If you thought Tom DeLonge was too busy reviving Angels & Airwaves, plotting his eventual Blink-182 return or writing children's books to do anything else -- you clearly haven't been paying attention.
Apparently, the Poway pop-punk god is dead set on conquering all the corners of media and expanding his brand until he's as omnipresent in daily life as the Zuckerbergs and Bezos of the world. Not only did he also found the To the Stars Academy of Arts & Sciences (TTSA) in 2015 -- which claims former high-ranking government officals and senior intelligence officers from the CIA, Department of Defense, etc. on a mission to research alien existence and technology -- he's now bringing that conversation (and his obsession behind it) to the History Channel.
Set to premiere Friday, May 31, at 7 p.m. PST, a six-part miniseries titled "Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation" -- which DeLonge executive produced and stars in -- expounds on a 2017 New York Times exposé about the Pentagon's now-confirmed UFO program, the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). The program, which was helmed by former military intelligence official Luis Elizondo, investigated unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) until 2012 when it was shuttered.
After resigning from his government post in 2017, Elizondo provided the majority of the information for the revelatory New York Times article, and afterward, joined DeLonge in TTSA. In the new History Channel series, DeLonge turns the cameras on Elizondo (and other TTSA members) "to tell the story in a comprehensive and compelling way."
In a just-published op-ed written for Newsweek, DeLonge wrote: "For the past few years, I’ve been in regular communication with people at the highest levels of our intelligence agencies and military branches. It’s unreal company to keep, and has empowered me to become a steward of the information I have and to treat it with respect and humility. The ideas and my new cohorts encouraged me create To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science.
"This quest to reveal the truth, and desire to share what we know about UAP with the masses propelled us to partner with History [Channel], one of the most unbiased and authentic brands in television, to produce 'Unidentified: Inside America’s UFO Investigation,'" he continued. "This six part, non-fiction series premiering on Friday, May 31, will give the public an opportunity to see newly authenticated evidence and footage; learn the common characteristics of how these UAP move and operate; and perhaps, most significantly, see interviews from eyewitnesses and former military personnel who have never spoken out before."
While those that have seen advanced screenings of the series say it doesn't present any particularly earth-shattering bombshells, it definitely furthers the examination of the age-old question: Are we alone?
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Some fans lament the fact that DeLonge isn't singing about farts, hot dogs and genitalia anymore with his ex-Blink-182 cohorts, but perhaps his willingness to jump wholeheartedly into fantastical subject matter that many people are too cynical to accept is truly his life's calling.
To that end, onward and upward, my friend.
