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Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker next to log truck from 'Final Destination 2'
In 2008, Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker survived a plane crash that claimed the lives of four other people. He understandably had some lingering trauma in the wake of the ordeal, and he recently revealed he felt like he was stuck in a Final Destination movie after convincing himself it was only a matter of time until death chased him down.
Travis Barker made a name for himself as the drummer for Blink-182, the pop-punk band that really burst onto the scene when 1999’s Enema of the State soared toward the top of the charts on the back of “All the Small Things” and What’s My Name Again?”
The band announced it was going on an “indefinite hiatus” in 2005, and Barker subsequently turned his attention to some side projects. That included TRV$DJAM, the group he formed with Adam Goldstein (better known as DJ AM), which was tapped to perform at a music festival in South Carolina in 2008.
They were slated to head back to California on a private plane that took off from Columbia Metropolitan Airport on September 19th that year, but the aircraft blew a tire and proceeded to crash into an embankment after speeding off the runway.
Barker and Goldstein were able to escape the wreckage before being rushed to the hospital with serious burns, but the two pilots and two other passengers (Chris Baker, Barker’s personal assistant, and Charles “Che” Still, the drummer’s bodyguard) aboard ended up losing their lives.
The incident took a physical and mental toll on Barker, and he has shed some light on just how bad things got for him on that second front as he was trying to move forward.
Travis Barker thought Death was tracking him down like in Final Destination after surviving a plane crash
Barker already had a fear of flying before the crash, and it was obviously exacerbated by the tragedy. Goldstein also developed the same phobia, and the medication he was prescribed to deal with the physical and psychological scars has been linked to the relapse that led to him dying of an overdose in 2009.
The drummer spent close to three months in the hospital while undergoing more than a dozen surgeries, and he has been candid about the dark place he went to while recovering (although he did credit the crash for making him sober up after a lengthy stretch of substance abuse).
He recently shed some more light on the fallout during an interview with People where he said he felt like he was trapped in a Final Destination movie, saying he was convinced it was only a matter of time before death was going to catch up with him, noting:
“I would go from my tour bus to the hotel, and no one would see me.
I would just hide out. I was so afraid. I was just waiting for impact in the bus. I was just like, ‘Oh, I’m next. I’m going to go anytime.’”
He’s thankfully come a long way since then, saying, “The further I got away from almost dying, things got a little bit easier” and adding he’s made it his mission to live the kind of life he knows the friends who passed away in the crash would want him to pursue.