Tom DeLonge, one of the three co-founders of Blink-182, is on an indefinite hiatus from the pop punk band. Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker announced the break today in a statement at Radio.com, indicating that DeLonge had chosen to step away from the band and that the decision was fairly new information for them, too:

We were all set to play this festival and record a new album and Tom kept putting it off without reason,” they said. “A week before we were scheduled to go in to the studio, we got an email from his manager explaining that he didn’t want to participate in any Blink-182 projects indefinitely, but would rather work on his other non-musical endeavors. No hard feelings, but the show must go on for our fans.

DeLonge, however, denies that he quit. In an Instagram post today, he wrote:

To all the fans, I never quit the band. I actually was on a phone call about a blink 182 event for New York City at the time all these weird press releases started coming in… Apparently those releases were ‘sanctioned’ from the band. Are we dysfunctional- yes. But, Christ…..

Here’s DeLonge’s post:

To all the fans, I never quit the band. I actually was on a phone call about a blink 182 event for New York City at the time all these weird press releases started coming in… Apparently those releases were 'sanctioned' from the band. Are we dysfunctional- yes. But, Christ….. #Awkward #BabyBackRibs

A photo posted by Official Tom DeLonge (@tomdelonge) on Jan 26, 2015 at 12:49pm PST

So it seems more like Hoppus and Barker kicked DeLonge out of the band? Either way, Blink-182 will continue without DeLonge for the foreseeable future. The band also announced that Alkaline Trio’s guitarist and singer Matt Skiba would stand in for DeLonge when Blink headlines Barker’s upcoming Musink Festival. It doesn’t seem like Skiba will be a permanent replacement for DeLonge as he has promised Alkaline Trio fans that he will still be recording and touring with his band.

DeLonge helped found Blink-182 as a guitarist and co-vocalist back in 1992 with Hoppus and the original drummer Scott Raynor. Since their last album Neighborhoods in 2011, DeLonge has also been actively promoting music from his side project, Angels & Airwaves, including last December’s album The Dream Walker.

This marks the second year Barker has curated the lineup for the Musink Festival, which is held over March 20-22 at the OC Fair & Events Center in Costa Mesa, California. Other acts on the bill this year include Bad Religion, Rancid, Yelawolf, OFF!, Sick of It All and Ignite.

[Photo by Gary Wolstenholme/Redferns.]