Travis Barker Rehab Was His Plane Crash, Losing DJ AM and Recovery Struggles
According to Travis Barker, he says the plane crash he and DJ AM survived was a “wake-up call” that inspired him to live healthfuller and quit using formula drugs.
After the 2008 incident drummer opened up about the effects in which two pilots, Barker’s assistant Chris Baker and safety guard Charles “Che” Still were killed when their plane invaded the runway.
Luckily Barker and Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein endured, but Goldstein died of a drug overdose the following year. Barker told Men’s Health that he and AM “were each other’s therapists when he was still conscious, but couldn’t find aid groups for plane crash survivors. “So, it was just him and me.
When he left, I was like, ‘Oh, f—. I’m the only one in my club. It’s just me.’ And I find my ways to deal with it.” While Barker said he wasn’t much of a drinker, he did smoke “an excessive amount of weed” before the accident and was abusing painkillers so badly.
“People are always like, ‘Did you go to rehab?’ And I [say], ‘No, I was in a plane crash,’ That was my rehab,” he told. “Lose three of your friends and almost die? That was my wake-up call. If I wasn’t in a crash, I would have probably never quit.”
Barker said “he also started seeing a therapist talk about his PTSD and survivor’s guilt, telling the publication he was “dark” at the time. “I couldn’t walk down the street.
If I saw a plane, I was determined it was going to crash,” he stated, “and I just didn’t want to see it.” since that fateful day he still hasn’t been on a plane.
“There’s a million things that could happen to me. I could die riding my skateboard. I could get in a car accident. I could get shot. Anything could happen,” he told. “I could have a brain aneurysm and die. So why should I still be afraid of airplanes?”
“I have to,” he said of flying again, “I want to choose to try and overcome it.”
According to Barker the more time passes and the more times “good stuff” happens in his life, the easier it gets for him. “That haunted me for a long time,” he said of the crash, “There are days where I’ll wake up and never think about it.”
“It will never make sense why my friends are gone, or the pilots, but all I can do is carry on,” he continued. “I can’t regret anything. I’m 100 percent supposed to be here.”
