Tom DeLonge, the Blink-182 band member, opened up about his belief that aliens exist, and detailed a supposed encounter in a new interview following his public fallout with Blink-182.

Tom DeLonge Claims His Phone Was Tapped

DeLonge has made no secret of his firm belief in alien life, something he has been investigating for over 20 years, and now DeLonge claims that his curiosity has resulted in the uncovering of a massive conspiracy.

“You have to understand, I’ve been involved in this for a long time. I have sources from the government. I’ve had my phone tapped…It goes far beyond just saying, ‘Hey, that little light in the sky, that’s a little green man.’ That doesn’t lend the right gravity to the topic,” DeLonge said in an in-depth interview with Paper Magazine.

DeLonge expanded on his claim that his phone was tapped, saying that it resulted from his knowledge of a secret US space program. Throughout the interview, DeLonge expresses a deep distrust in the government, suggesting that the government itself incited wild theories about aliens visiting Earth in order to scare the public. Fear, DeLonge theorizes, is crucial so that when the government reveals its secret space technology, they can be heroes to the public.

“So in order to hide what the governments are building in secret, they blame it on spaceships and aliens that eat your brains and all this weird stuff, but it’s all in an effort to hide what we’re really building, something that is real but is exotic and esoteric, and it’s all part of a plan…It’s really a complex game that’s been played,” DeLonge said.

Tom DeLonge’s Camping Trip To Area 51

DeLonge also described a camping trip to Area 51 to investigate what he calls “the big belief,” which states that aliens communicate through a “frequency of thought.” He and his friends set up camp near Area 51 and followed a “protocol” in an effort to communicate with alien life. According to DeLonge, the group fell asleep at around 2 in the morning, and DeLonge was woken up an hour later unable to move.

“My whole body felt like it had static electricity, and I opened my eyes and the fire is still going, and there’s a conversation going on outside the tent. It sounded like there were about 20 people there, talking. And instantly my mind goes, ‘Ok, they’re at our campsite, they’re not here to hurt us, they’re talking about s—t, but I can’t make out what they’re saying. But they’re working on something. Then I close my eyes and wake up, and the fire is out and I have about three hours of lost time,” DeLonge recounted.

Tom DeLonge Talks Moon Landing, 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

DeLonge made clear that just because he believes in a government conspiracy to hide the existence of alien life, he’s not a fan of all famous conspiracy theories. For example, DeLonge believes that the moon landing was real, but admits that he thinks the theory that the moon landing was faked actually came from the government. DeLonge went so far as to say that the government created a similar conspiracy theory at the time of the attacks of 9/11: “They made everybody think that we never went there. That way, when you ask questions, you’re asking questions they want you to ask. They didn’t want the conspiracy to be the real f—king question, which is, ‘What was there when we got there?’ They place the conspiracy, just like 9/11. The main thing is that terrorists did it, the backup story conspiracy they fed you was, ‘No, it was an inside job.’ What’s the third story? Another nation state? An extra nation-state? You know? Who did that?”

DeLonge concluded that he believes mankind will eventually find proof of ancient civilizations on other planets, saying, “I think what’s gonna happen, mark my words, is that they’re going to find the microbial life that’s they’ve been talking about on Mars and then, it’s one planet over. We’re gonna send people up there, and we’re gonna find remnants of other types of life. But really, what’s going to be there are remnants of other civilizations: architecture, old moments, machinery, things that have been fossilized, whatever, and then that will get dripped out for another 30 to 40 years. Maybe there was a civilization there.” It’s unclear what’s next for DeLonge, and only time will tell how this will impact his already strained relationship with Blink-182 band members Travis Barker and Mark Hoppus.