The journey of the cargo van from blink-182's music video for "The Rock Show" could have ended in a California parking lot, but a couple in Texas have begun a restoration project to return the star of the visual to its former pop-punk glory.
If you haven't seen it, the "Rock Show" music video opens with blink-182 sharing how they were "given money by a production company to shoot their new music video." After cashing what was probably a healthy music industry cheque for the time period, the trio generously give the money away and treat a homeless man to a haircut, suit and strip club trip. It has nothing to do with the song's lyrics about crushing on a cutie in the middle of a concert.
These years later, Andrew Baldwin and Taylor Sheets have been documenting the early stages of their blink-182 van life on Instagram and TikTok via @therockshowvan. In a series of clips, the two detail how they had tracked down the '80s Dodge van through both online discussion of its whereabouts and use of Google Street View.
Upon finding the van pictured in the parking lot of a Sacramento, CA, body shop, with pieces of blink-182's Take Off Your Pants and Jacket-era logo still intact, the owner agreed to sell the van to Baldwin and Sheets for $1000. After signing some paperwork — some of which was handwritten in pen on lined paper — the couple had the van shipped to their home in Austin, TX for more than they purchased it for.
The story of the van's two-decade stay in California was told late last year by The Sacramento Bee. Years before it landed in the body shop parking lot, a local alt-rock station attempted to give it away as a contest prize.
As it went unclaimed, the station told Michelle Delso that if she could get it to start, she could drive it home from the parking garage free of charge. Delso is the mother of Terra Lopez, who performs and records as one half of Rituals of Mine. She told The Bee that as a teenager, she used the van as a space to teach herself to sing and play guitar without her family hearing.
On TikTok, Baldwin and Sheets write that they hope to wrap the restoration in time to roll out for a few dates on blink-182's summer North American tour. Check out the progress of the "Rock Show" van reno project below.