‘He's Saving Lives and I'm Ruining Them'

Blink-182 guitarist and Poway native hits concert tour with UCSD grad friend in tow

Blink-182’s rock doc on this summer’s long-awaited tour is an old friend and roadie who now lives down the street from singer/guitarist -- and Poway native -- Tom Delonge.

Brian Weeks is an ear, nose and throat man with recognized expertise in the field of rhinology and minimally invasive sinus-surgery techniques. The musician and the medical practitioner met more than 15 years ago, long before blink broke.

However, “we were never friends,” Delonge said.

“Yeah, we’re still not friends,” Weeks added, laughing.

“It actually worked out great, too, because his field of study was something that obviously we needed to be around a lot, just the vocal chords and all that kind of stuff,” Delonge said. “Here we are, years later, our kids hang out, our wives are really good friends, and I call him anytime.”

Weeks was just about to start medical school when they met.

“I was at college at UCSD, and I remember hearing this band,” Weeks said. “I was already really into the music scene … and I thought they were good, and I was excited about them, and it turns out my brother’s company at the time was the first group to start and promote their first show.”

These days, Weeks is also a friend of blink’s drummer, Travis Barker, and bassist/vocalist, Mark Hoppus. The band’s brooding brand of pop punk infused with toilet humor has helped the act to sell millions of albums, including the Top 10 triple-platinum “Enema of the State."

So why does blink need a personal physician on the road?

“When there’s a show, they always have a doctor of some sort around,” Delonge said, adding, “with a band, you’re putting on these shows with tens of thousands of people a night, so you got to keep the machine running.”

On tour, Weeks will also treat the entourage, management, roadies -- even the people working the lights and soundboard. He’ll be out on tour at three different times but will be available whenever he’s needed, he said. Mostly, the band and Weeks will try to be proactive in the same way that professional sports teams are with athletes.

“They’re doing something different every day,” Weeks said. “They’re playing a different venue every day, they’re around lots of smoke, they’re around crazy sleep schedules … they’re in a different time zone.”

Athletes, though, have something going for them rock stars don’t.

“The difference is, we’re out of shape, and we’re doing all this crazy shit,” Delonge said.

This tour won’t be the first time Weeks has ridden shotgun.

“They were going through Australia [in ’96] with a couple other local punk rock bands, and, you know, at the time, it was just a small band with a pretty local following and some crazy fans in Europe and Australia,” Weeks said. “I was staying in this small apartment in Australia, and I remember these guys crashing on the floor with me because they were trying to save money.”

Back then, Weeks did it all: “Everything from kind of supporting to helping carry equipment off the stage after the shows, but mostly just enjoying myself and being at concerts and listening to their music and helping them out whenever I could, and I definitely was helping them with some medical issues at that time as well.”

Delonge is the first to concede that Weeks’ career is much more respectable.

“He’s saving lives and I’m ruining them, probably,” the guitarist said. “Things work out. It’s crazy, I think, in two different ways, to have a dream and to work hard and to follow it, and to have it actually happen.”

Delonge admires what Weeks’ does -- but he has limits.

“He keeps inviting me to the [operating room],” Delonge said. “I’m kind of iffy about it: ‘Dude, I don’t want to see you digging into a body.’ “

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