Photograph Nabil Elderkin for Rolling Stone
The fact that Blink-182 are selling out gigs on one of the summer’s hottest tours is impressive considering the trio underwent such a bitter split four years ago, Tom DeLonge quit the group and changed his phone number so bandmates Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker couldn’t reach him. It’s even more remarkable considering Barker nearly died in a plane crash that killed two of his best friends and DeLonge plunged into an addiction to painkillers he can only describe as “insane.”
In the new issue of Rolling Stone, Barker reveals details about the September 2008 Learjet accident that resulted in 16 surgeries, 48-hour blood transfusions and post-traumatic stress disorder for the first time. “I opened a door, and my hands caught fire. I immediately soaked up with jet fuel and caught fire. And then I was on fire, running like hell,” he tells Rolling Stone’s Gavin Edwards. “I was running for my family.”
Blink-182’s Rock Show: Photos of the Band Onstage and Off
Hoppus tells RS he was alerted about Barker’s accident by a phone call in the middle of the night and jumped on the next flight to the burn center. “You feel helpless to do anything other than be there for your friend,” he says. DeLonge found out via the TV news at an airport while waiting to board a flight. He landed and mailed a letter and two photographs to Barker: a photo of Blink aboard a submarine in the Middle East and another of himself and his two kids. “One was ‘Do you remember who we were?’ and the other was ‘This is who I am now,’ ” DeLonge says. “No one knew if Travis was going to live or if he would play drums again. It was a good moment to put the shit aside.”
After Barker got out of the hospital, Hoppus says the tr...
Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily