Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker has said he offered friends $1m to kill him after a plane crash that left him badly burned.
In September 2008, Barker was one of the passengers aboard a Learjet that crashed while taking off from Columbia Metropolitan Airport in South Carolina. Four of the six people on the plane died, while the other two – Barker and Adam Goldstein, who worked together in the group TRV$DJAM – were badly burned. Goldstein died a little under a year later of a drug overdose, from a combination of cocaine and prescription drugs given to him after the crash.
Barker spent four months in hospital, undergoing surgery 27 times, after being burned across 65% of his body.
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He appeared on ABC News and said he had pleaded with friends to take his life. “I would call friends of mine and go, ‘You know, I’ll deposit a million dollars into whoever’s bank account.’ [Hospital staff] had to take my phone out of my room.”
Barker said he had not been in a plane since that night, but that if his children decided they wanted to fly, he would do so. When travelling to shows overseas, he now sails on the Queen Mary II.
The reconstituted pop-punk band Blink 182 have been recording again. Despite the absence of singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge, Barker and bassist Mark Hoppus have teamed up with Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio.
“Matt’s killing it,” Barker said in an interview with NME. “He’s fun to play with and write with. We’re just getting started but I think we’ve got like four or five songs right now that I’m really, really happy with. There’s a song called Punk Rock Cliché which I love the most right now. It’s about friends of ours and their relationships.”