With the days of Blink-182 behind him, Tom DeLonge has started focusing on a new project in life. After treating it as a hobby that began in his youth, the musician has set a course of proving the existence of extraterrestrial life. Earlier this year, Donald Trump‘s Pentagon declassified a batch of videotapes that include something UFO hunters claim is cold, hard evidence proving the existence of life outside of Earth. According to DeLonge, he and his circle have helped set up briefings with the White House in an effort to provide transparency to the masses.
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After rumors surfaced aplenty in the closing days of the Barack Obama administration, DeLonge says he made sure the incoming group of officials knew what they were in for. “I don’t know what he [Trump] knows, but I do know that we helped set up briefings for the White House,” DeLonge tells the Guardian about his efforts.
The world of UFOs and UAPs โ unidentified aerial phenomenon, a new term coined in part by the United State government โ isn’t something entirely new to the musician. He’s had an invested interest since grade school and after Blink’s first big payday, he went out and bought himself a computer so he could get even further entrenched in the topic.
According to DeLonge, people “need to buckle up and open their minds” about the topic. “It’s not conspiratorial,” he adds. “Anybody can go on to the CIA website and read thousands of reports. There’s just a vacuum of conversation. Our government has had decades of the very difficult burden of dealing with something that is extremely advanced but poorly understood. They need time to dig into this, to understand it, to gather data and analyze it.”
The tapes released earlier this year show pilots chasing a UAP, confirming they โ or anyone in their immediate organizational chart โ were unsure of what the craft was. In the same interview, DeLonge let on he knew quite a bit of the stuff Trump’s administration is still holding back, admitting he couldn’t share it because it was a matter of national security.
“I thought I knew most of the unnerving parts, then I was briefed on something and I didn’t sleep for three nights,” DeLonge concludes. “I think what’s going to come is a greater understanding of who we are and where we need to go. And that excites me, because I do believe something beautiful can come from something so unnerving.”
Cover photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for KROQ