What Ever Happened To Travis Barker?

Travis Barker became internationally famous thanks to his drumming skills for Blink 182, but he's done so much more than that. He's become a successful entrepreneur, he's had a family and he's made a lot of music. Barker's also had some struggles though, including surviving that horrific 2008 airplane crash. So, after all that, what ever happened to Travis Barker?

He's an entrepreneur

Barker isn't just the insanely talented drummer behind Blink 182, he's also an entrepreneur. The 41-year-old has been creating his own businesses since 1999 when he started Famous Stars and Straps. He's still the sole owner behind the popular brand which now has tees, jackets, socks and more.


Barker also opened his own record label, LaSalle Records, in 2004. The label signed their first band, The Kinison, that same year and they still list their What Are You Listening To album on their official website. Barker also released his solo album, Give the Drummer Some, on LaSalle Records.


The California native has even designed his own shoe for DC Company as well as a line of drumming products for Zildjian.

He became a dad

Barker would probably argue that his greatest accomplishments aren't his musical ones but instead his two children. Barker is the proud papa of two kids with ex-wife Shanna Moakler. In 2003 they welcomed Landon Asher Barker and, two years later, Alabama Luella Barker was born. The tattooed musician is also a former stepdad to Moakler's daughter with Oscar De La Hoya, Atiana De La Hoya.

He survived a plane crash

In 2008, Barker and his friend, DJ AM, survived an airplane crash that left four people dead. Following a performance, they were taking off in their plane when the air traffic controllers reportedly saw sparks, according to CBS News.


"The plane hurtled off the end of a runway and came to rest a quarter-mile away on an embankment across a five-lane highway, engulfed in flames," the news station reported.


Barker and DJ AM survived the crash but it left them in critical condition. Barker said that 65 percent of his body was burned in the horrific accident and that included his hands and his lower body. Although he eventually recovered from the accident and is able to play the drums again, he refuses to fly and had to take a boat to Blink 182's European tour dates following his recovery.


The other passengers in the plane weren't as lucky as Barker and AM. Passengers Chris Baker and Charles Still were killed in the crash as were the pilot, Sarah Lemmon, and the co-pilot, James Bland.

He collaborated with DJ AM

DJ AM was a good friend of Barker's and together they became TRV$DJAM. The duo performed together and even released a couple of mix tapes, despite DJ AM being weary of the joint venture at first. He told MTV that a DJ and a drummer performing in a club "can be tough." Luckily, DJ AM believed in Barker's skills and tried it out with the Blink 182 member.


Together they performed as the house band at MTV's Video Music Awards in 2008 which was shortly before the plane crash. Despite their serious injuries, they came back together to perform for New Year's Eve 2008 in Los Angeles.

He got a divorce

Barker and Moakler seemed like an odd pair from the start. People were even more surprised when the former Miss USA tied the knot with the talented drummed in a gothic wedding in 2004. By this time they already had their son, Landon, and their daughter was born the following year. Despite still being newlyweds in 2005, they decided to open up their lives to MTV cameras for a reality show, Meet the Barkers. Throughout the course of the two seasons, viewers saw Barker and Moakler fight, make up and fight again. Although none of the fights were too extreme, their relationship was clearly tumultuous. Then, in 2006, they separated — but that was only the beginning of the drama.


Fans got to see Barker really open up about mother of his children on MySpace (of all places) following their split. He used the social media site to dish about her cheating ways and even her laziness, holding nothing back. Following the plane crash, he reunited with Moakler but things wouldn't last. He accused her of cheating while he was in the hospital and she accused him of cheating throughout their entire marriage. It was ugly. That led to their divorce — and a little more back and forth.


When they finally filed, People obtained the court documents about the divorce and Moakler said Barker became "enraged" when she told him she wanted to move back to her home. She also apparently called their relationship a "sick cycle" but things didn't stop there. In 2014 the cops got involved in their relationship when Moakler called the police on her ex-husband. She allegedly told them Barker told her he would "put a bullet in your head." His story was different, though. Barker told the cops Moakler had "threatened to have her boyfriend come and beat him up." Neither party was arrested, according to a police officer that spoke with People.


Despite all that, things have settled down for the pair. "The kids' best interest is what we all have in mind — there's nothing else," Barker said recently of their relationship. "Our relationship was so long ago. We're just being friends. Doing the best co-parenting is the most important thing."

He dated a lot of women

After Barker split from Moakler, he was linked to a number of famous women and in his new memoir he's opening up about them. Right after his divorce he was linked to Paris Hilton and according to him (via Complex), "The weekend after we split up Paris and I met each other, and we were having the time of our life in every country, flying from country to country ... It was a little much even though I had fun with Paris."


According to Radar Online, Barker also dated Miss USA Tara Conner, Lindsay Lohan and even Kim Kardashian. Apparently Moakler caught wind of that romance and poured a drink over Kardashian at a party but he said he treated her like "nothing but a gentleman."


Most recently, he dated British beauty Rita Ora. Barker said the two "met through passing" and hit it off but his ex-wife was allegedly pretty jealous over the relationship. According to US Weekly, she thought they were dating just to make her jealous. To that Barker responded, "One word for that: just thirsty. Thirsty. I have no connection to my baby's mama except that she's the mother of my children. I don't know where those rumors are coming from. That's the craziest thing I've ever heard."

He overcame addiction

Barker's life has been anything but easy. He was involved in that horrific plane crash, he survived armed robberies, he was shot and he battled addiction. He opened up to Billboard in 2015 about his serious struggle with drug addiction.


"My breakfast was four blunts, four Vicodin, one Valium, one Oxycodone 'cause that was the only way I could leave the house," he explained before discussing his lowest point. "But I think in Australia [in 2004], I was so addicted to Oxycodone, and I had a security that would actually sleep during the day and then stay up at night to make sure I was breathing. That was pretty pathetic. My bones were so brittle from so much painkiller use."


By the time of that interview, in 2015, Barker had been sober for over year eight years and he still uses his kids as a motivating factor to remain clean. He used his book, Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death, and Drums, Drums, Drums, to open up about his sobriety.

He struggled with DJ AM's death

DJ AM died on Aug. 28, 2009 of an accidental overdose and the death shook Barker pretty bad. The pair didn't just work together, they were also best friends that had survived a tragic accident together. The show had to go on though, quite literally, and despite his friend's death, Barker had to perform a show with Blink 182 in Connecticut the following day. According to People, the band asked for a moment of silence for DJ AM during the set and all three were seen visibly crying on stage. They then dedicated "Down" to the DJ. Although Barker was seen crying, he didn't address the crowd or even smile during set. Instead, it was Blink's frontman, Mark Hoppus, that addressed the audience.


"This night is really hard for us on stage. We lost a dear friend yesterday. His name was Adam Goldstein. You probably know him as DJ AM. He was an innovator and a genius and he loved music more than anything else. Above all he was a dear friend," he said.


When he was finally able to speak about the death, Barker went on The Real and opened up about just how much it affected him. According to Billboard, he admitted on the show that AM was "one of the reasons I got sober" before telling them, "He was just one of those people that were in your life that just made you want to be a better person." He still feels this way even several years later. On the sixth anniversary of AM's death, Barker took to Instagram to pay tribute to him.


"Been six years, not a day goes by I don't miss my homie, my mentor, one of my favorite people to who have ever rocked the stage with and somebody who made me a better person," he captioned a black and white photo with his friend. "We went thru so much together... The highest of highs and the lowest of lows... you were one in a million."

He went vegan

For over 25 years, Barker ate a vegetarian diet but dropped that following the plane crash in an effort to heal his body quicker. The transition didn't last though. He told Music Radar that he had a "health scare" which led to a vegan lifestyle.


"I went to the doctor and found that I had eight ulcers in my stomach and then I found that I had a condition from it, from excessive smoking and possibly eating acidic food, but I don't really eat acidic food, so it was probably just from smoking. I had pre-cancerous cells in my throat — right there that was a game changer," he explained.

He's still making music with Blink 182

After a four year hiatus, Blink 182 had a reunion at the 2009 Grammy Awards. "We used to play music together, and we decided we're going to play music together again," Barker said in front of the award show audience. From there they worked on new music and toured together again but things were still rocky. Tom DeLonge didn't record with Barker and Mark Hoppus but that was one portion of a larger problem and, in early 2015, news broke of DeLonge leaving the band "indefinitely."


Since then, Blink 182 has carried on with Barker and Hoppus and a new member, Matt Skiba. They've been making music and continuing to tour and, most recently, revealed a deluxe album that's forthcoming with a new song, "Parking Lot."