Thomas Matthew DeLonge, Jr. (born december 13 1975) is an ameican musician, most famous for being the founding member of, and guitatrist/vocalist in Blink-182 between 1992 and 2005, when he left the band amid tension with other members. While still member of Blink-182, he collaborated with former member Travis Barker in the one-off project Box car racer in 2002, releasing one self titled album. Since leaving blink, he formed the super group Angels and Airwaves with former members of Hazen street, The Distillers and The Offsprings.

When DeLonge attended Rancho Bernardo High School, he was introduced to Mark Hoppus through the latter's sister, Anne. In 1992, they met Scott Raynor and decided to form a band together that would become blink-182. When Raynor was replaced with Travis Barker in 1998 amidst many rumours of Raynor's possible alcholism and drug addiction, Blink-182 released Enema Of The State, which was met with a huge amount of mainstream success, spawning three hit singles. Follow-up Take Off Your Pants And Jackets eventually went to the number one spot on the Billboard 2000. After DeLonge and Barker participated in the band box car racer, a side project created by DeLonge with his high-school friend David Kennedy in 2002. In 2003 blink-182 released their final epounomsy album. Delonge then decided to leave the band, allegedly due to mounting tensions and communication difficulties, creating a rift between him and the other members of the band. Blink-182 announced an 'indefinite hiatus' in February 2005.

While there is no set plan for Blink 182 to reunite, the band's management commonly responds to questions about the possibility by saying "no one knows what tomorrow may bring". Barker stated in an interview "I guess we are seeing the real Tom", questioning DeLonge's attitude towards his former band, and his new project. DeLonge for his part has said that he would like to eventually reunite blink-182, but not until he continues his career in Angels & Airwaves for a while, because otherwise "it would be a waste of time".

Angels & Airwaves (2005-present)

DeLonge is the lead vocalist and one of two guitarists in the alternative rock band Angels & Airwaves. He formed the band with high-school friend and former Hazen Street and Box Car Racer bandmate David Kennedy on guitar, as well as former The Offspring drummer Adam  Willard and former The Distillers bassist Ryan Sinn. They released their debut, We don't need to whisper in 20 may 2006. During the recording of their second album, I-empire (November 6 2006), Ryan Sinn quit and was replaced by former 30 second to mars bassist Matt Watcher. He still covers blink-182 songs, such as "down,  i"I miss u, "Not now", and "Reckless Abandon" with Angels & Airwaves, along with Box Car Racer songs "Ther is" and "My First Punk Song".

Signature guitars fender worked with DeLonge to create the Tom DeLonge Stratocaster (signature guitar) which consisted of a solid alder body fitted with a single Seymour Duncan Invader Bridge pickup. It was controlled by a lone volume knob adding to its simple design. At first, the Stratocasters were fitted with a American 2-Point tremolo system and was later replaced by a hardtail bridge. It's neck consisted of solid maple with a rosewood fretboard, although there have been some custom Stratocaster's that were fitted with maple fretboards. The necks included a large 70's CBS headstock and Sperzel locking tuners

Since 2003, with the recording of the untitled album, DeLonge also has a signature Gibson ES-335 guitar out available in brown with cream stripes. The Tom DeLonge Signature starts with Gibsons classic semi-hollowbody design and then extents it into punk rock with an overwound 'Dirty Fingers' humbucking pickup. Its thick, distorted tone is the signature sound of DeLonge's previous band Blink-182.^[3]