Travis Barker rose to fame as the drummer of the popular rock-pop-punk band Blink-182,
but few know what past pain lays behind his icy blue eyes.
Here are the tragic details about Travis Barker.
Gloria Barker was also known as "Cookie," and the sweet nickname seems fitting based
on Travis Barker's descriptions of his late mother in his 2015 memoir Can I Say: Living
Large, Cheating Death, and Drums, Drums, Drums.
He wrote that she was, quote, "very loving, and she was there for me all the time."
While he admitted that his mom was a pushover in the discipline department, she never let
her son slack on his schoolwork and kept him, quote, "sharp" intellectually.
In the Barker household, young Travis' passion for drumming was also a top priority, and,
as the future Blink-182 member recounted in his book, Gloria wholeheartedly believed that
Barker would someday succeed.
Tragically, Gloria died the day before her son's freshman year of high school.
In an interview with Vice, Barker shared,
"From the moment after my mom passed away, I really followed the last words she told
me.
'Play the drums and don't care about anything else in life but doing the things you love.'
I almost felt like she was orchestrating things upstairs."
In Can I Say, Barker revealed that while he never felt deprived as a child, his "lower-middle
class" upbringing in Fontana, California did come with some challenges.
Barker's father built their home, and the family moved in before its completion.
Barker noted,
"It was like camping out: no [...] bathrooms or running water.
We slept on the floor in sleeping bags."
The former Blink-182 drummer also reflected on his neighborhood, writing,
"It was a tough city: There were shootings and stabbings."
Barker had several close calls with violence in his youth.
Speaking with Vice, the rock star recalled the day when he and his friends were targeted
by a drive-by shooter.
Another time, Barker was robbed while delivering pizzas, according to the Fontana Herald News.
One particular incident was so frightening, Barker told Pop Buzz he experienced a, quote,
"awakening" after emerging unscathed.
Barker was getting into his father's truck when, quote, "a drunk, armed man suddenly
got into the passenger side [...] and demanded that he drive to an apartment complex."
The musician recalled that the man hit him with a gun and then held the weapon to Barker's
temple.
Fortunately, Barker was able to escape and felt grateful to have survived the encounter.
Barker's raw memoir also explores his journey to overcoming excessive drug use.
In an interview with Vice, Barker admitted to trying a wide variety of drugs, and revealed
that pills were his most dangerous addiction.
The drummer confessed to Billboard that one of his most difficult moments occurred in
2004, saying,
"I was so addicted to Oxycodone, and I had a security that would actually sleep during
the day and then stay up at night to make sure I was breathing.
That was pretty pathetic."
According to the Vice interview, Barker first attempted to get sober after a therapist asked
him,
"If you died today would you be the man you want your kids to remember, right now, the
way you are?"
The rock star desperately wanted to break the unhealthy cycle for the sake of his children,
telling the magazine,
"I would flush pills down the toilet and throw cigarettes out the window.
I was trying my hardest, but I was still hanging on."
A near-death experience finally propelled Barker into achieving sobriety.
A 2008 plane crash left the musician in critical condition, and he told Men's Health that the
crash changed his direction in life, saying,
"If I wasn't in a crash, I would have probably never quit."
With his numerous tattoos, backward hats, and punk-rock wardrobe, Barker certainly looks
like the quintessential "bad boy."
But in reality?
Men's Health once described the rock star as, quote, "soft-spoken and gentle," and Vice
called him "a responsible father."
Barker admitted to Vice in 2015 that some people can't get past his seemingly tough
appearance.
In an interview with NME, Barker recalled,
"I remember going to this car dealership, [...] the first thing the guy said to me was
like, 'Sir, we don't have a toilet.'
[...] I was ready to buy the car but nobody would talk to me."
Barker patiently waited until the staff discovered that he was a famous drummer and could, indeed,
afford any of the dealership's cars.
Some of Barker's other experiences with prejudice have proven to be even more disturbing.
The musician told Salon that he was often targeted by police and pulled over, quote,
"constantly."
He added,
"I've been taken out of the car at gunpoint, in front of my children, and asked if I had
any weapons in the car, my gang allegiance, where I was hiding the drugs."
Travis Barker inherited his mother's fear of flying; as he shared with Vice, he even
told others that he believed he would someday die in a plane crash.
"Uh, I hated flying."
In September of 2008, Barker boarded a private jet in South Carolina with his assistant,
Chris Baker, his bodyguard, Charles Monroe Still, Jr., and fellow musician and friend
Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein.
And while Barker always grew nervous before flying, this time was different.
As the drummer recalled to Billboard, he called his father before takeoff and eerily proclaimed,
"Pops, I have a really strange feeling about this one.
Something just tells me it's not right.
[...] I love you, and if anything happens, make sure the kids are taken care of."
Then, disaster struck.
As Today recalled, the aircraft, quote, "skidded off the runway and burst into flames after
striking an embankment."
"The landing gear popped.
It sounded like gunshots.
It was like, it sounded like someone was shooting a gun next to my head."
Tragically, both pilots, Chris Baker, and Charles Monroe Still, Jr. were killed upon
impact.
Barker and Goldstein somehow managed to escape the wreckage.
Barker's nightmare was far from over.
He said to Salon,
"Sixty-five percent of my body burned, plus 27 surgeries over a four month span."
And the healing process was anything but easy.
Barker told Vice,
"I think I woke up during 11 out of 27 surgeries.
I woke up swinging on doctors, not even knowing what was happening, just waking up in the
most extreme excruciating pain."
In addition to intense physical pain, Travis Barker also suffered from emotional trauma
after the plane crash.
He told Salon,
"I had massive survivor's guilt for a while.
[...] I had to bury two of my best friends, Lil' Chris and Che.
I still see Lil Chris's son and Che's mother.
I have to answer to them."
The crash also left Barker with severe PTSD.
He told Men's Health that he struggled emotionally after coming home from the hospital and added,
"I couldn't walk down the street.
If I saw a plane, I was determined it was going to crash, and I just didn't want to
see it."
The musician used therapy and family support to regain his mental health, telling the Fontana
Herald News that his children motivated him to, quote, "bounce back and overcome everything
I went through."
In 2008, Travis Barker and Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein formed a music collaboration project.
The pair performed a show together in Columbia, South Carolina, before boarding the ill-fated
jet that was meant to bring them back to Los Angeles.
The two sole survivors of the crash were close before the tragic accident, but afterwards
their bond grew even deeper.
Barker told Billboard in 2015,
"He was my best friend.
It was beyond friendship.
It was like there was only one other person in the world."
"He was just one of those people that were in your life that just made you want to be
a better person."
As previously mentioned, the plane crash was Barker's initial motivation for achieving
sobriety, but the tragic accident had the opposite effect on the then-sober Goldstein,
who, according to Vice, began using drugs to cope with his new fear of flying.
Goldstein died from a drug overdose in August of 2009, only a year after surviving the deadly
plane crash.
Barker was devastated.
He told Vice,
"That was really hard for me to accept.
Just hanging out with Adam you wanted to be a better person, he would rub off on you.
Man, I looked up to him in so many ways."
Travis Barker had survived a plane crash, lost his closest friends, endured multiple
reconstructive surgeries, and overcame drug addiction.
Unfortunately, the drummer encountered two more major challenges in the summer of 2018.
Earlier in the year, Blink-182 announced they were headed to Las Vegas for a residency.
The band had only played a few shows when they announced on Twitter in June that Barker
had blood clots in both arms, and upcoming shows would be rescheduled.
A few days after Blink-182's announcement, TMZ reported that Barker was also battling
cellulitis and a staph infection.
His condition was so serious that Blink-182 eventually canceled the remainder of their
residency.
TMZ also reported that Barker later sued an imaging center for malpractice.
The lawsuit alleged,
"Technicians were unable to find a vein, sticking him at least 40 times in the process with
a dirty needle."
Then, several weeks after his medical issues began, Travis Barker was involved in a major
car crash.
The day after the accident he told E! News,
"My car is totaled but I pretty much walked away.
[...] A school bus ran a red light.
It was insane.
I have a really big 4x4 G-Wagon and if I wasn't in that, it might have been different but
it held up pretty well."
If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction, help is available.
Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact
the National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357.