Tom DeLonge Gets Personal In TV Special

(Radio.com) Tom DeLonge has a master plan. In various interviews over the past year, he's done his best to explain to fans exactly what he's up to and why. But it seems that all too often his message is derailed by misleading headlines or simply ignored in favor or salacious articles, generally along the lines of "he left Blink-182 to chase aliens!"

Well, DeLonge has decided to tell his story, instead of letting the media do it for him, which he admits he's done too often. The San Diego musician is now the subject of a one hour and twenty minute documentary by guitar string maker Ernie Ball titled, The Pursuit of Tone.

Presented as an autobiography, DeLonge takes fans on a deep dive into his personal life: who he was, who he wanted to become, and who he is today. The journey is broken up into chapter-like segments beginning with childhood memories, and moving through his discovery and love of punk rock, the formation of Blink-182, the band's success and subsequent turmoil, the creation of Angels & Airwaves and his reasons for creating the multi-media company he currently runs today.

Blink fans will likely see a side to DeLonge that they've rarely been privy to. The musician goes behind some of Blink and AVA's biggest hits, explaining how and why they were written and constructed. Many "aha moments" are explored; musical moments where he realized he'd broken real ground and his sound would never be the same.

One example of these moments was the creation of "The Adventure," AVA's first hit. "That night after I sang it, I remember sitting in this studio at 2am, I was at my house, my family was asleep, and I was listening to this thing and about half way through the song are these tears in my eyes and I felt like there was something magical happening. That happens every once in a while when I'm a part of something artistically where I get kind of overwhelmed emotionally and feel like I'm really onto something that's important. Not that I think it's great or better than anything else, or that I think it's going to be something giant or big, it's because I feel it touches on something important to me and it grabbed a hold of--like a nerve--and is just gripping it and I could feel it and it's like electric waves through your body. It doesn't happen on every single thing but it happens every so often and you kinda go 'Wow, this is what I was meant to do.'" Read more here.