If you know about Tom DeLonge, you probably recognize the name first from his work as the frontman for Blink-182 and classic albums such as Enema of the State. But as the popularity of the band decreased, DeLonge began using his good fortune to pursue another interest of his. That was the paranormal, including everything from Bigfoot to the Loch Ness Monster was on the table. But what the singer was really interested in was UFOs and extraterrestrials. The odd thing is, people began taking him seriously… and that includes people in the United States government.

As I wrote about just before Christmas last year, DeLonge was part of the To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science which brought forward news of a secret government program which had been studying possible extraterrestrial phenomenon and led to the release of military videos showing flying craft which nobody could quite explain. But a number of military pilots thought they had an explanation: aliens. Still, given all of the politicians, military personnel and scientists who were involved, the question still remains… how did a rock star wind up playing such an integral role in making this happen? The Washington Post dug into that curious arrangement this week and came up with at least a few answers.

At a launch event for To the Stars Academy in Seattle last fall, he explained that he was expanding his small entertainment venture — which has mostly published his graphic novels and books about UFOs and the paranormal — into a far more ambitious scientific operation, to explore “the most controversial secret on Earth.”

DeLonge, who was unavailable for comment, explained at the launch that he had used his fame to meet with the keepers of that secret, in “clandestine encounters” in “desert airports” and “vacant buildings deep within Washington, D.C.”

Some of those people sat behind DeLonge onstage, including former intelligence officer Luis Elizondo, the former director of a hush-hush UFO program at the Pentagon.

“The phenomenon is indeed real,” Elizondo said when it was his turn to speak. Just days before, the 22-year Defense Department veteran had submitted a resignation letter to the Pentagon, citing its disregard of “overwhelming evidence” that unexplained phenomena have been interfering with the U.S. military.

Reading this story it becomes clear that there was nothing particularly magical or mysterious as to how DeLonge managed to pull this off. It was just tenaciousness. He had made a fair amount of money (and plenty of contacts) through his work in music and publishing and once he launched into the UFO question he just didn’t give up. He was willing to talk to anyone – really anyone – who claimed to have information and he gained a foothold through some people with both government and military contacts. And then he kept on digging.

The biggest barrier DeLonge faced was the fact that there’s an unspoken rule about possible UFO phenomenon. Whether you’re in the government, the military or the media, you don’t talk about it. At least not seriously. To do so is a career death sentence and you’ll be mocked for it relentlessly. But Brad DeLonge had nothing to lose on that score and he kept digging, eventually finding some people willing to share information from inside the government and also some fighter pilots who had questions they knew they weren’t supposed to be asking. What were these things that they had been seeing?

DeLonge’s group has promised that there are more videos and reports being reviewed which will be released. None of it is conclusive… at least not yet. There could still be some perfectly acceptable terrestrial explanations for what they’ve found, though it would likely mean there is technology out there which most of us can’t even imagine and aren’t being told about. Perhaps it’s all U.S. black ops work. Or worse, something from the Russians or the Chinese. Or, just maybe… from somewhere further away.

Good for Brad Delonge. We don’t know what, if anything, he’s actually found yet. But these are questions worth answering and a very improbable agent was the guy who brought the conversation out into the daylight for examination.