Blink 182’s Tom De Longe always likes to have a “good d**k joke” ready to tell on stage.

The band’s singer and guitarist felt relieved returning to his main band in 2009 after being on hiatus since 2005, because it gave was an outlet for his more juvenile side after playing with his more serious project, Angels and Airwaves.

He told DrownedinSound.com: “I get to be the pretend philosopher and artist with Angels and Airwaves and with Blink I get to be the angst-filled young adult with a splash of rebellion.

“I think you can’t pretend I didn’t grow up a certain way, or pretend I’m not wired a certain way so a good d**k joke – I’m always gonna have those in my arsenal!

“The thing people don’t know is that behind the scenes, that’s how Angels is, all the time. But on stage we’re super serious.

“With Blink, on stage it’s super funny, but behind the scenes it’s super serious!”

Blink 182 took almost two years to record their new album, ‘Neighbourhoods’, and Tom – who is joined in the band by drummer Travis Barker and bassist Mark Hoppus – says the relaxed approach greatly benefitted the group.

He said: “I think the reason we were able to make a record and get along fine after the malicious break up that we had was that we didn’t pressure each other.

“People would just show up and record when they could. We didn’t yell at each other, no one was getting p****d, no-one was telling anyone to cancel things or not do things.

“We kept it very casual and fun, and constructive but it became pretty stressful at the end because we knew we were like `f**k, we’ve really gotta get this thing done.”