14 DAY TRIAL // Travis Barker, who shot to fame as the drummer of Blink-182 and continued to get more attention afterwards for his rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, is showing a different side of himself in a new interview with ABC’s Good Morning America.
In 2008, Barker was involved in a near-fatal plane crash that took the lives of 4 other passengers, including the 2 pilots. He suffered severe burns over 60 percent of his body and was left in a chronic pain for a very long time. It got so bad that he contemplated taking his own life, he says now.
Travis Barker gets emotional
Barker has just published his memoir, “Can I Say,” in which he details the horrific crash. Only he and good friend DJ AM survived: Barker spent 4 months afterwards in a burns center, while DJ AM succumbed to drugs and alcohol, and would eventually die from an overdose one year later.
The experience was terrible for Barker, from the moment the plane crashed on the tarmac, shortly after takeoff, to the months he spent in the hospital, in such severe pain he was offering friends money to help him die.
“The plane’s on fire and my hands are on fire, so I unbuckle my seat belt and I jump right into the jet, which holds all the fuel,” he says of the crash. “I basically ignite my whole body on fire. I’m so soaked in jet fuel, there’s nothing I can do to put the fire out.”
His clothes were burned away, and he realized that he was running around naked, he adds. What he didn’t realize was that they were already out of the plane: only when it exploded did he and DJ AM understand what happened.
The children saved his life
Barker never made a secret of how the experience changed his life: to this day, he refuses to board a plane and will take whatever measures he has to travel from one place to another for work.
Moreover, he’s left his wild days behind him and is now focused solely on his music and his two children, Landon and Alabama.
Had it not been for them, he would have probably insisted with friends until he did find one to take the $1 million (€880,863) in cash he was offering for “assistance” to die, so he could be rid of the pain.
This is the moment in the interview that’s the hardest to watch, as Barker struggles to fight back tears to explain how the kids made him want to fight for his life.
Hankies at the ready, here it is.