Mark Hoppus is the 27 year old bassist for Blink 182.  He is also the lead singer for most of their songs. He was born in Ridgecrest, CA, in March 1972. He grew up there and went to William Borroughs High School.

"I wore eyeliner to school and kids made fun of me," says Mark.

He is now married and lives in San Diego, CA. 

Mark's first played his bass in a garage with a band called Of All Things with two of his friends. In 1992, Mark left Ridgecrest. He headed to San Diego for a college education and a job at a music store.  

He took his bass and amp, but the band stayed in Ridgecrest. He tried to keep up with them by coming back to visit on weekends, but soon his manager at the music store wouldn't give Mark anymore time off. Mark told him that he worked with mentally disabled children and visited them every weekend, but his manager started to get suspicious. He stopped visiting Ridgecrest, and Of All Things stopped playing.

Mark became friends with Tom through his sister, Anne Hoppus. Mark says, "We had the same thoughts about songs, wrote songs about the same stuff, wanted songs to sound the same way. It was like somehow we were supposed to find each other and write music. Even today we'll get together and I'll show Tom something I've been working on, and he'll be like, dude, that sounds exactly like something I've been working on." 

Blink 182 soon became the most important thing in Mark's life. His girlfriend wasn't too happy about that. It was when he went out to buy new equipment, and he came home to have his girlfriend yelling at him that this was their life, and it was her or the band. She lost.

After getting through those many problems, the band got started. Only then they were called Duck Tape. The name only lasted a few days, but they kept the bunny mascot. Their first recording was called Flyswatter, made in Scott's bedroom. Scott was their drummer before Travis came along. 

"I thought it would be cool to name it Flyswatter. It doesn't mean anything, it just sounded cool. And I took color copies of a modern-art-type drawing I did, and that was the artwork." explains Mark.

"The songs were definitely what mattered. It was the only goal we really set for ourselves as a band. To write great songs. We might not play every show perfectly, we might not hit every note right, we might not have the best performance, but we had good songs."

Since the very beginning, Blink 182 has been a huge hit. Mark and the others have starred or been extras in a few movies, and released many CDs. Their latest one, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, was released in the summer of 2001. They have their hopes for the future, and they plan to keep concentrating on the band.