A defining moment. Travis Barker is speaking out about the plane crash that almost killed him and how it changed his life forever.
“I was told I wasn’t going to run again because I had so many grafts on my feet, and there was even talk of me never playing the drums again,” the Blink-182 drummer, 45, told Men’s Health in an interview published on Monday, May 24. “As soon as I could walk, I could run. As soon as I could move my hands and my hands healed, I was playing drums. And now I’m in better shape than I’ve ever been.”
The September 2008 crash killed four of the six people on board. Barker, who has hasn’t been on a plane since the accident, and his friend Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein were the only two survivors. Less than a year later, Goldstein died at age 36 following a drug overdose.
“We were each other’s therapists,” the California native said of his late friend. “So it was just him and me. When he left, I was like, ‘Oh, f—k. I’m the only one in my club. It’s just me.’ And I find my ways to deal with it.”
The musician suffered third-degree burns on 65 percent of his body and spent three months in the hospital, undergoing 26 surgeries and learning to walk again via physical therapy. After he got home, he flushed all the pills his doctors had given him down the toilet.
“People are always like, ‘Did you go to rehab?’” he recalled. “And I [say], ‘No, I was in a plane crash.’ That was my rehab. Lose three of your friends and almost die? That was my wake-up call. If I wasn’t in a crash, I would have probably never quit.”
Aside from “the occasional drink” and THC-based products from his own wellness line, the Famous Stars and Straps no longer uses “hard drugs” and said he never will again.
“I was dark,” he remembered of the time following the crash, which left him with PTSD. “I couldn’t walk down the street. If I saw a plane [in the sky], I was determined it was going to crash, and I just didn’t want to see it.”
Barker only briefly addressed his relationship with Kourtney Kardashian in the interview, noting that “it’s everywhere,” but the reality star, 42, seems to be having a positive influence on his life.
“Kourtney and Travis are so happy together,” an insider told Us Weekly in April. “And friends think they absolutely will be getting engaged sooner rather than later.”
The pair have also been spending time with their kids, who seem to approve of the relationship. Barker’s son Landon, 17, whom the drummer shares with ex-wife Shanna Moakler, commented, “True love” on an Instagram post featuring his dad and the Poosh founder. The Box Car Racer alum also shares daughter Alabama, 15, with Moakler, 46, whom he divorced in 2008.
Kardsahian, for her part, shares sons Mason, 11, and Reign, 6, and daughter Penelope, 8, with ex Scott Disick.
