Mark Hoppus plays bass for the first time since cancer diagnosis: 'Wow'
If anyone needs a feel-good story today, look no further than Mark Hoppus's latest video. The Blink 182 singer and bassist is battling cancer, but he picked up an instrument for the first time in months.
"Not only is this the first time that I've tried to play these songs in well over a year, this is the first time that I've felt well enough to play my bass since I was diagnosed," Hoppus told his fans. "This is the first time I've picked up my bass in a few months even."
Hoppus, who previously said he forgets things as a result of "chemo brain," looked incredibly happy at the end of the medley. "Wow," he said.
The song choice was certainly poignant.
The 49-year-old played the vintage Blink 182 track "Not Now," which is about a person who knows they're dying. ("Come here, please hold my hand for now / Help me, I'm scared please show me how to fight this / God has a master plan and I guess / I am in His demand," some of the lyrics read.)
Hoppus received positive news last week in between rounds of chemotherapy as scans indicate the treatment is working.
"I still have months of treatment ahead, but it's the best possible news," he said. "I'm so grateful and confused and also sick from last week's chemo. But the poison the doctors pump into me and the kind thoughts and wishes of people around me are destroying this cancer. Just gonna keep fighting..."
Hoppus was diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), an aggressive type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
"My cancer's not bone-related, it's blood-related. My blood's trying to kill me," he said, revealing it's stage IV-A. "Which means, as I understand it, it's entered four parts of my body."
Hoppus's mother previously beat DLBCL and fans all over the world are hoping for the same result for the rocker.