Blink-182’s Travis Barker says “power of love” helped him overcome fear of flying
Travis Barker has said that it was the “power of love” that has helped him to overcome his fear of flying.
The Blink-182 drummer refused to travel via plane for years after he was involved in a crash back in 2008, which left four dead.
The crash saw the plane’s two pilots and two of its four passengers killed instantly – his assistant, Chris Baker and security guard Charles ‘Che’ Still.
Barker and fellow passenger Adam ‘DJ AM’ Goldstein suffered serious injuries from the crash, with the latter dying one year later due to an overdose. Barker then spent 11 weeks in a hospital, undergoing 26 surgeries and a number of skin grafts.
Now, he has opened up about overcoming his fear of flying and credited his wife Kourtney Kardashian with helping him travel by plane again.
“I think the power of love really helped me,” he told The Los Angeles Times (via Radio X). “Kourt made it so I fly, my kids fly now. She healed us.”
He continued, saying that although he can travel by plane now – and is no longer insistent on touring via boat – he still finds it stressful embarking on each journey.
“It takes a little piece of my life every time I fly,” he explained. “The amount of stress and anxiety it causes is just unbearable.
“It brings up all this old trauma, and sometimes I’m like, ‘Is this worth it?’ But I don’t like anything having a hold on me, either — I don’t like being afraid, and I don’t like having things from my past control my future.”
His discussion of his long-term fear of flying comes just weeks after the pop-punk drummer paid tribute to those who died on the flight back in 2008.
“Rest In Peace Lil Chris, Che D, DJAM,” he wrote in his Instagram Stories last month. “Gone but never forgotten”.
After refusing to fly since 2008, the drummer didn’t get back on a plane until 2021, when he boarded a flight for the first time when taking a trip to Cabo, Mexico. Shortly before he made the journey, he hinted to fans that he was trying to overcome his phobia by tweeting: “I might fly again”.
More recently, however, Barker has been on tour with Blink-182 over the past couple of months – celebrating the release of their new album ‘One More Time’.
A run of the UK and Ireland shows at the start of the tour, however, were forced to be rescheduled for 2024, after the drummer was forced to rush home due to a family emergency concerning Kardashian, who is currently pregnant with his baby.
Now, the affected tour dates will now take place next August, after the band have kicked off their upcoming run of US stadium dates. You can find remaining tickets for the UK and Ireland dates here and for the US tour here.
In other Travis Barker news, the musician recently reflected on the strained relationship with bandmates Tom Delonge and Mark Hoppus, saying it was “always heavy on my heart”. He also was also given a new waxwork at Madame Tussauds.
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Liberty Dunworth
NME
