Travis Barker is opening up like never before.
The Blink-182 drummer stars in the new Hulu documentary, “Travis Barker: Louder Than Fear,” out now, detailing everything from his near-fatal plane crash in 2008 to a “terrifying” surgery, wife Kourtney Kardashian’s miscarriage, their IVF journey and so much more.
The documentary, which was filmed over nine years (from 2017 to 2026), also features a special posthumous cameo from late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who recalled what it was like meeting Barker when his pal was just a kid.
Keep reading as Page Six breaks down the biggest revelations from the emotional documentary.
Taylor Hawkins provided Barker with early encouragement
Before his death in March 2022, Hawkins reflected on meeting Barker during his “humble beginnings,” when the rocker was picking up garbage in Laguna Beach, California.
“He was a trash man, literally,” Hawkins remembered, “just trying to f–king make something happen.”
Barker was “just a kid” and playing drums for the punk rock band Feeble when he and Hawkins first met. According to the Foo Fighters drummer, those around Barker knew that he was destined for greatness.
“It was like, ‘Oh, you’re gonna get picked up by a band, eventually – and you will be the star attraction in that band,’” he recalled thinking about Barker at the time.
Over the years, Hawkins and Barker remained close pals — so much so that the Blink-182 drummer got a hawk tattoo in honor of his pal after his untimely death.
He also wrote about how Hawkins’ encouragement early in his career gave him “so much hope and determination” in a tribute post he penned via Instagram at the time.
Barker developed an opioid addiction, was taking ’20 to 30 pills a day‘
Barker always had a fear of flying — even before his near-fatal plane crash in 2008, his Blink-182 bandmate Tom DeLonge divulged in the documentary.
The fear led him to develop a years-long addiction to opioids. He has since become sober.
“My friends knew how much I dreaded being on planes, and one of them gave me a pill to help with my anxiety,” Barker explained, noting that he went from taking one or two painkillers, like OxyContin, before a flight to “having to be on them” or he “couldn’t even function.”
Barker said that at the height of his addiction, he was “doing so [many] drugs” that he “had a security guard watching him” 24 hours a day whose “only job was to make sure I was breathing.”
Shanna Moakler — who was married to Barker from 2004 to 2008 — chimed in and reflected on her own experience of dealing with the drummer’s addiction at the time.
“He told me, ‘I take about 20 to 30 pills a day sometimes,’” the model shared, adding that she remembered thinking, “How are you alive?”
During their marriage, Moakler and Barker welcomed two children: son Landon and daughter Alabama. He’s also stepfather to daughter Atiana, whom Moakler shares with ex Oscar De La Hoya.
Alabama eerily said ‘the roof is on fire’ before Barker’s plane crash
Back in September 2008, Barker was critically injured in a plane crash that killed two pilots, along with his personal assistant Chris Baker and security guard Charles “Che” Still. Among the six people who were on board, Barker and Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein were the only survivors.
At the time of the incident, Barker had just performed a gig in Columbia, South Carolina, and was heading to Van Nuys, California. The private plane crashed while departing the Columbia Metropolitan Airport and Barker was engulfed in flames as he made his escape.
“Before I left, my daughter, Alabama, was hysterically crying and saying, like, ‘The roof is on fire, and it’s gonna come off,’” Barker recalled onscreen, noting that her eerie words were “just the weirdest thing.”
He told cameras that his daughter continued to cry for like “two hours straight, after I left,” before the crash occurred.
Barker also addressed Alabama’s premonition on the Aug. 10 episode of the “On Purpose With Jay Shetty” podcast.
“I’d said to my manager, ‘Is it too late to just pull out? I don’t really need to do this,’” he remembered. “I was just so content with being home with the kiddos, and he’s like, ‘Bro, you can’t cancel this late.’ So, I ended up flying out there.”
Sixty-five percent of his body was burnt in the crash
Dr. Peter Grossman, medical director of Grossman Burn Center, was featured in the doc, revealing that Barker was “in really bad shape” with “extensive burns” when he came in after the plane crash.
“There was an absolute concern as to whether or not he would survive,” he said of the drummer.
Barker noted that he didn’t “really understand the severity of it all” at the time.
“There was talk of amputating my foot. Sixty-five percent of my body was burnt,” he recalled, noting that after spending over three months in the hospital and having “27 surgeries,” he “was suicidal.”
Barker had ‘survivor’s guilt’ and stayed with his kids ‘everywhere‘
In August 2009, one year after the plane crash, Goldstein died of a drug overdose. Barker said in the doc that “it was beyond difficult to relate to anybody” after his pal (the only other survivor in the crash) died.
“I felt like I was in ‘Final Destination,’ and I was next,” the musician remembered thinking at the time, admitting that he “definitely” felt survivor’s guilt.
Barker also recalled a conversation he had with Goldstein before his pal’s death. He remembered him saying, “I feel like I don’t have much to live for, and it’s really f–king with me. You’ve got kids, you’ve got a lot to live for.”
Those words stuck with Barker for a long time.
“I would sleep in Landon’s bed, and then Alabama’s bed. I would go back and forth,” he said of how he coped with the trauma.
“I was with them everywhere I went. [My kids] were the best thing for my recovery.”
Kourtney Kardashian was drawn to him after ‘watching him as a father‘
Elsewhere in the doc, Barker addressed how he struck up a romance with his now-wife, Kourtney Kardashian, in 2021.
The musician recalled how he and the reality TV star lived down the street from each other and spent holidays together with their families. Kardashian was already mom to three kids — Mason, Penelope and Reign — with ex Scott Disick.
“Halloween and Christmas, we thrived,” Kardashian said onscreen, adding that they carved pumpkins and made gingerbread houses together with their kids.
She also gushed that watching Barker as a father “always drew [her] to him,” as she “got to know his real values through his kids.”
They were ‘devastated’ by Kardashian’s miscarriage
Six months into their relationship, Kardashian got pregnant and the two were “so happy.”
“Then, we go to the doctor, and the doctor tells us the baby doesn’t have a heartbeat,” recalled Barker, who revealed that the baby was a girl, whom they named Tulip.
Kardashian chimed in, adding, “When we lost the baby, we were devastated. We just laid in bed and cried for days. All we wanted was to have a baby together.”
Kardashian said IVF ‘messed’ with her ‘mentally‘
Following the miscarriage, the couple tried again to have a baby. Kardashian, now 47, was 41 at the time.
“I remember my doctor saying, ‘You have to do IVF,’” she said, adding that it was “so hard on [her] body.”
Their efforts to get pregnant included five in vitro fertilization attempts over the span of eight months, which left Kardashian “so disappointed” each time it didn’t work.
“It messed with me, mentally,” she confessed. “I remember crying to Travis, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’”
In May 2023, she and Barker declared they were “officially done” with IVF and wanted to conceive naturally.
According to Kardashian, she told him, “If God has a baby in store for us, it will happen naturally.”
Kardashian had a ‘terrifying’ surgery’ during her second pregnancy
Kardashian got pregnant again in 2023, and announced her pregnancy that June, during the drummer’s Blink-182 concert in Los Angeles.
She noted that because of Barker’s “trauma,” he was “really worried the whole pregnancy.”
When Kardashian was seven months pregnant — and Barker was on tour in Europe — they found out the baby’s lungs were filling with fluid. Kardashian needed “urgent fetal surgery” to drain it.
“It was terrifying going in for the surgery,” she said, adding that Barker cancelled four shows “and came and laid with me in the hospital, and made sure that everything was OK.”
One month later, their son, Rocky, was born.
Kardashian had a ‘vision’ of Barker’s deceased mother
In another part of the doc, Kardashian spoke about encouraging Barker to fly again. She remembered seeing a “vision” of the musician’s mother, Gloria, who died in 1990 when Barker was 12.
When Kardashian booked a flight to Mexico in 2021 – marking Barker’s first flight since the traumatic 2008 plane crash – they did “breath work” together to calm down.
“This sounds crazy, but during my breath work, a vision of his mom came to me and said, ‘Thank you for taking care of my son,’” Kardashian recalled.
“Travis Barker: Louder than Fear” is now streaming on Hulu.
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