Travis Barker says he credits his late mom, Gloria, for his successful music career.
The Grammy-nominated Blink-182 drummer got emotional during a recent episode of Anderson Cooper’s “All There Is” podcast while recounting his mother’s inspiring last words to him before she died of complications resulting from Sjögren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disease.
Barker, who was a teenager at the time, told Cooper he had “no clue” his mom would die.
The day before starting high school, Barker visited his mom in the hospital, where she encouraged him to follow his musical dreams.
“Luckily, I got down there the day she passed and had a chance for her to say, like, ‘Pursue music.’ Like, ‘I really want you to pursue music,’” he recalled.
The following day, a broken-hearted Barker attended his classes trying not to cry. When Cooper asked Barker if he remembered that day, the musician nodded as tears filled his eyes.
After Barker placed his head in his hand, Cooper shared a painful memory from his own childhood.
“When my dad died, I was in fifth grade and I had a sense of shame about it for some reason,” Cooper recalled.
“Like, I remember a kid wanted to come over,” Cooper went on, his voice breaking.
After pausing, Cooper repeated, “I remember a kid wanted to come over to my house and I was angry about it because I didn’t want him to see me, like, sad. I didn’t want anyone to acknowledge it.”
“Yeah, same,” Barker said, wiping his eyes.
Though Barker was lost in anguish, he was determined to honor his mom’s last words to him.
“I had never experienced loss before that,” Barker said. “I didn’t really know a next step or step to take after that happened except to pick up where I left off and keep playing drums … So that’s all I focused on, like head down, play the drums.”
He added, “I had this desire in me to fulfill what she said to me. I was like, I have to do it.”
Over the years, Barker has felt his mom was a kind of “angel” guiding him toward success.