Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker has been through a lot in his life and one of his scariest moments was surviving a plane crash. That's just one of the experiences chronicles in his new book, Can I Say, that arrives Oct. 20 via Harper Collins. In advance of the book, Barker addressed the Learjet crash that took the lives of four people and reveals he had a bad feeling before boarding the flight on that fateful day.

He told Billboard, "We got [to the ­airport], and I did my normal thing -- I'm medicating. I called my dad. I don’t know what it was, but I said, 'Pops, I have a really strange feeling about this one. Something just tells me it’s not right.' And I’d walked off planes before. But I said, 'I love you, and if anything happens, make sure the kids are taken care of.' And then, sure enough..."

Barker says that tragic event is something that changed his outlook on life. "I think back, and I was this little punk, someone I'm not proud of, that's abusing pills every day and taking all this s--t recreationally," recalls Barker. "And then you look death in the face and you almost die in a plane crash and they you're forced to be on morphine for four months or whatever. It's like, 'Oh, how did the tables change?' I went from being like that to getting out of the hospital and refusing to take pain meds home." The drummer adds that he took bipolar drugs and was suicidal at one point from the survivor's guilt. But family was a saving grace. "I was already a great father," says Barker. "I loved my kids, but after that it was like I had a second chance at life and so much changed. There was no more drug abuse."

As for his mindset now, Barker says, "I have the best support system. I have the most amazing kids. I'm not on any medications. I haven't seen a post-traumatic doctor in six years. I get so much love and happiness out of playing music and playing the drums and my kids. There's nothing better. I couldn't ask for more."

In addition to Barker, the only other survivor of the crash was his friend Adam Goldstein (also known as DJ AM). However, Goldstein would die of a drug overdose a year later.

To read more about Barker's life, be sure to pick up the drummer's Can I Say book. It arrives on Oct. 20 and is currently available to pre-order via Amazon.

See the Yearbook Photos of Blink-182's Travis Barker and Other Rock Stars

Travis Barker, Can I Say?

Harper Collins
Harper Collins
loading...

More From WGBF-FM