Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
Travis Barker’s mother’s dying wish was for him to pursue music.
The Blink-182 drummer was devastated when his beloved mother Gloria passed away in 1990 following a battle with autoimmune disease Sjögren’s syndrome but she still had a huge influence on his life and career.
Speaking on the CNN Podcast All There Is with Anderson Cooper about the day his mother died, which was just one day before he started high school, Travis said: “I remember they were like, ‘you gotta get down there,’ and luckily I got down there the day she passed. And had a chance for her to say, like, ‘pursue music, I really want you to pursue music.’ I still didn’t think those were last words.
“From the time my mom said that to me, it was like tunnel vision. I feel like when a parent passes like this, I feel they’re an angel and they help you so many ways, you know, guide you.”
Barker went to school the day after his mom died and tried out for band, making the marching band’s snare line, “which was like a big accomplishment”.
He went on: “Joined jazz band, joined orchestra, just head down, no one to talk to, but play the drums.”
And Barker – who is married to Kourtney Kardashian – attributes his success in both his personal and professional life to his mother looking out for him.
He said: “It’s almost ignorant to think I could just be so blessed to have everything I have now without her and a lot of people that have passed.”
Meanwhile, Barker recently opened up about the terrifying accident which nearly killed him back in 2008 when the private jet he was travelling on crashed during take-off at an airport in South Carolina claiming the lives of four people.
Speaking in new documentary Louder Than Fear, Travis recalled: “I feel it getting very rough, I guess at this point the landing gear had blown up. The belly of the plane is basically on the ground skidding and it catches fire.
“The plane attempted to take off and go into the air, and then we’d go down, go into the air, go down and we end up hitting an embankment. Just fire and chaos everywhere.
“AM [Adam ‘DJ AM’ Goldstein] was knocked out, he’d hit his head, so I grabbed him and I shook him and he woke up, tried to get in front of him and the lower parts of my arms caught fire.
“I opened the emergency exit and jumped out right into the jet where all the fuel is, then my whole body caught fire. I’m running and the fire won’t go out, I stop, drop and roll and AM came out and he patted my feet off fire. Ten seconds later the plane blows up.”
Travis broke all of his ribs and fractured his back in four places while 65 per cent of his body was covered in third degree burns.
The plane crash killed Travis’ assistant Chris Baker and security guard Charles Still Jr as well as the two pilots. The rocker’s pal Goldstein survived the accident, but he died a year later after suffering a drug overdose.
Travis went on to reveal his world collapsed for a second time after Goldstein’s death, saying: “After AM passed it was beyond difficult to relate to anybody. I really had no one, I would exhaust post-traumatic doctors and I would hit walls constantly.
“I definitely had feelings of survivor guilt, I was beating myself up: ‘Why am I here and everyone else isn’t?’ I had to believe I was still here for a reason …
“My kids really kept me together. It was the best thing for my recovery and to give me strength. I flushed my painkillers down the toilet – I was not going to fail my kids.”
