During a recent episode of Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin, Travis Barker chats about his musical contributions extending beyond blink-182, cheating death, and more.
LISTEN NOW: Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin — Travis Barker
After sharing stories about his family, how he got into drumming, the exciting times of blink-182 coming together and the unfortunate situation of the band’s breakup, his drug addiction and more, Travis detailed how the band eventually got back together, broke up and got back together again.
“It takes like a catastrophe and like someone almost dying for it to come back,” Travis said. “So yeah… my plane crash happens and I hadn’t spoken to Tom in years… I was in a burn center for like six months and I remember like people being like Tom’s trying to get a hold of you… I mean for the first three months I didn’t know what was going on in there cause I was on so many drugs, and I was like so medicated. So then when I got out he was like can I come visit you, can I come see you, and I said of course and then that’s when we got back together and we did 'Neighborhoods.'”
After that, some things went down, Tom stepped away and the band broke up again, well kinda, Matt Skiba stepped in for a hot second. But for all intents and purposes Blink was over.
Travis, Tom, and Mark kept in touch and talked randomly, and during one of those conversations, Travis told Mark, “I really feel like the future of Blink is me, you and Tom, whenever it happens… Even if it means like everyone’s schedules line up and we do an album, tour for a year, and then take two years off. Whatever it is like we just make a pact that this is Blink and we’re never gonna have any other version of it, because I really believe it’s the best version of it.”
Some time after that, “Blink’s not really active” Mark’s “chilling at home, I’m working on stuff at my studio, and then he hits me one day and he’s like ‘yeah I have stage four cancer.’ Of course the worst news I could ever get from him. So I start visiting him,” Travis notes, adding that he starts seeing Tom “at Marks” during his visits.
“Then he’s like man I’d really love to play music with you guys again,” Travis said of Tom. “At this time he’s like completely out of music, you know, and I was like yeah, I mean like, first things first, Mark’s gotta be healthy, and then yeah Mark got healthy and we just start getting in recording and writing songs and yeah, the rest is history.”
Travis also discussed co-finding the Rap Rock group Transplants, being involved with Box Car Racer, Antemasque, and Goldfinger, as well as his own clothing brand, Famous Stars and Straps, founded in 1999, plus his two record labels, LaSalle Records created in 2004 and DTA Records in 2019.
For all that and more, listen to the entire interview above. And if that’s not enough, check out Travis’ book Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death, and Drums, Drums, Drums, for more insight into the multifaceted life of this influential artist and entrepreneur.