Best known as the drummer for pop-punk mainstays
blink-182,
Travis Barker expanded his reach over the decades with bands such as
the Suicide Machines,
the Aquabats,
Transplants,
+44,
Box Car Racer,
Goldfinger, and more. The prolific producer/songwriter is also known for his collaborative output, contributing his crisp, athletic drum frenzies on multiple tracks with artists such as
Yelawolf,
$uicideboy$,
Vic Mensa,
03 Greedo,
XXXTentacion, and
Lil Nas X. Across genres, his trademark sound also landed on songs from the worlds of electronic (
Krewella,
Steve Aoki,
Datsik) and pop (
Skylar Grey,
P!nk,
Avril Lavigne). In 2011, in the aftermath of a life-changing plane crash and painful recovery,
Barker issued his solo debut,
Give the Drummer Some, which featured over two-dozen guests and peaked in the Top Ten of the Billboard 200. Theroughout the 2010s, his output remained steadier than ever, balanced between his time with
blink and numerous, cross-genre collaborations. Heading into the next decade, Barker created joint releases with artists like
KennyHoopla,
UnoTheActivist, and Jack Kays.
Born in 1975 in Fontana, California,
Barker was encouraged to pursue his musical talents by his mother, who bought him his first drum set at the age of four. Throughout his youth, he dabbled with everything from trumpet and piano to singing and skateboarding, but he always returned to the drums. Before his mother passed away the day before he started high school, she urged him to continue drumming.
Barker followed her advice and eventually worked his way onto the touring roster of ska-punks
the Aquabats, who shared a number of tour dates with up-and-coming headliners
blink-182. When
blink's original drummer departed in 1998,
Barker permanently joined the lineup, forming the core trio that delivered the mainstream breakthroughs
Enema of the State (1999) and
Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001), which sold over 35 million copies across the globe.
As relations within the band started to fray,
Barker contributed to the first of two
blink side projects,
Tom DeLonge's experimental
Box Car Racer (in 2005 he'd join
Mark Hoppus in the band
+44).
Barker also pursued personal ventures, forming hybrid hip-hop/punk project
the Transplants with
Rancid's
Tim Armstrong, and starring in an MTV reality show with his then-wife. After the 2003 release of
blink's fifth self-titled set, the band went on hiatus and
Barker was able to focus on his own endeavors.
Plunging headfirst into non-punk genres, he collaborated with the
Black Eyed Peas,
T.I.,
Johnny Cash,
Outkast,
the Game,
Paul Wall, and countless others. He also teamed with friend
DJ AM (born Adam Goldstein), forming the duo TRV$DJAM in the summer of 2008. Months later, the pair were on a private plane returning home when a tire burst and they veered off the runway. They were the sole survivors of the crash and
Barker spent months in the hospital recovering from his injuries (
Goldstein died a year later from an overdose). The traumatic event shook his life into focus and, as soon as he was physically able, he returned to his drums and got back to work.
His first order of business was a long-discussed solo effort. In 2011, that LP was finally unveiled. The star-studded debut,
Give the Drummer Some, featured an impressive number of famous friends, including
Lil Wayne,
Pharrell Williams,
RZA,
Raekwon,
Tom Morello,
Snoop Dogg,
Ludacris,
Busta Rhymes,
Kid Cudi,
Tech N9ne,
Cypress Hill, and
Slipknot's
Corey Taylor. Upon release, the set peaked within the Billboard Top Ten and even managed to land on both the R&B and Rap charts at number two. Months later,
blink delivered the comeback effort
Neighborhoods, their fourth straight Top Ten showing. Meanwhile,
Barker maintained cross-genre collaborating, adding
Britney Spears,
the Glitch Mob,
Wiz Khalifa, and Jeezy to his professional résumé. One particular guest spot with rapper
Yelawolf bore additional fruit in 2012 with the rap-rock collaborative EP
Psycho White.
As
blink continued to work on their seventh album,
Barker kept busy with artists such as
Xzibit,
LL Cool J,
Run the Jewels,
Krewella, and
Skylar Grey. He also released a memoir Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death, and Drums, Drums, Drums. In 2016, with
Alkaline Trio's
Matt Skiba replacing
DeLonge, the newly formed
blink-182 issued their critically acclaimed
California, which returned them to number one on the Billboard 200 for the first time in 15 years. Amidst a mainstream pop-punk revival and their status as respected scene veterans,
blink toured
California and rode the momentum back to the studio for a follow-up. Before that album arrived,
Barker lent his talents to tracks with
Lil Nas X ("F9mily [You & Me]"),
Halsey and
Yungblud ("11 Minutes"), and
Machine Gun Kelly and
Yungblud (the hit single "I Think I'm OKAY"). Several non-album songs arrived in 2020, including "Drums Drums Drums" with
Wiz Khalifa and "Forever" featuring
Run the Jewels. Originally slated for release the previous year, Might Not Make It, a collaborative project with
UnoTheActivist, appeared in October 2020. Throughout 2021
Barker featured on his usual barrage of tracks including Willow Smith's "Transparent Soul," while churning out more collaborative projects like Survivors Guilt: The Mixtape with
KennyHoopla and My Favorite Nightmares with Jack Kays. ~ Neil Z. Yeung