Travis Barker: Louder Than Fear

The drummer is, in my opinion, the center of the universe.

Nobody's really boppin' to the vocals or the guitar.

As a drummer, you are moving people.

Drums are not too complicated to feel,

and when you feel music, that's unforgettable.

All of the other extrapolations, melody

are just decoration for the fundamental business of music,

which is to motivate the pelvic region

and induce humans involuntarily to perform a mating dance,

in public, driven by the drums.

Those fucking guitarists!

Wha... Who needs those guys?

It's the beat they're dancing to.

Travis has a very unique style, instantly identifiable.

You know, the physicality is just mind-boggling.

Everyone's got their own feel, you know?

I mean, some bands have drummers that make them cook

and put 'em on the edge all the time.

When I see Travis playing the drums, it really looks like

he's beating the shit out of somebody.

Aggression, pain, anger, he's been through all that.

You know, the things that he's lived through and survived,

I think that most people would just curl up into a ball.

But I think that there is a higher force at play.

Falling from the sky like Icarus

probably does some crazy shit to your head.

Every single hit is him communicating

his story to the world.

And, dude, he has got a crazy story.

Fuck me, he's got a crazy story.

The witness told us he was a few hundred yards away last night

and saw what he called "a fireball rolling across the highway."

Then he said he saw two men who were standing in the road on fire

on fire hitting each other trying to put the fire out.

Since the crash, I've never stepped foot on a plane.

I can't even fathom the thought.

And-And when I do even put it in my head and I let it...

I let my mind even think about it...

I have the worst flashbacks of the accident,

and I just, I can't do it.

I want to stay as far away from death or anything

that could bring death my way

in any way possible.

I take the Queen Mary to Europe.

It's a nine-day cruise straight through the Atlantic.

It's really the only way I can tour.

We don't wanna have Travis doing anything unsafe.

But it's not the ideal touring scenario.

His band mates, they all understand.

Everyone gets it, you know?

He knows the route so well now,

that he knows exactly when they're around the Titanic.

You know, when those waters get high...

You know, he stays with his life jacket sometimes.

He's got this fear, you know,

that, at any time, he's not gonna be on this earth.

When you've been traumatized,

your physiology shifts in some ways,

probably from an evolutionary perspective.

Your memories tend to become what we call hyper-consolidated,

which means that they get very strongly ingrained in the mind

in a very vivid sort of way.

But for some of us, if the trauma is severe enough,

we may think that we're back in the event

or that the event's happening all over again.

Get us an ambulance, man.

I've taken the Queen Mary, I think, six times now.

I've gotten used to it,

and I've really figured out my rhythm on there.

I just focus on training and playing drums for hours a day.

The first time I came on the boat, I brought a drum kit,

and I would set up in a room they provided for me.

Sometimes I'll go in there, and I'd be playing

and I'd be closing my eyes, whatever,

just practicing the same thing, you know, and then I'd open,

and there'd be, like, five elderly people

just standing this close to me just watching, sipping coffee,

thinking I was, like, an attraction on the boat.

I felt like this was the best way to keep it private

and not bug my neighbors.

I'd like to challenge myself to sound like

I'm on a bigger drum kit with two bass drums

and a million cymbals.

I always loved seeing drummers

play really small kits and just destroy them.

My favorite jazz drummer has and always will be Buddy Rich.

He had crazy chops, and he was a showman.

- - He made the upside-down drum solo famous.

Most people think of his speed, and how fun he was to watch.

And ultimately, that's my two favorite things about drummers.

I would describe Travis's kit as the Buddy Rich setup.

One tom-tom in the front, two on the side,

horizontal cymbals that are flat, not tilted.

The smallest drum set, the most power.

There's the monster kit guys,

and there's the guys who can do it with less.

The one and last time I did a drum battle with Trav,

he didn't let up for a moment.

And I was like, "Don't let them see you give up.

You better do all these triple rolls."

And I'm like, "You ready to stop yet? Fuck."

I mean, the guy's an artist and he's a musician,

but what he does is so athletic.

The only thing akin to the way that he plays drums I've seen

is like a boxer, or a UFC fighter.

You know, he goes into every show like he's going into a ring.

Every time he hits a drum,

there's a part of his anger that comes out.

There's a lot of pain in Travis.

He is hitting as hard as he possibly can,

but it's never off time in any way.

Savage accuracy is the only way I can describe it, I guess.

When I first saw him play, like, his high hat, it's so high.

You want to reach the people way out there,

so y-you feel like you have to be big.

Bigger than life.

His elbow's gonna go out, his rotator.

I'm thinking of all of the things that are gonna hurt him later.

- My wrists, like, make lots of noises... -

and they crack, and they pop.

There's a lot of blisters, a lot of cuts.

One day, we're about halfway through our set, Travis stops.

I look closer, and his hand is opened up.

It was his bone.

He has this stuff called Dermabond,

which is used for women who have cesarean section births.

And he just puts the Dermabond on.

He sits up...

"I'm good."

Finished the set, man, like nothing ever happened,

but that's him.

Usually, you just watch the whole band,

but I was directly zoomed in on him.

This guy's an animal.

Drum war!

- Animal! -

As a kid, the first thing that got me interested in drums

was Animal from The Muppets.

He was wild and always looked like

he was having such a good time behind the kit.

Everyone else was just whatever.

Animal was what I was drawn to.

Who's the Animal now?

- Oh, yeah? -

He would go out in the kitchen, pull pots and pans

out of the cupboard,

and he was banging on 'em, and my wife, she said,

"I think I'm gonna try and make him a drummer."

At four, I-I got my first drum kit,

and it was a Muppets drum kit.

And he just beat the daylights out of it.

Well, as a kid, I really didn't enjoy practicing.

At that age, you don't really want to do anything.

You just want to go play with your friends.

So, I'm really fortunate

I had a really disciplined schedule with practice.

My mom, she sat in the room with him while he practiced.

She would tape his drum lesson,

so she knew exactly what it was supposed to sound like

and what he was supposed to be doing.

My mom learned how to read music with me.

She could pretty much play what I could play,

and she knew whether I was practicing or not.

And she'd be like, "No, that's not right. You're not doing that right."

She was adamant about me just growing up to be something.

Like I was her little creation that she was molding.

He was really close with my mom.

Without my mom, I don't think he would've practiced

and did all those things to get where he is today.