Travis Barker

• 1. Forty-Five Minutes

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  Travis Barker learned a 20-song setlist in 45 minutes. It was early 1998, he had no time to rehearse with the band, and he played every song flawlessly at the first show. The band was Blink-182, and he was only meant to be a stand-in. Barker is an American drummer, songwriter and music producer, born in 1975, and he is now the drummer for Blink-182.

  That quick study grew into something far bigger than one band. Barker has since worked with rappers, run his own businesses and become a television personality. He also lived through a single night in 2008 that reshaped his life.

  This documentary follows three questions. How does a temporary stand-in become the permanent drummer of one of the biggest pop punk bands? Why do hip-hop artists keep calling a punk drummer? And what does it take to keep playing after everything changes in one night?

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• 2. From Fontana To Blink

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  Travis Landon Barker was born in Fontana, California, on the 14th of November 1975. When he was four, his mother gave him a drum kit. It was the only kit he owned until he turned 15. Lessons began at age five with a drummer named Michael Mai, who introduced him to many different playing styles. Trumpet lessons ran alongside them.

  By junior high, Barker had learned piano and briefly tried singing in the madrigals choir for men and women. He also dreamed of becoming a professional surfer or skateboarder. The drums kept pulling him back. In his words: "I always migrated back to drums, though. That was the one direction that kind of felt like I was connected to and I could kind of understand. I could express myself better through my drums than I could anything else."

  His first hero was Animal, the drummer from The Muppets, as Barker told CBS Local. In 2012 he played along with Animal and Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem on an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!. He names John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, Alex Van Halen, Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe and Danny Carey of Tool as favorites. In a 2016 Q&A with Vevo he called Buddy Rich the greatest drummer of all time. The first song he learned was Van Halen's "Jump".

  Fontana High School brought both loss and training. His mother had been diagnosed with Sjögren syndrome three months earlier, and she died the day before he started. She told him to keep playing music and to follow his dreams. Barker has described himself as a stoner in those years. He played drum set in the jazz ensemble and snare in the marching band, working regional competitions and festivals. Military and jazz rhythms filled his playing, but he was drawn to the driving rhythms of hip-hop and punk rock.

  After graduation, Barker worked as a trash man in Laguna Beach. He played with the punk rock band Snot and with Feeble, another Fontana band, where he met Chad Larson. Larson joined the ska punk group the Aquabats in 1994. After local shows and demo tapes, the Aquabats recruited Barker through Larson. He was sleeping on a friend's couch and still collecting trash. He meant to fill in for a few days and ended up staying.

  The Aquabats recorded The Fury of the Aquabats! with veteran producer Jim Goodwin. Barker was so fast and accurate that once his parts were done, he could leave to rehearse or sit in with other bands. His bandmates gave him the nickname Baron Von Tito, though none of them remember why.

  The record came out in October 1997, and the Aquabats toured the country with San Diego band Blink-182. Blink-182 had just finished their second album, Dude Ranch. Their drummer, Scott Raynor, told the others he would leave after the SnoCore Tour in February 1998. They asked Barker to cover. Raynor returned that May, but the arguments only got worse. Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus fired him, ostensibly over a drinking problem, and asked Barker again.

  Aquabats member Adam Deibert saw it coming. "I vividly remember the feeling of this is the new Blink," he recalled. He added, "We should have looked for a new drummer right then because it was so obvious what band he belonged in." Barker's arrival pushed DeLonge and Hoppus to "play better" to keep up with him. DeLonge called their new member "perfect". As 1998 closed, Barker was also filling in for Josh Freese with the Vandals. His first album with Blink-182 was still a year away.

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• 3. Pop Punk Peak

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  Barker's first album with Blink-182, Enema of the State, arrived in June 1999 and made the trio the biggest pop punk band of its era. Three singles crossed over to Top 40 radio: "What's My Age Again?", "All the Small Things" and "Adam's Song". "All the Small Things" topped the Modern Rock Tracks chart and peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Its video parodied boy bands and pop videos, and it won a Moon Man for Best Group Video at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. The album has sold over 15 million copies worldwide.

  The money changed his daily life. "Four years ago, I couldn't afford to feed myself," he said in an interview at the time. "But now I can buy art, work on old Cadillacs, and live in comfort. I can finally buy a dog and afford to feed him." He bought a rehearsal studio, started giving drum lessons and added Guitar Center drum clinics to his schedule. The band began its first arena tour in the fall of 1999. Barker broke his finger and missed much of the 2000 Mark, Tom and Travis Show tour.

  Take Off Your Pants and Jacket followed in 2001 and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. It went triple platinum within three weeks and eventually sold more than 14 million copies worldwide.

  A cancelled European tour then sent DeLonge back to San Diego. He wanted to record an album he saw as an experiment, with ideas that did not suit Blink-182. He did not want to pay a studio drummer, so he simply asked Barker to play on it. The record was called Box Car Racer. The experiment turned into a full-time band that toured in 2002, and it strained the relationship between DeLonge and Hoppus.

  Blink-182 released an untitled fifth album in 2003 with a more mature direction. In 2004, Barker injured his foot at a show in Melbourne, Australia. He played the next night using his left foot for the kick drum, and he was in so much pain afterward that the tour had to be canceled. His doctor found he had torn tendons and ligaments as well as breaking the foot. Hoppus described it as "the type of injury that people get in motorcycle accidents." The year ended with a European tour soured by division in the band. In February 2005, the group issued a press statement announcing an "indefinite hiatus".

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• 4. Crossing Genres

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  In the summer of 2002, Rancid vocalist Tim Armstrong contacted Barker through a connection with Jerry Finn. Armstrong wanted him to record tracks for a rap and rock collaboration called the Transplants. For his work on that record, Rolling Stone called Barker "punk rock's first superstar drummer". The magazine also placed him among the 100 greatest drummers of all time. He began appearing in music videos too, including Puff Daddy's "Bad Boy for Life". The Transplants went on to release Haunted Cities in 2005, In a Warzone in 2013 and Take Cover in 2017.

  Once Blink-182 paused, Barker and Mark Hoppus kept recording together. They began with electronic demos and called the project +44. In October 2005 they bought their own studio and named it Opra Music. The debut, When Your Heart Stops Beating, got less-than-stellar reviews and little commercial success. Barker broke his arm during a video shoot for +44 but kept touring with one arm. After a stint on the Honda Civic Tour with Fall Out Boy and Cobra Starship, the band started a second studio album in October 2007.

  In 2005, Barker also started Expensive Taste, featuring Paul Wall and Skinhead Rob, a project that was more traditionally hip-hop. He began producing as well, working with artists such as Bun B and T.I.

  Early in 2007 he prepared loops and beats for Juelz Santana. He drummed on Idiot Pilot's "Elephant" and the Federation's "Black Roses". He also made well-received remixes of Rihanna's "Umbrella" and "Crank That (Soulja Boy)". A well-received remix of Flo Rida's "Low" followed in 2008. Videos of Barker playing along to the revamped tracks grew hugely popular on YouTube.

  The remixes planted an idea: a solo album, produced entirely by himself. As 2008 wore on, the project looked set to take priority over +44. Guests who recorded with him included Young Dro, E-40, Willie Nelson and Damian Marley.

  His pull across genres only widened later. In 2018 he appeared on Ghostemane's track "D(r)ead". He also played drums on "One Minute", featuring Kanye West, on XXXTentacion's posthumous album Skins. In 2019 he teamed up with the New Orleans duo $uicideboy$ on Live Fast Die Whenever, an EP released on the 24th of May. Its lead singles included "nothingleftnothingleft", a rapid-fire hardcore punk song. Several tracks featured James Shaffer of Korn on guitar.

  In September 2020 he worked with Machine Gun Kelly on the album Tickets to My Downfall. He played on the Willow Smith pop-punk track "Transparent Soul", released on the 27th of April 2021. In 2022 he executive produced Kelly's eighth studio album. The two announced its name, Born with Horns, by getting matching tattoos on their arms. Kelly later changed the title to Mainstream Sellout.

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• 5. Brands And Cameras

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  In 1999, Barker founded the clothing company Famous Stars and Straps. It began as a store in Riverside that the city shut down, but its products reached other retailers and the internet. By 2004 he was meeting weekly with its designers to oversee shoe designs. DC Shoes and Zildjian cymbals have both co-designed products in his name.

  LaSalle Records, which Barker officially set up in 2004, took its name from his favorite Cadillac. The Kinison, who had supported Blink-182 on tour, were the first group signed. Barker designed the label to find all types of music, from country to hip-hop. He founded DTA Records in 2019. In May 2020 it signed American musician and TikTok personality Jxdn as its first artist. In November 2021 Avril Lavigne joined, with releases to be handled by Warner Music Group's Elektra Records. That July, Barker had signed an exclusive worldwide publishing administration deal with Warner Chappell Music.

  His ventures stretch beyond music. In 2004 he bought a Wahoo's Fish Taco franchise in Norco, California. In 2007 he was looking to open two boutiques, Fast Life in Los Angeles and Rogue Status in Venice Beach. In February 2021 he launched Barker Wellness, a line of cannabinoid-infused products. He has also invested in Crossroads Kitchen, a vegan restaurant in Los Angeles.

  Barker has a brief scene with Blink-182 in the teen movie American Pie. The filmmakers credited former drummer Scott Raynor by mistake. In 2001 he joined Hoppus and DeLonge in a MADtv sketch called "Leave it to Blink-182", a parody of "Leave It to Beaver". In 2003 he took part in a set-up bareknuckle boxing match on MTV's Punk'd. That May he also spoke alongside Linkin Park vocalist Chester Bennington on MTV's Icon show honoring Metallica.

  In 2006 Barker starred in a Boost Mobile commercial and played a rapper on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. At the 41st annual CMA Awards that year, he performed a medley of Buck Owens songs with Dwight Yoakam, ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons and former Byrds bass player Chris Hillman. Later he played WrestleMania 31 with Skylar Grey and Kid Ink. He even appears as a secret playable character in Tony Hawk's Project 8 and Guitar Hero World Tour.

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• 6. Marriages And Painkillers

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  In 2001, Barker married Melissa Kennedy. By August 2002 the marriage was over, after nine months.

  On the 30th of October 2004, he married actress Shanna Moakler, the first runner-up at Miss USA 1995. The ceremony took place on the eve of Halloween and followed a goth-style theme from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Their son Landon was born in October 2003, and their daughter Alabama in 2005. Barker is also extremely close with his stepdaughter Atiana, Moakler's daughter with her ex-fiance, the boxer Oscar De La Hoya.

  The MTV series Meet the Barkers aired from 2005 to 2006. It followed the new family through daily life, including Blink-182's final tour and the making of the new Transplants album.

  On the 8th of August 2006, Barker filed for divorce from Moakler, and each of them used a MySpace page to air their feelings. The breakup made them tabloid favorites. Afterward he was often seen at nightclubs and was photographed necking with Paris Hilton. Barker later said he was trying to blot out his guilt at giving his children a broken home. He took "excessive amounts" of prescription painkillers, marijuana and alcohol, and the painkiller use became a full addiction over 2007.

  The couple kept circling back. Early in 2007, reports said they were "quietly trying to give it another go" after they were seen autographing a fan's book with a heart around their names. In March 2007, Moakler told People magazine that they were back together, though she denied being pregnant. They later separated again, yet at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards they were seen kissing and holding hands. The divorce was finalized on the 11th of February 2008.

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• 7. The Crash

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  In June 2008, Barker began performing with DJ AM, whose real name was Adam Goldstein, in a duo called TRV$DJAM. Goldstein mixed a set of classic songs, from classic rock to dance, live on two turntables. Barker then added live drums to "enhance AM's groove". The pair played the MTV Video Music Awards on the 7th of September. "Our little duo of drummer and DJ had reached heights we never thought were possible," Barker said in a 2011 interview.

  On the 19th of September 2008, TRV$DJAM played a free T-Mobile event in Five Points in Columbia, South Carolina, alongside Jane's Addiction singer Perry Farrell and Gavin DeGraw. The group flew on a private plane, which felt like a treat. Barker had invited Moakler, but she declined because she had a weird feeling about leaving their children. With a seat empty, he invited his security guard, Che Still, expecting good company.

  Barker had always been afraid to fly. As a teenager, he was "sure" he would die in a plane crash. In 2001, while Blink-182 prepared the artwork for Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, each member got an icon: a jacket, a pair of pants and an airplane. Barker begged not to be given the plane, and he got it anyway.

  Just before midnight, the plane was heading down the runway for Van Nuys, California, when everyone heard a loud bang. The Federal Aviation Administration said air traffic controllers saw sparks coming from the plane. The pilots reported a blown tire and said they were aborting the takeoff. The plane hurtled through the airport fence, across a highway and into an embankment.

  "When everything stopped, I tried to get everyone I could," Barker remembered. He and Goldstein escaped and ran in circles on the highway. Hearing others yell, "Stop, drop and roll," Barker dropped to the ground, and Goldstein helped him put out the fire on his feet. "I was lying next to AM Goldstein as the plane was exploding, and I was screaming, 'Are we alive?'" he said.

  Both men were taken to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Georgia, in critical condition. They were the only survivors. Personal assistant Chris Baker, Che Still and the two pilots died.

  Barker spent more than 11 weeks in hospitals and burn centers. He had 16 surgeries, including blood transfusions that lasted 4-8 hours and numerous skin grafts. "There were times when they were talking about amputating my foot because I didn't have enough skin on my body for my grafts," he said. He developed post-traumatic stress disorder, made worse by his guilt that Still had not been meant to be on the plane. In his pain, he made desperate calls to friends, offering them $1 million to help him end his life.

  He gave up his vegetarian diet and ate meat to boost his protein and possibly speed the healing of his burns. In November 2008 he returned to the recording studio. In his first television interview since the crash, he told MTV, "I'm already playing my drums again, and I'm already back in the studio."

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• 8. After The Fire

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  Blink-182 announced their return at the Grammy Awards in February 2009, and Barker's accident was what led to the reunion. During the reunion tour in August 2009, a friend found DJ AM dead in his New York apartment. The medical examiner reported "acute intoxication" and listed several prescription drugs and cocaine. Goldstein had been prescribed pain medication after the crash. Barker had sued the plane's owners, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., and an airplane maintenance company in November 2008. The case settled out of court in December 2009, and the terms are confidential.

  Barker changed his habits. He began running and swimming every day, and he went vegan after leaving the hospital. "I didn't even take any pain medication after I got out of the hospital. They told me I'd be on some of the medicine for the rest of my life, but I got off all of them," he said. "They made me a completely different person." He did not fly for years afterward, going by bus and, in Europe, by boat.

  Give the Drummer Some, his solo debut, finally arrived in March 2011 after more than two years of setbacks and delays. It features guests from Lil Wayne to Slipknot's Corey Taylor. Blink-182's sixth album, Neighborhoods, followed in September 2011 and peaked at number two on the Billboard 200. He also worked with Chester French, LL Cool J and Cypress Hill, and made an entire EP, Psycho White, with rapper Yelawolf. In 2013, Brooks Wackerman filled in when Barker could not attend Blink-182's Australian tour.

  On the 20th of October 2015, Barker released a memoir titled Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death, and Drums, Drums, Drums. The seventh Blink-182 album, California, followed on the 1st of July 2016. To finish it, Hoppus and Barker replaced co-founder Tom DeLonge with Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio. Both cited DeLonge's alleged unwillingness to commit to new Blink-182 projects as the main cause.

  In January 2021, Barker and Kourtney Kardashian made their relationship official. During it he returned to air travel after avoiding airplanes for 13 years. They got engaged in October 2021. They had an unofficial wedding in Las Vegas on the 3rd of April 2022, after the 64th Annual Grammy Awards. They married officially on the 15th of May 2022 in Santa Barbara, California, with a religious ceremony in Portofino, Italy, a week later. On the 4th of November 2023 it was announced that their first child, a son, had been born.

  In June 2023, Barker met 13-year-old Alex Etheridge, a Phoenix musician with bone cancer who loved his drumming. They met backstage at Blink-182's concert on the 14th of June 2023, and Alex and his family sat in the front row. The two spent more than an hour talking and playing drums, and Kardashian joined by FaceTime. Australian social-media influencer Samuel Weidenhofer traveled from Melbourne to arrange the meeting. His TikTok video of it had passed 17 million views by July 2023. Alex died on the 19th of July 2023.

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