Who is the better drummer: Dave Grohl or Travis Barker?

Fight about this amongst yourselves… We’re just giving you some ammo 

Dave Grohl and Travis Barker Photo credit Kevin Nixon/Scott Dudelson – Getty Images

Alright, we know this is a touchy subject, but bear with us. Both Dave Grohl and Travis Barker have been go-to beat men for the better part of their adult lives, writing and performing with some of the biggest and brightest Rock and Alternative acts throughout their storied careers.

Let’s name a few of the bands each drummer has been affiliated with, shall we? Starting with Dave, who obviously broke onto the scene with Nirvana when he joined in 1990, and has since had the pleasure of blasting beats on the first Foo Fighters records while joining up for live performances with the likes of David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, and Paul McCartney.

d up with Metal masters Lemmy Kilmister, King Diamond, and others on his Probot project, in addition to his award-winning Them Crooked Vultures supergroup with Led Zeppelin‘s John Paul Jones and numerous appearances on records from Oasis‘ Liam Gallagher, Tenacious D, Queens Of The Stone Age, Nine Inch Nails, The Prodigy, Killing Joke, and more.

As for Barker, well, he’s no stranger to helping out his pals and bringing the thunder when he does. Known best as blink-182‘s tattooed toe-tapper, Travis has also performed with bands and artists like Transplants, +44, his TRV$DJAM project, Box Car Racer, Steve Aoki, The Aquabats, ANTEMASQUE, Goldfinger, rapper The Game, and more.

Of course, he’s also been involved most recently in helping out artists like WILLOW, Jxdn, Avril Lavigne, MOD SUN, and Machine Gun Kelly with their pop-punk revivals.

One thing we can say for sure though is that Travis has given fans a taste of not only his heavy-hitting on all of the recordings and live performances he’s been a part of — he’s also shown off his forearm crippling rudiments in a number of marching snare videos, packed with all of the flips and back sticking one would expect.

Now, we’re not saying Dave’s got no chops, but we kind of need to see a little drum battle between these two to make a true decision on who’s the better player. For now, we’re keeping both Barker and Grohl at the top of the heap along with Bonham, Peart, Watts, and a couple more. Take a look at Audacy’s 7 Best Rock Drummers now.