Blink-182 singer-guitarist has more than music on his mind

Let's establish one thing first: Blink-182 is a great band in concert. They're hella fun. And now -- on with my interview with singer-guitarist Tom DeLonge about UFOs.

DeLonge started a website called StrangeTimes.com. Here are two headlines from the site earlier this week:

■ "Are Aliens Part of God's Plan Too?"

■ "The Man Who Cut His Finger On A Chicken And Smelled Awful For Five Years"

Uh, what's the deal with this site?

DeLonge and his other band, Angels & Airwaves, started StrangeTimes.com to complement themes coming up on their next two records.

"The next (album) is going to be about dreams and near-death experiences," DeLonge, 35, tells me. "And the one after that will be about God."

Officially, he says, StrangeTimes.com is a "blog, newspaper, conspiracy, weird-news site" that posts stories about aliens, God and other "big themes" of humanity happening on Earth every day.

"Some of them are fun. Some of them are crazy stories. Some of them are just weird and odd," DeLonge says.

"But it's really to get people to notice headlines that aren't on the (mainstream news sites)."

Another headline from this week: "Citizens of Granville, PA Can Set Their Tap Water On Fire."

Here's the question everyone wants me to ask DeLonge: Have you had any contact with UFOs?

"Kids always think that!" he says and laughs. "Not that I know of."

But then he tells me about a speech he heard recently, somewhere, by a surgeon who claimed to have removed 16 alien implants from people who said they had been abducted.

DeLonge remembers all the details:

"They took (the implant) to three different places -- engineering facilities that couldn't snap or cut this little tiny implant that was about the size of the lead of a pencil: 6 millimeters long.

"They finally took it to a place that was able to cut it with an extremely strong laser. They went under the electron microscope, and they found wiring and carbon nanotubes.

"It was emitting not only electromagnetic frequencies but radio frequencies. And they found it to be powered by the human body.

"The electricity of the human body was powering this thing enough so that it could send out electromagnetic ... information about the body somewhere. It's (really) crazy!"

DeLonge says all this fascinates him.

"It's trippy. It gets my mind off the minutiae of writing songs."

DeLonge isn't the only famous and talented person interested in potential futures for earthlings.

Dan Aykroyd told me a year ago he believes 2012 won't be the end of the physical world, but with the intervention of aliens, it will be "the end of consciousness and the end of perception as we know it."

DeLonge doesn't believe 2012 will be The End.

"No," he says. "I think our solar system and the galaxy is a big moving clock -- like the pieces that work in a working watch.

"And I think every once in a while, it lines up and twists around and starts all over," he says. "I just think we're moving to another section of that movement. I don't think we're going to die or anything. I do think we're fragile."

By the way, I've also chatted with comedian, podcaster and UFC commentator Joe Rogan about "The Singularity."

I hear you asking: What's "The Singularity"?

Guess what. Tom DeLonge knows, so listen to him:

" 'Singularity' was coined by this guy (Vernor Vinge). His whole point is: Computers and inventions are reaching a point to where it's going to map up with the human mind.

"And then we'll start moving so fast, we'll begin to lose a part of ourselves. But we'll start to turn the human mind and the human body into something that's much more advanced.

"Who knows what happens when we're able to download the entire Internet into our brain, or send little nano-size computers into your bloodstream to attack cancer cells, or to turn off the amino acid that causes aging?

"It's going to be a really interesting time over the next 50 years, that's for sure."

Speaking for myself, here's my only problem with "The Singularity." If we humans end up with brains all sync'd together via airwaves or whatever, that just means we'll all be watching stupid "Jersey Shore" at the same time. What the hell kind of future is that?

DeLonge, the comedian punkster, has not lost his sense of humor. He laughs at my point.

"I know," he says. "But at least you'll be able to watch it on the inside of your eyelids."

And then he thanks me for my time.

"I appreciate you letting me get weird a little bit."

Dude, anytime!

Doug Elfman's column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Contact him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.