In his forthcoming memoir Fahrenheit 182, Blink-182 frontman Mark Hoppus reveals that before meeting his wife Skye Everly, he went on a cringeworthy date with Sabrina the Teenage Witch star Melissa Joan Hart that ultimately fizzled, according to an exclusive excerpt obtained by Entertainment Weekly.
The ill-fated evening began promisingly enough after the two met at the Teen Choice Awards. “She must’ve found me interesting because she had her publicist reach out to my label’s publicist to give me her number,” Hoppus writes. “Totally normal courtship.”
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Hoppus, admittedly “newly famous” at the time compared to Hart’s established stardom, tried to impress her with “Hollywood industry jargon” when arranging the date over the phone. “I thought I was so slick,” he recalls, “but I doubt it impressed her.”
The actual dinner at a Valley sushi restaurant failed to sizzle. “It was an awful date,” Hoppus bluntly states in the excerpt. “She was very nice, but we weren’t connecting.”
He found it difficult to relate to the actress, whose “life revolved around acting.” Hoppus recounts their stilted exchanges: “I’d ask what she liked to eat besides sushi and she’d say, ‘Well, I’m usually eating whatever catering provides on set.’ I’d ask what she likes to read, and she’d say, ‘Well, I’m usually reading scripts for work.’”
The rocker acknowledges the disconnect was likely mutual, admitting, “I’m sure from her perspective, all I could talk about was music. We just weren’t a great match. It was tough.”
After dinner, Hart gave Hoppus a tour of her “beautiful place” with a scenic overlook and “huge hot tub”. Hoppus, thinking she might be “hinting that we should get in,” instead feigned an early call time and asked to be dropped back at his hotel, he writes.
But the lackluster date soon led to real-life romance. Upon returning to his room, Hoppus noticed a voicemail from Everly, an MTV booker he’d been working with. The two ended up talking on the phone until sunrise, connecting effortlessly in a way he and Hart had not.
“We talked about everything,” Hoppus gushes in the excerpt. “We talked about where we grew up and what our families were like. We talked about our careers. We talked about our favorite albums.”
This fateful call kicked off a relationship that started in secret but blossomed into marriage in 2000 and a son, Jack, in 2002. The couple are still happily together today, with Hoppus crediting Everly as the true “cool one” in their pairing. Hoppus’ memoir Fahrenheit 182, a play on the famous Ray Bradbury novel, promises to chronicle the Blink-182 bassist’s colorful life and career when it hits shelves today.
