Ex-Blink 182 guitarist Tom DeLonge has sympathised with My Chemical Romance after the band's lyrics were linked to the recent suicide of one of their fans.

DeLonge said that Blink 182 had suffered from the same problem at the height of their fame.

"The same sort of thing [being blamed for fans' behaviour] happened to me with Blink," he said, "so I can understand what it's like to be a part of something like that.

“We had a victim of the Columbine shootings take his life with our song on repeat. You kinda go through these situations where you blame yourself, but you can't.”

Speaking to Buzznet, DeLonge defended My Chemical Romance's lyrics, saying they were associated with positivity.

"You have no idea who these people are. And My Chemical Romance, they spend a lot of time singing about coming together,” he said.

“There's ingredients of rebellion and angst, but what band doesn't have that when you're young?"

My Chemical Romance's fans recently staged a march on the offices of the Daily Mail newspaper in London.

They claimed that the newspaper were wrong to associate the band with emo music and the death of teenage Hannah Bond.

(by Jason Gregory)