending the public's perception of the truth. On that
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: first Blink-182 tour back in 1995, Tom's bandmates, bassist and
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: fellow singer-songwriter Mark Hoppus, and original drummer Scott Rayner, no
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: doubt had no idea what to think as they drove
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: through Dallas' Dealey Plaza, the site of President Kennedy's assassination
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: 32 years earlier, and listened to their bandmate Tom go
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: on and on over his theory that Kennedy was shot
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: because he had learned the truth about aliens, and that
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: JFK was going to disclose to the American public evidence
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: proving aliens exist. In 1995, this type of thinking seemed hysterical,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: but to Tom DeLonge, this type of thinking was essential.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: after bouncing from that Jacksonville jail with a slap on
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: the wrist, after taking in a rocket launch in nearby
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Cape Canaveral, after wrapping a successful first tour in 95,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: after breaking through on the 1996 Warped Tour and capitalizing
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: on a major label bidding war, after signing with MCA
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Records and releasing an album that went gold, after parting
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: ways with their original drummer and replacing him with the
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: percussive juggernaut that is Travis Barker, After casting Alyssa freaking
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Milano in their music video and downgrading America's collective maturity
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: level a couple notches with songs about shitting your pants
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: and getting laid, this type of thinking, this hysterical wrong-think,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: was absolutely driving Tom DeLonge to write the lyrics for
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Blink-182's song, Aliens exist. A song that nearly everyone laughed
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: off as just another example of Blink-182's staggering level of immaturity.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: A song with a sentiment that would one day compel
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: the United States government to take Tom DeLonge as nothing
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: less than dead serious. The United States government lets you
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: get away with a lot of things. For instance, you
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: can wake up one morning and walk into your recording
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: studio and rant into the microphone about what a bunch
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: of duplicitous controlling autocrats the government is made up of,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: and depending on the size of your microphone, you can
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: pretty much get away with it as I am right now.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: What you can't get away with is not forking over
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: to the government its piece, its take. And if you
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: don't pay the government the taxes it demands... a massive
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: percentage of which is exorbitant and unnecessary, the government will
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: apply a vig to the principal amount you owe, which will,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: in turn, make your debt nearly impossible to pay off.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Does this sound familiar to you? It sounds to me
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: like the mafia. It's the same tactic gangsters have used
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: for years in their Shylock businesses. Perry Farrell of Jane's
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Addiction once said, quote, the gang and the government are
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: no different. And he wasn't wrong. not in principle. The
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: federal government is, of course, more evolved and more sophisticated
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: than the mafia. If, say, you're a porn star and
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: you owe, oh, I don't know, $ 300, 000 in back taxes,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: now you know full well, as we all do, that
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: you should have paid those taxes. Making tax payments is
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: not a new concept, but it's easy to see how entertainers, athletes,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: and those in the workforce who aren't accustomed to coming
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: into massive cash windfall's fail to make payments. You get
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: paid $ 600, 000 for a couple of skin flicks, and all
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: of a sudden you have to fork over 50% to
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: the feds. Now, for a porn star, that's hard to swallow. Sorry,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: I couldn't resist. This is, after all, still a Blink-182 episode,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: even though I'm talking about tax rates at the moment.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: But I promise this is going somewhere relevant. So anyway,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: you're a porn star who owes $ 300, 000 in taxes. Now,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: the government isn't going to act like the mafia and
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: blow up your place of business with a pipe bomb.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: But it is going to send agents to your house
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: and those fancy windbreakers at an ungodly early morning hour,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: raid your place, take you away in handcuffs, and throw
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: you in a federal prison. And that's what happened to
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Janine Lindemulder in 2009. And despite the fact that she'd
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: starred in a Blink-182 video 10 years earlier, there was
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: nothing she could do about it. Janine was going to jail. Because,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: as Tom DeLonge would soon find out, the federal government
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: does not fuck around. But back in 1999, Janine had
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: no way of knowing that. She had other things on
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: her mind, like the three skinny naked punk rock dudes
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: ogling her on a Los Angeles street corner while the
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: cameras rolled. This was a different camera crew than Janine
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: was used to. This wasn't a Valley production. This was
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: more Hollywood. The boys in the band were nice enough
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: and funny, despite being wickedly horny. Janine saw real quick
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: that the boys in Blink were about to learn the
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: hard truth about a skin flick production, and that's that
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: being naked in front of scores of people in broad daylight,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: it might be funny or sexy when the finished edit
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: hits screens, but while you're making the thing, being naked
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: on set sucks. Sure, you look all daring and cool
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: running through the streets of Hollywood filming your new video
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: for your incredibly catchy song, What's My Age Again? But
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: then once they call cut, You're just a schmuck in
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: a skin-colored Speedo and nothing else on, standing on the
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: side of West 3rd in L.A. while dudes in Jeep
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: Cherokees drive by and give you the finger and launch
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: homophobic slurs at you. Janine, of course, thought it was hysterical.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: So did the rest of America. The video, that is,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: not the homophobic cutdowns. What's My Age Again was a
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: massive hit, both as a video and a single, propelling
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Blink-182's newest album at the time, Enema of the State,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: to sell 15 million copies, probably more by now. Enema
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: of the State also featured the song Aliens Exist, with
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: the lyrics, Hey mom, there's something in the back room.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Hope it's not the creature from above. You used to
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: read me stories as if my dreams were boring. We
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: all know conspiracies are dumb. And what if people knew
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: that these were real? I'd leave my closet door open
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: all night. I know what the CIA would say. What
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: you hear is all hearsay. I wish someone would tell
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: me what was right. Tom DeLonge, who wrote those lyrics, though,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: was wrong about the CIA. Someone was, in fact, about
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: to tell him what exactly was right. Enema of the
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: State turned Blink-182 into a household name. Their next album,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: featuring another trademark juvenile Blink title, Take Off Your Pants
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: and Jacket, was also a hit. They followed that up
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: with a self-titled full-length in 2003. After that effort, the
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: band entered a phase that is treacherous ground for any
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: group of self-respecting rock stars, adulthood. Life changed for Tom DeLonge,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: Mark Hoppus, and Travis Barker. In 2005, Tom quit the
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: band to be with his family. In 2008, Travis Barker
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: was in a private plane crash in which six people died.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: He was severely injured along with his friends, a musical
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: collaborator in his group, Travis DJ AM, Adam Goldstein, a.k.a.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: DJ AM, who was driven back into addiction after the
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: crash and the trauma of it all. He overdosed and
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: died in 2009. And the extremely traumatic event nearly drove
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Travis to suicide. But ultimately, he recovered both physically and
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: mentally from the horrible experience. In 2009, Tom DeLonge rejoined
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Blink-182 And the group embarked on another chapter, touring and
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: releasing the full-length album Neighborhoods. The album was well-received critically.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: It was a progression from their more youthful efforts, but
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: was that necessarily a good thing? In the end, the
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: album failed to set the world on fire. And throughout
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: the early aughts, and after reuniting with Blink-182, Tom DeLonge
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: recorded and toured with a side project known as Angels
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: and Airwaves. And then, in 2014... Tom DeLonge took a
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: trip out to the desert. Area 51. Death Valley. Tom
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: awoke in his tent. The voices outside in the desert
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: were too many to count. Too many to comprehend. They
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: woke him up. They weren't human. His fellow campers, one
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: of whom was a prominent ufologist, slept soundly in their tents.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: These sounds were Unearthly, but still strangely familiar. Murmuring. Whispering.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Tom could hardly understand them. He could scarcely hold on
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: to his awareness of them over the sound of his
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: steadily beating heart, which was now pounding. Those voices, whatever
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: they were, wherever they came from, were there. Right there.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: At the edge of perception. But the words themselves were
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: impossible to comprehend. and whatever message was meant to be
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: translated fell short. Tom couldn't grasp it. It floated away.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: He was awake now, but he wasn't conscious. so he
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: couldn't possibly understand. The beings, whether they were extraterrestrials from
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: worlds far away or extraterrestrials from uncharted dimensions here in
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: this world, whether they were angels or demons or whatever
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: they were, Tom was told they communicate through consciousness. They
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: speak to us through high consciousness. They compel us. In
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: those moments when our minds disassociate from this world, when
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: we unplug, when we simply are, when we dream, when
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: we pray, perhaps when we ingest psychedelics, however we get there,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: it's that point when all of our thoughts, actions, and
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: emotions are objectifiable. When we separate from the subjective and
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: become conscious, that's when their whispers, their murmurs, manifest into
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: messages that permeate our own thoughts. Perhaps even their messages
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: present to us as our own thoughts. Perhaps our ideas are,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: on some quantum level, not ideas at all, but rather
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: the aliens themselves being born out of our own consciousness,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: pulling us into a higher strangeness and moving us closer
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: toward a greater universal understanding. But alone, awake, and afraid
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: in a tent in the middle of the desert? Consciousness
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: is unattainable. And therefore, so is extra or ultra-terrestrial communication.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: So Tom was out. But Tom was also in. Whatever
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: he did or did not understand out in the desert
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: on that night in 2014... was enough to compel him
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: to dedicate his life to learning more and demanding that
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: the powers that be share with the American public what
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: they did or did not know. And Tom DeLonge knew
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: enough to know that the U.S. government knew a lot
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: more about beings from other worlds and or other dimensions
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: than they were letting on. In short order, in 2015,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: Tom DeLonge would quit Blink-182, one of the planet's biggest
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: rock and roll bands, to go chase UFOs We'll be
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: right back after this word, word, word. Blink-182's Tom DeLonge
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: describes alien encounter, says authorities tapped his phone. Tom DeLonge
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: just proved he's gone completely insane during alien rant. I'm
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: not going to say Tom DeLonge is batshit crazy, but
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: Tom DeLonge wants you to stop calling him crazy for
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: researching aliens. And that's a smattering of what the media
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: had to say about Tom DeLonge's efforts to investigate the
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: legitimacy of alien existence after departing Blink-182. The rock and
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: roll press was predictably the most snarky and also the
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: most disingenuous. Consequence of Sound elaborated on their claims that
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Tom had gone crazy, adding this to their cheap hit
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: piece on him. Quote, former Blink-182 member implies he met
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: with Bill Clinton to discuss the threat of UFOs. when
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: in fact Tom did not imply he was meeting with
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Bill Clinton. That was a presumption the so-called journalist from
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Consequence cooked up entirely on his own to make Tom
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: look crazy, based on a photo of a meeting Tom
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: posted to Instagram and then deleted. So... Is now a
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: good time to mention the fact that the CIA has
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: had journalists planted in the media since the 1960s as
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: part of their secret Operation Mockingbird to help shape various
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: narratives to fit the government's view of what it wants
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: the public to think? Perhaps. But perhaps that's a digression
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: that'll derail this story. And maybe you guys can go
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: ahead and look that one up for yourself, though. Operation Mockingbird.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Back to Tondalong. Remember earlier when I said the government
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: doesn't fuck around? Here's what I meant. The stakes for
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: the meeting couldn't have been higher. Tom used a mix
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: of his celebrity and astute politicking to set it up.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: Himself and a federal government aerospace contractor. It is unconfirmed,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: but it is widely believed that the contractor was Lockheed
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Martin and their special division, Skunk Works. The meeting was
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: heavily secured. Four layers of security. armed guards, and white
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: noise pumping through speakers to scramble any listening devices inside
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: the dark, windowless room. Tom was prepared. He had the
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: audience he had been building toward for some time now.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: He had a message to deliver. He had a reaction
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: to elicit. This was, in some really strange way, no
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: different than being on stage. This was a performance like
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: any other. Tom explained that the work done by the government,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: the military, and their contractors on UFO phenomena was worthy
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: of disclosure, and that the proper way to disclose this
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: information to the youth was through culture, through books, through comics,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: through records, through films. Tom wanted to combine a celebrity
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: and authentic connection to the youth with the vast knowledge
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: of the UFO phenomena he had attained over the years.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: One of the contractors scoffed. essentially told Tom he was
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: a conspiracy theorist wasting his time, and he abruptly left
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: the room. The other contractors followed him. All but one.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: All but the lead contractor, who sat back and listened
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: to more of Tom's pitch. The government and its contractors
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: were doing great work in this area. Why did it
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: all have to be so secret? There was so much
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: evidence that it was obvious what the truth was. Eventually,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: that truth was going to come out. And then what?
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: What kind of effect would the shocking truth about alien
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: existence here on Earth have on the American public? Could
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: anything be more disruptive to humanity, more life-altering, than the
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: realization that we are not alone in the universe? What
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: would this knowledge do to humanity? It would no doubt
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: have a life-altering influence on our core beliefs as a species.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: on our thoughts about our place and point in this world,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: about God, about the devil, about good and evil. It
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: was knowledge, secret knowledge, that had to be handled and
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: disclosed very cautiously. When Tom finished, the government contractor, to
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: Tom's amazement, agreed that slowed disclosure of the UFO phenomenon
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: via culture, rather than exclusively through traditional media, could responsibly
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: bring the public around to the mind-bending notion that yes,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: aliens exist. This is the part of the story where
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: you call bullshit and I don't blame you. Why would
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: a federal defense contractor or anyone connected with the federal
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: government entrust a foul-mouthed punk rocker from a band with
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: a nonsensical name like Blink-182 with disclosing humanity-altering information to
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: the public? Well, because this is what the government has
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: always done used cutouts from culture. Individuals from the world
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: of arts and entertainment. Actors, musicians, artists. The government has
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: relied on these individuals of influence for the better part
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: of a century to get its message to the American people.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: In 1954, the CIA secretly funded the film adaptation of
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: George Orwell's Animal Farm and its efforts to win hearts
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: and minds during the Cold War against communist Russia. To
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: further its winning efforts in the Cold War, the CIA
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: secretly bolstered the careers of abstract expressionist painters Mark Rothko
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: and Jackson Pollock. These artists were unaware of the strings
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: the CIA pulled on their behalf to promote them, but
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: the government's message was sent, and it was this. In America,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: our artists thrive. In the Soviet Union, artists are thrown
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: in prison. As recently as 2013, the CIA demanded and
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: received script approval for the television series The Americans. You know,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: all that long-winded expositional dialogue blathering on and on about
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: UN regulations in the movie Iron Man? Guess who had
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: a production agreement in their dirty hands all over the
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: script for that film? The CIA. So, the federal contractor
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: agreed to help Tom and connected him with an unnamed
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: general who confirmed Tom's belief in UFO phenomena and agreed
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: that the time was now for disclosure. Perhaps the general's
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: thoughts around timing had something to do with the hundreds
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: of unidentified aerial phenomena being captured on video by the U.S.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: military personnel at that exact point in time. The news
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: was coming out. UFOs were no longer relegated to the
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: tabloids lining your supermarket checkout. They were being discussed and
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: shown everywhere. on the front page of the New York Times,
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: and on the nightly news. The dam was breaking. The
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: general agreed to connect Tom with experts from the intelligence community,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: from aerospace, and even an expert from the White House,
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: all to advise Tom DeLonge from Blink-frickin-182 on how to
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: take the information he had gathered on his own thus
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: far and disclose the fact that aliens exist. With these
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: new contacts, Tom then pulled together a formal group of advisors,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: heavy hitters, ex-CIA operatives, NASA and DOD advisors, White House staff,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: and private sector AI contractors, and gathered them into a
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: new company he called To The Stars. Its mission? To
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: create culture to help disclose the truth about UFOs. Predictably,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: the press pounced, doubling down its ire on Tom for
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: quitting a beloved punk rock band to waste time trying
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: to validate quote-unquote conspiracy theories. The media was particularly incensed
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: with Tom's intimation that he was working with government operatives
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: connected to the White House. This seemed to be the
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: height of delusion. Tom was scorched across the Internet, doubted, defamed,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: disgraced by everyone from faceless, cowardly Internet trolls to the
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: likes of Vice magazine, which issued a factually incorrect expose
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: on Tom's company's financial stability, which... coming from the bankrupt
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: vice is, as we now know, the height of irony.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: And then, something remarkable happened. So what exactly was in
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: that WikiLeaks dump of DNC emails besides proof that the
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: Democratic Party attempted to subvert the campaign of one of
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: its candidates, Bernie Sanders, and coronate the party's chosen candidate,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton? There were numerous emails between Tom DeLonge and
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: John Podesta, official counselor to the President of the United States,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: Barack Obama, and the presidential campaign manager at the time
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: to the former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and one-time
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Deputy Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton. The emails
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: detailed Tom's disclosure plan with Podesta, who became a public
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: advocate for UFO disclosure upon leaving the White House. And
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: the emails also detailed an in-person meeting between Tom and
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Podesta and other high-level government and military operatives. All of
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: a sudden, the dick-joke-cracking UFO-chasing guitar player from Blink-182 didn't
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: look so crazy. And Tom doubled down. In 2017, one
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: of his official To The Stars advisors, Lou Elizondo, who
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: previously ran the Pentagon's secret government program formed to study
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: UFO phenomena, leaked three videos captured by military pilots showing
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: unidentified aerial phenomena flying off of the east coast of
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: the United States. Let me say all that again. Tom DeLonge,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: the Blink-182 guy, hired away the Pentagon official who ran
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: the government's secret program to study UFOs. a program the
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: government once adamantly denied the existence of but reversed course
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: on and admitted that, yes, the program did exist and
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: that millions of dollars were secretly funneled to this program
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: to study alien and aerial phenomena. And that guy helped
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: Tom leak the video showing that aerial phenomena. And that then,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: and this is the point... the government itself officially declassified
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: that video in 2020, in effect confirming that the video
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: Tom DeLonge leaked back in 2017 was real and also
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: in the process effectively admitting the existence of aliens. As
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: reported in the New York Times in 2021, the government
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: admitted that it had no explanation for the aerial objects
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: and stopped just short of ruling out aliens. Again, the
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: government stopped short of ruling out aliens. Tom DeLonge, the
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: guitarist from Blink-182, did that. This guy. What would you
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: guys do? This happened to me. What would you do
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: if you were like sleeping and you feel like a
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: slight tapping on your body? And you wake up and
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: you're like, what? And you look down, and your brother
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: is going, Mr. Inky-Doo-Doo-Doo, and walks up your legs. He's like,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: walking up your legs. And he goes and zips down
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: your zipper and grabs the dick and goes, Oh, Mr. Inky-Doo-Doo-Doo-Doo.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: It happened to me three times last night. I fucked
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: your mom. Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 was sick. Really sick.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: It was 2021, and there was no Blink-182, actually. So
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: I should say that Mark Hoppus, formerly of Blink-182, was sick.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: He didn't mean to post the photo of him receiving
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: his first round of chemotherapy to his million-plus followers on Instagram.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: He had a witty caption for the photo of him
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: sitting there in his L.A. Dodgers hat, thick black-framed glasses,
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: and comfy Birkenstock sandals over blue socks, and the caption read, Yes, hello,
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: one cancer treatment, please. Mark meant for the image to
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: be shared only with his close friends on Instagram, but
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: he messed up his settings and the image went wide
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: for all of his followers. And there's no telling if
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Mark's ex-bandmate Tom DeLonge was included in Mark's close friends
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: setting on Instagram, or if he was part of Mark's
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: wider set of impersonal account followers. But regardless, when Tom
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: learned of Mark's diagnosis, he knew he was going to
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: do something he thought he would never do again. Play
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: music with Blink-182. Tom has since been quoted as saying,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: when he told me he was sick, that was like
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: the gnarliest. Nothing matters, really. DeLong continued. It wasn't about
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: fame or money or how big Blink was or anything.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: It was like, you're going to get through this shit
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: and we're going to go dominate. You need a purpose
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: in life, especially when you're sick and fighting for your life.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: Tom DeLong knew all about needing purpose. He'd been purpose-driven
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: for the better part of the last decade. Unfortunately, that purpose,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: Tom's mission to disclose the truth about aliens, often ran
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: up against Tom's earlier passion, playing music with Blink-182. But
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: that was all about to change. Blink-182 reunited, and Mark
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: Hoppus beat cancer. Tom, Mark, and Travis are back on stage,
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: stadium stages. There are less dick jokes, but they're still there,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: and now there's another element of Blink's sets. That moment
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: when Mark leans into the mic and says, Tom was right,
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: and the crowd freaks out because they know what's coming.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: Blink's 1999 banger from Enema of the State, Aliens Exist.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: The vindication is palpable, if not juvenile, but that's what
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: it should be. This is still, after all, rock and
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: roll in Even though the boys in Blink-182 are all
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: either in or about to be in their 50s, rock
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: and roll is still the province of youth. It's juvenile,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: and there's nothing wrong with that. There's a weird sort
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: of wisdom that only kids process. They're wise enough to dream,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: to question authority unequivocally and without shame. Rock and roll,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: punk rock, whatever you want to call it, is a
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: rebellion against growing up, against accepting adult mandates that stifle
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: creativity your imagination, and your ability to dream. Blink-182 and
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: Tom DeLonge knew this when they were young punks playing
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: shows in Southern California, and they never lost sight of it.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: Tom DeLonge never accepted the grown-up notion that dreams and
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: big ideas and thinking outside of the prefabricated suburban box
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: were the type of childish thoughts that adults need to
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: put aside because, well, grown-ups suck. And the federal government
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: and the media are filled with grown-ups, the majority of
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: whom lack imagination and the courage needed to make like
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: those old punk rockers and question authority. Tom DeLonge did
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: something no other civilian has ever done. Compelled the federal
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: government to disclose previously unacknowledged truths about alien existence here
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: on Earth. The question now isn't whether or not aliens exist.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: As Blink-182 sang about in 1999, the question is why
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: the government, or at least some part of the government,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: now wants us to know this truth. Why have they
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: reached some sort of unofficial partnership with Tom DeLonge? My
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: theory is that there's more coming. Much more. Advanced radar
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: systems are what made it possible for those naval pilots
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: back in the late aughts to capture that UAP footage.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: What technology are we developing currently that will similarly unveil
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: deeper truths about extra and ultra terrestrials? Will the AI
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: revolution irrefutably prove alien existence in a way that the
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: automaton bureaucrats and the disinterested public won't be able to ignore?
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: Does this coming onslaught of technological truth worry the government
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: enough to compel it toward more disclosure? Perhaps. It's just
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: a theory. It's just me dreaming. Just like Tom DeLonge
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: from Blink-182, whose mission is anything but a disgrace. I'm
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland. All right. Thanks for
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: checking out this episode. This week's question of the week is,
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: do you believe in non-human intelligence? Do aliens exist? And
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: have you ever had an experience with a UFO, a
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: UAP or something unexplainable or anomalous? Let me know and
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: we will discuss your experiences in our next after party
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: bonus episode. Call me with your answers.
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: 617-906-6638.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: Leave me a voicemail. Send me a text. DM me
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: at disgracelandpod. Email me at disgracelandpod at gmail.com on Instagram, Facebook,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: and X. Leave a review for the show on Apple
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: Podcasts or Spotify and win some free merch. And Apple
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: Podcast listeners, make sure you have auto downloads turned on
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: so you never miss an episode of Disgraceland. Alrighty then,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: here comes some credits. Disgraceland was created by yours truly
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: this episode can be found on the show notes page
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: at DisgracelandPod.com. If you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member,
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: thank you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it.
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: And if not, you can become a member right now
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: by going to disgracelandpod.com membership. Members can listen to every
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: episode of Disgraceland ad-free. Plus, you'll get one brand new
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: exclusive episode every month. Weekly unscripted bonus episodes, special audio collections,
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: and early access to merchandise and events. Visit disgracelandpod.com slash
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: membership for details. Rate and review the show and follow
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook at disgracelandpod. And
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: on YouTube at youtube.com slash at disgracelandpod. Rock-a-rola. He's a bad,
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: bad man. All right, guys, thanks for checking out this
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: episode of Disgraceland. Rewind on Tom DeLonge and Blink-182. What
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: do you think? Is Tom right? Was Tom right? He
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: was kind of right, wasn't he? 617-906-6638. Voicemail and text.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: Let me know your thoughts. Got a new episode of
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: David Crosby coming up next in the Disgraceland feed.