Musician Tom DeLonge has revealed he quit Blink 182 to focus on UFO research.
DeLonge is launching a multimedia franchise called Sekret Machines, which will investigate "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena".
A book called Sekret Machines Book 1: Chasing Shadows, is already out and fans can expect fiction books, nonfiction books, a documentary and new music from DeLonge's other band Angels & Airwaves.
The musician – who had success with songs including Aliens Exists and The Flight of Apollo – said he is unable to tour with a band and find enough time for the “enormity of what I'm setting out to do”.
Speaking to Mic.com he said: "Dealing with something that’s a national security issue, and you’re being gifted with the opportunity to communicate something you’ve been passionate about your whole life – something that has the opportunity to change the world over time – being a small part of that is enormously important for my life path.
"But I can’t do everything. I can’t tour nine months out of the year with enough time to do the enormity of what I’m setting out to do.”
DeLonge – who is not a fan of the term "aliens" – continued: "There's been hundreds and hundreds of thousands of eyewitness accounts. Trace evidence that's been analyzed by scientists across the world. Events have happened on the ground. It's all around us. I know of stuff I can't talk about right now."
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DeLonge isn’t the first musician to publicise his interest in the extra-terrestrial.
Happy Mondays singer Shaun Ryder is a keen alien enthusiast and claimed to have seen a UFO during an appearance on This Morning.
Recalling the moment in South America he said a craft landed outside his house at 5am before moving slowly across the field surrounded by a cloud.
Blink 182 release their new album California – with Alkaline Trio frontman Matt Skiba in place of DeLonge – on Friday, July 1.
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