When Blink-182 singer Mark Hoppus takes the stage, he’s usually considered one of the coolest guys around … except in the eyes of his son.
“My son was telling me at one point about not being cool and I was like, ‘What are you talking about? I play in a rock band. I’m cool,'” Hoppus told PEOPLE. “And he said, ‘Yeah, you’re ‘guy in a band’ cool, but you’re not like cool-cool.”
To be fair, Hoppus’ 15-year-old son, Jack, often attends Blink concerts.
“I think my son likes what I do, but at the same time he kind of rolls his eyes at me and thinks I’m a lame dad,” Hoppus joked.
Don’t tell that to you the thousands of fans who pack the Pearl Theater at the Palms in Las Vegas, where Blink-182 has a residency show through November.
“Playing in Vegas is like playing a festival. There are people from all over the world who are in Vegas,” Hoppus said. “Some people are coming strictly to see your show. Some people just happen to be here and come because we’re in town. I feel like you have to work a little harder to win the audience over because there is so much stuff to do. You can go watch Cirque du Soleil and have people launch themselves 30 feet in the air. We have to come up with a really good show to compete with that.”
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The residency show, called Kings of the Weekend, is essentially Blink’s greatest hits, with some new songs scattered in the set list. The band plans to continue changing the set list to keep the show fresh, while still playing the classics.
When asked if he regretted recording any song in the past, Hoppus admitted, “Kind of.”
“I love our entire catalog and I wouldn’t necessarily change what we recorded but listening to our singing and playing from ’97, more than 20 years ago, is almost like looking at pictures of yourself when you were in junior high school,” he said. “Like, I wish I would have spent a little more time on that vocal. I had a weird phase from 20 until now.”
