Another band name theory
I learned something recently that made me think more about the name origin, that I don’t think I’ve ever seen anywhere before.
I know in the past the band has always said the “182” was a random addition after the legal threats from an older band already named Blink, but I have a potential theory that it’s not actually random (and pretty morbid).
We know Tom and Scott were from a suburb of San Diego (born there in 1975 and 1978). Mark, while not from there, moved there in 1992.
There was a flight disaster in 1978 where two planes collided in air, and resulted in many fatalities: actually the deadliest disaster in California history at the time. The main airplane was Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182, and the disaster happened in San Diego, so it would have been a pretty big local event from their childhood, and likely talked about (Tom and Scott would have been a toddler and baby at the time, but still maybe grew up hearing about this event).
My theory is that when they changed the band name in 1995, they were either trying to being edgy, but never wanted to admit the true origin of the number, as they realized many people would be shocked/disturbed by the reference. Alternatively, it could have been an inside joke, or even a metaphor of all of them coming together, etc.
If this has any truth to it, it’s obviously even more ironic with Travis’s tragic event that happened years later.
tldr: I’m wondering if the “182” in the name could be from a flight 182 that crashed in their hometown when they were kids.