Aliens Exist

Album: Enema Of The State (1999)
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Songfacts®:

  • This is a goofy song by blink-182 where they express their belief in aliens. They like to pretend that things like aliens and unicorns exist... or maybe they really believe it.

    At least, Tom DeLonge does. The band's guitarist, who also sings lead vocals on the track, is a true believer of extraterrestrials, and he wanted to write a song about it. He explained in a track-by-track commentary:

    "As a hobby all I ever do is read books and study material on UFOs and government conspiracies. So I wrote a song about a guy talking about aliens as though he's had a weird experience but nobody believes him, they think he's full of shit. But he's directing his angst toward the government, because the government knows there's something going on. But I'm one of those freaks that really believes that stuff exists. I think if anybody out there does a little bit of research they will find that they side with me. I think it's just a cool song coming from that point of view. I read books about abductions, and there are hundreds of thousands of people a year have an experience at night and they don't know what it is, they just know what they saw and what they felt, but nobody believes them."
  • The last line of the song, "Twelve majestic lies," refers to an alleged government conspiracy group called Majesty 12, who supposedly cover up UFO and Alien activity.

    Tom Delonge told Mic in 2016: "The very last line of that song references this urban legend in UFO folklore called Majestic 12; these documents that got leaked in the '80s that described an entire organization of top-level scientists, military people and intelligence officials that manage the information of this phenomenon. I put the name in that song, and the irony now is that I'm dealing with people from the modern version of whatever that group is called. It's a big deal."
  • In 2015, Tom DeLonge claimed during an interview with Paper Mag that he had made contact with aliens and was in danger.
  • The offbeat subject matter fit in with the band's irreverent persona that often had them stripping down and playing naked in public, which was off-putting to more serious acts like Trent Reznor.

    "In America, you can fall into a relationship with MTV of needing them, and then you wind up in your underpants introducing your new video," the Nine Inch Nails founder told Kerrang! in 1999. When it came to comments like that, blink wasn't laughing anymore.

    "F--k critics," Hoppus shot back in an interview with a magazine shortly after the album dropped. "The only people I care about getting respect from are the kids. Being thought of as a joke band is better than being thought of as an 'art band' or a 'heavy band.' I respect bands that use their music to present a message to better the world, but that's not our role. Our role is to get onstage and have fun."

Comments: 9

  • Daniel from Winchester, OhioTo this day I still don't believe this is real song.
  • John from Chester, VaOn the Mark, Tom, and Travis Show version of this track, Tom sings "I got an injection of blood from the erection, my best friend thinks I'm just humping guys" rather than "I got an injection of fear from the abduction, my best friend thinks I'm just telling lies."
  • Daniel from Winchester, OhI didn't think this was a real song at first, until I found this Songfact page on it..
  • Jake from Millerton, PaOn their live CD Mark says "Tom has sex with guys" after Tom says "Twelve majestic lies"
  • Jessica from Newport, PaI've listened to this song a million times, blink is my favorite band of all time. Thanks for the "twelve majestic lies" part, I've always wondered what that meant. Like, did he tell that many lies, or what? Thanks for clearing it up.
  • Tim from Utica, NyThis song is pretty kewl
  • Courtney from Attleboro, MaTom Believes in Aliens, so he wrote this kinda goofy song. :)
  • Evan from Philadelphia, PaBlink jokes about believing in unicorns, but like many, Tom Delonge believes in aliens. He's been to Area 51, and he talks about them in extent in the band's second documentary: The Urethra Chronicles II.
  • Nick from Kingston, AustraliaGuitarist Tom DeLonge wrote it
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