Travis Barker hasn’t been on a plane since his 2008 crash, but he wants to fly again

In September 2008, Travis Barker and DJ AM became the only survivors of a horrific plane accident in South Carolina. DJ AM saved Barker’s life – Barker was on fire and AM put it out. AM died a year later of a drug overdose, so now Travis is the only living survivor of that crash. It weighs on him. He spoke about all of that and more with Men’s Health. He spoke about his post-traumatic stress, his survivor’s guilt, getting off drugs and his new edibles line. You can read the piece here. Some highlights:

He hasn’t been on a plane since the 2008 crash: “There’s a million things that could happen to me. I could die riding my skateboard. I could get in a car accident. I could get shot. Anything could happen. I could have a brain aneurysm and die. So why should I still be afraid of airplanes?” Barker says he will fly again. “I have to. I want to make the choice to try and overcome it.”

On Kourtney Kardashian: He is covered in tattoos—he describes them as a “scrapbook of my life”—including a fresh cursive Kourtney above his left nipple. (A glimpse of the tattoo is the most I’ll get on that topic, though. Barker has been in the public eye for 20-plus years, but he’s guarded about his love life. When I ask about Kardashian, he politely tells me he won’t be addressing their relationship: “I mean, it’s everywhere,” he says.)

Getting off weed & his painkiller habit following the crash: His painkiller habit began as a way to cope with his fear of flying during Blink tours, was bad enough that he depleted his body of calcium and developed osteoporosis. In the hospital, he frequently came to during surgeries because his opioid tolerance was so high. By the time he got out, he’d had enough. He flushed all the medications he’d been sent home with down the toilet—“including stuff that I really needed”—and never looked back. “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.”

Why he’s getting into the THC/CBD edibles market: “I felt like there was a gap in the marketplace. I never really care about, like, ‘Oh, do I fit the mold to do this or that?’ I almost like being like, ‘F–k it, even better if I don’t.’ ” He says he started using CBD “religiously” to recover from exhausting tours, when he was drumming five hours a night. He got the idea that he could improve upon the products he was using, making them both cruelty-free and vegan. These days, he uses his company’s CBD ointments and tinctures to manage residual pain and to help him sleep, and he says he will never do hard drugs again.

The skin grafts:“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… 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.”

His PTSD: “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.” With time and therapy, those feelings have finally started to recede. “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.”

[From Men’s Health]

He actually sounds like he’s been through some programs, although he claims he quit everything cold turkey. But he did the work in other ways – he’s tried different kinds of therapy, from traditional talk therapy to more experimental stuff. He sounds like he’s in a healthy place, mentally and physically. I don’t really mind the CBD and edible stuff – I’ve started taking CBD gummies every so often and it’s not really a “high” and I don’t think it should “count” as anything besides something over-the-counter you would take for pain relief or sleeping. Now I’m curious about his edible line!

IGs courtesy of Men’s Health and Barker’s IG.

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18 Responses to “Travis Barker hasn’t been on a plane since his 2008 crash, but he wants to fly again”

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  1. Lena says:

    I can’t imagine the trauma of what he went through, so bless him. I’m not a fan of either one but I really think Kravis are great together. Mainly because Kourtney and Scott will stop the will they or won’t they (get back together again). Let Scott treat his latest 19 year old like they matter.

  2. Chaine says:

    It’s hard for me to shade him for anything, even for dating a Kardashian, because he has literally been to the end of existence in the most horrific way imaginable and seen the other side, so whatever he does, he’s doing as his second life and more power to him.

  3. carousel says:

    As Kardashians go, I’ve always found Kourtney to be one of the more respectable ones. They always seem really happy together. This man has been to hell and back, so if he’s found some kind of happiness with her, good for him.

  4. Savu says:

    Well, I gotta say it: it’s always nice to see men, especially someone heavily tattooed who exhibits “traditional masculinity”, to talk about their trauma. And their therapy!

  5. Ariel says:

    It’s not that I had forgotten about that crash, but reading his words about the ways it effected him, and the effects on him in the here and now- it takes my breath away.

    And they don’t mention it in the excerpts but from his ex’s media temper tantrums it seems like he’s also a solid, loving, present dad- which he gets all the points for.
    If a Kardashian makes him happy and they can work together as a family with all those kids / I wish them all the happiness. He deserves it.

    And if this cuts some of K’s dysfunction with disick and his parade of teenage lovers, all the better for her as well.

  6. BeanieBean says:

    Maybe I should read the whole article, because I don’t really know anything about this fellow, but who takes opioids for fear of flying? Who’d prescribe that? Or was that after the crash? Poor guy, he’s been through it. Good to see him come out the other side.

    • Amelie says:

      I believe the opioids were for the pain he experienced after the crash, not his phobia of flying. As the article said, he suffered burns on a lot of his body and had to get skin grafts and had major surgeries. That is incredibly painful and opioids are often prescribed for pain which is how a lot of “normal” people get addicted (see the oxycontin lawsuit and the Sackler family!). I was given Vicodin after my wisdom teeth were removed for the pain that would set in once the anesthesia from the operation wore off. I was in a lot of pain and I even cried that first night after the surgery and I tried the Vicodin, which made me throw up. I ended up using just over the counter ibuprofen for a week while my mouth healed. Not as strong but I was scared of how strong Vicodin was and did not enjoy puking into the toilet with an already sore mouth.

    • terra says:

      The same area of the brain that processes physical pain also processes emotional pain too, so it’s not uncommon for addiction to develop in people attempting to cope with depression, anxiety, or trauma of some kind. Meaning, of course, that pain medication – opiates, in particular – are chief amongst those addicted to for such a reason.

      Also, there’s a good chance they either weren’t prescribed or, if they were, then just remember that this was back in the heyday of the opiate industry when they were being prescribed in outrageous quantities for equally outrageous reasons.

      Source: life as a person with both a chronic illness and depression and anxiety, plus being, in general, a giant nerd who reads and watches random things just because sometimes.

      • BeanieBean says:

        Thank you, terra & Amelie for your thoughtful answers.

      • terra says:

        You’re welcome, I’m happy to be of help.

        Side note: It should be noted that the opiate addiction was, indeed, before the plane crash, although I can see why it is easy for people to think it came after. He says he flushed all of the meds they sent home with him after the accident because he wanted to stop after, especially after his addiction complicated matters when going through skin grafts because of his high tolerance to opioids.

        He got addicted dealing with all the flying when Blink-182 was very successful (I was a kid of the late 90s/early 2000s so I remember how they dominated top 40 radio and TRL – and there’s another throwback!) which means his fear of flying existed well before the crash, so I understand staying away from it for all these years if that was the case.

  7. Justjj says:

    Aw, I forgot this happened. Good for him for talking about therapy and getting help. More of this from all men with a platform, please normalize getting therapy.

    • Lucy2 says:

      I had forgotten he went through all that. How terrifying.
      PLEASE don’t flush medication!

  8. Jess says:

    Wow. I can’t imagine already having a fear of flying crippling enough to create a drug addiction to deal with it and *then* get in a crash. That is like trauma x10000000.

    Also, CBD has no THC so there is no high. It’s also legal because of that. A lot of it is just derived from hemp.

  9. Isa says:

    I know nothing about Cbd but I assumed they were already cruelty free and vegan?

    • Gabriella says:

      If they’re gummies, most actually have gelatin, which is made with horse hooves. Not vegetarian or vegan.

      • Isa says:

        I figured I was missing something. Thanks for explaining! I completely forgot that people use it in gummy form.

      • Haapa says:

        Most gelatin is derived from pig and cattle carcasses leftover from meat and leather production. It is essentially connective tissue and collagen.

  10. Normades says:

    Poor DJ AM, he was sober for years and the accident turned him back on drugs which killed him. That had to have been really painful for Travis to see. I commend him for being so open about his experience.