Matt Skiba is going to be a busy man at this weekend’s When We Were Young Festival. Skiba will be performing at the punk and emo nostalgia-palooza in Las Vegas with his band Alkaline Trio. But he’s also sure to be bombarded with attention following Blink-182…err, replacing him, with original member Tom DeLonge.
Following news last week that DeLonge reunited with Blink-182 after leaving the band in 2015, Skiba — who filled in for him ever since — has been a gracious dude, saying that, “I am truly happy uou guys are a band and a family again.” But the questions still remain about Skiba’s time with Blink-182 and his recent departure. And in a recent interview with Vulture, he pretty much set the record straight. On top of that, he had some juicy details to share about When We Were Young, namely that, “They announced all those bands playing before anybody said yes.” Vulture says they’ve reached out to the festival for comment on this claim, but Skiba shared some illuminating takes:
“You want to hear something? Whether I’m supposed to, or not supposed to say anything, I guess, is immaterial,” Skiba began. “It makes the conversation more fun. But that festival — initially, they announced all those bands playing before anybody said yes. It was a Fyre Festival kind of stunt that worked. And I only know that because my band was on that initial flyer, with every other band from our whole ilk. And they almost expertly started advertising it before they had a single band on the bill. And somehow, all the bands agreed to do it. I’m not making this up. Somebody may correct me, but I know that Alkaline Trio, we hadn’t confirmed anything. And when we read that, we called other bands that were playing, and nobody knew about it.”
This is especially interesting, considering that Blink-182 is confirmed to headline the already announced 2023 edition of When We Were Young Festival. But Skiba, who admits numerous times in the interview to being out of the loop on things by design, says he’s pumped to play at the festival regardless.
“If that’s an accident or a fluke, then it’s like two particles of sand meeting each other in space. It had to have been planned. And they weren’t wrong. Whoever did that, I’m not even mad. You took a sh*t in the fridge and ate the whole wheel of cheese? I’m not even mad. It’s like, holy sh*t, dude. Congratulations to whoever masterminded that, the Lex Luther of promoters. And I think everybody, including us, is really pumped about it. It’s going to be a great time.”