Editing Adam's Song (section)

==Suicide of Greg Barnes==
The song caused a controversy in 2000 when it was set to replay indefinitely on a nearby stereo as 17-year-old Greg Barnes, a teenager who attended [[Columbine High School]] and had lost one of his best friends in the [[Columbine High School massacre|massacre]] the previous year, hanged himself in the garage of his family's home.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sptimes.com/News/050600/Worldandnation/Athlete_s_suicide_sho.shtml|title=Athlete's Suicide Shocks Columbine|work=[[Tampa Bay Times]]|date=May 6, 2000|access-date=July 6, 2013}}</ref><ref name=extras.denverpost>{{cite web|url=http://extras.denverpost.com/news/col0506.htm |title=Song only clue to student's despair |work=[[The Denver Post]] |first1=David |last1=Ollinger |first2=Neil H. |last2=Devlin |first3=Karen |last3=Augé |first4=Marilyn |last4=Robinson |access-date=July 6, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120831192115/http://extras.denverpost.com/news/col0506.htm |archive-date=August 31, 2012 }}</ref> Both Hoppus and DeLonge were sympathetic but stressed the song's meaning during an MTV News interview in 2001:<ref>{{Citation|last=0MalboroMan0|title=Blink 182 Interview about Adam's Song and suicide|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA_aPzbOaiE|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211114/BA_aPzbOaiE|archive-date=November 14, 2021|url-status=live|via=[[YouTube]]|access-date=December 16, 2018}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
{{blockquote|Hoppus: "I was actually out shopping, and management called me up and told me the story of what happened, and I was like, 'But that's an anti-suicide song!' It felt awful. I mean, the things that the kid had had to go through in his life were very saddening, and then to end it that way was really depressing. But 'Adam's Song', the heart of the song is about having hard times in your life, being depressed, and going through a difficult period, but then finding the strength to go on and finding a better place at the other side of that."<ref name=enemaofthestage /><ref name=Percy>{{cite web |url=http://extras.denverpost.com/news/col0629a.htm |title=Song linked to suicide on playlist |work=[[The Denver Post]] |author =Percy Ednalino |date=June 29, 2000}}</ref>

DeLonge: "It affected us really strongly because that song was a song of hope. When we were writing it, we knew specifically that we did not want kids to think it was something that we thought was cool or rad. We didn't endorse it in any way."<ref>{{cite news|title=Punk's Earnest New Mission|date=January 4, 2004|author-link =Michael Azerrad |last=Azerrad |first=Michael|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/04/arts/punk-s-earnest-new-mission.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=March 24, 2016}}</ref>}}

Hoppus also told interviewers that he received fan mail following the song's release from fans that had contemplated suicide, but decided not to go through with it after hearing the song.{{sfn|Shooman|2010|p=77}} ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' compared the controversy to that of [[Ozzy Osbourne]]'s "[[Suicide Solution]]", which was played before a teen died by suicide in January 1986.<ref name=newrs>{{cite book|title=[[The Rolling Stone Album Guide|The New Rolling Stone Album Guide]]|editor1-last=Brackett|editor1-first=Nathan|editor2-last=Hoard|editor2-first=Christian|publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]]|year=2004|isbn=0-7432-0169-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/85 85]}}</ref>