Blink-182's Mark Hoppus has revealed how he wrote the iconic intro to What's My Age Again?, and it came about while trying to learn another song.
He went on Less Than Jake's Chris DeMakes' podcast, Chris DeMakes A Podcast. He told the story of the huge Enema Of The State single, saying it came about while trying to learn a lesser known Green Day track.
Speaking about the riff, Mark says, "I was just writing a funny song. There’s a Green Day song called J.A.R. on the Angus soundtrack, and it starts off with this bass intro that’s really rad.
"And I was messing around on the guitar trying to learn that, and I kinda messed up the progression, and I played it incorrectly, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s kinda cool…’ and that was the basis for the opening riff of the song: me trying to learn how to play J.A.R. on guitar and messing it up, and coming up with something that I liked that was different than that.” Sometimes, inspiration strikes you in the weirdest ways.
He went on to tell Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong about how much he loved J.A.R, and it didn't go so well. Mark said, “That song is so good; I think it’s your best song." Billie Joe replied, “Oh, that’s cool. [Bassist] Mike Dirnt wrote that one; it’s the only one of our songs that he wrote.” Embarassing!
READ MORE: It Looks Like Ex-Blink-182 Frontman Tom DeLonge Actually Found UFOs
Check out both What's My Age Again? and J.A.R below, and see if you can pick up on the influence...
