Travis Barker On Flying: 'It Takes A Little Piece Of My Life Every Time'

In 2021, Travis Barker flew for the first time since surviving a deadly plane crash in 2008 that killed four people and left him with third-degree burns on 65% of his body. He credited his now-wife Kourtney Kardashian for helping him face that fear; however, in a new interview the blink-182 drummer opened up about how traumatic flying still is for him.

“It takes a little piece of my life every time I fly,” he confessed. “The amount of stress and anxiety it causes is just unbearable. It brings up all this old trauma, and sometimes I’m like, ‘Is this worth it?’ But I don’t like anything having a hold on me, either — I don’t like being afraid, and I don’t like having things from my past control my future.”

That being said, Barker praised his wife for helping him get to the point of being able to board a plane again. “I think the power of love really helped me,” he said. “Kourt made it so I fly, my kids fly now. She healed us.”

The deadly crash in Columbia, South Carolina, killed both of the plane’s pilots, Barker's security guard, Charles Still, and his assistant, Chris Baker. His friend DJ AM survived, but died of an overdose a year later.