Travis Barker opens up about the plane crash that ‘haunted’ him and how it helped him kick opioids

“If I wasn’t in a crash, I would have probably never quit”

Photo credit Getty Images

Travis Barker has begun to speak candidly about the 2008 plane crash he was involved in, and how the traumatic incident helped him overcome his prescription drug addiction.

During a recent interview with Men’s Health, Barker shared what his recovery from the crash entailed. The tragic accident killed close friends Chris Barker, Charles “Che” Still, and the two pilots on the plane. The Blink-182 drummer says that the recovery period afterward forced him to stop abusing opioids.

Travis explains, “People are always like, ‘Did you go to rehab?’ And I say, ‘No, I was in a plane crash.’ That was my rehab. Lose three of your friends and almost die? That was my wake-up call. If I wasn’t in a crash, I would have probably never quit.”

Prior to the crash, the 45-year-old said he had smoked an “excessive amount of weed,” and used painkillers as a means to cope with his flying phobia. However, he abused painkillers to the point where he developed osteoporosis.

During his 11-week stint in the hospital, Barker said he often “came to” during surgery because his tolerance of opioids was extremely high.

The drummer shared that once released from the hospital he flushed all his drugs down the toilet, “including stuff that I really needed.”

Travis sustained 26 surgeries and multiple skin grafts because burns covered 60 percent of his body, plus the musician needed to learn how to walk again.

“I was told I wasn’t going to run again because I had so many grafts on my feet, and there was even talk of me never playing the drums again,” said Barker. He adds, “As soon as I could walk, I could run. As soon as I could move my hands and my hands healed, I was playing drums. And now I’m in better shape than I’ve ever been.”

Physically, Travis is doing very well. A committed vegan, the artist runs three to four miles daily and boxes with a trainer. However, mentally, Barker struggles with PTSD.

After the crash, Travis said, “I was dark.” “I couldn’t walk down the street. If I saw a plane in the sky, I was determined it was going to crash, and I just didn’t want to see it.”

Barker went to three months of intensive therapy to help him grapple with and overcome his survivor’s guilt, and now has a tattoo that references the time. Now 13 years later Travis’ fears have started to subside.

The drummer who is now in a serious relationship with Kourtney Kardashian notes, “It’s gotten better the further I get away from it.”

“The closer I was to it, it felt like I was closer to the bad stuff than I am to the good stuff. I felt closer to the experience of trying to escape, to being in an accident and being burned, trying to grab my friends from a burning plane. That haunted me for a long time. And as long as I was closer to that than this good stuff, I was always thinking about that.”

“Now it’s been so many years, it’s getting easier for me. There are days where I’ll wake up and never think about it.”