Travis Barker Got Sober After He Nearly Died — Is the Drummer Still Abstaining?

In a conversation with Billboard, Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker got real about his struggles with addiction. At one point in his life, he was abusing pills on a daily basis. "My breakfast was four blunts, four Vicodin, one Valium, one Oxycodone," he said. Things changed for Travis in September 2008 after he nearly died in a plane crash that claimed the lives of four people. The only other survivor was his best friend, Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein.

That was a wake up call for Travis, who suffered burns on 65 percent of his body. In order to deal with the pain, he was forced to be on morphine for roughly four months, but refused to take any pain medication after he left the hospital. That was over 15 years ago. Is Travis Barker still sober? Here's what we know.

Travis is still sober. "I gave up on smoking, drinking, and doing drugs years ago," Travis told The Wall Street Journal in September 2024. "My new addiction is running." The drummer aims for three miles a day and when he's on tour, he'll walk for an hour and then transition to a 30-minute run. On show days, Travis avoids weight-lifting altogether though he will squeeze in some abs and core work. "I like the concept of doing all your hard work in the morning, so that my show is the easiest thing I’m going to do all day," he said.

This is a far cry from the person Travis used to be, telling Billboard he always had to self-medicate before leaving the house. Other than the plane crash, Travis touched on a few low points in his life. He lost custody of his children for a few months which led to "extreme abuse." The performer recalled a time in August 2004 when he was extremely addicted to Oxycodone. "I had security that would actually sleep during the day and then stay up at night to make sure I was breathing."

The pain pills made Travis's bones brittle, which contributed to a lot of negative self-talk. While on tour he would frequently call fellow Blink-182 member Mark Hopus, telling him, "Hey, man. I’m like borderline suicidal. I’m going crazy. I need to go home." Because of his tolerance, Travis later woke up during 11 of the 27 surgeries he needed after the plane crash. He described waking up and not knowing what was going on, only that there was a lot of pain. "That wasn't fun," he said drily.

Although Travis spoke openly about wanting to be sober for his children, who were born in 2003, 2005, and 2023 (with Kourtney Kardashian), that wasn't his rock bottom. It was the plane crash. Still, his desire to be sober first popped up when he became a father. He would think, "Oh my gosh, what did I put in my body? What did I do that for?" Travis described the push and pull of wanting to stay home with his kids but needing to be on tour for work, which led to doing drugs to leave the house.

Ultimately what keeps Travis sober is not wanting to disappoint himself or his children. He loves having a clear head and enjoying life on life's terms, not his own.