Travis Barker Says He Had a Premonition of the Plane Crash He Survived

Travis Barker's list of trials and close calls is long: Some of his own making, some the kind of freak accidents that could befall anyone. Somehow, he's made it through to tell the tale -- and he's got some tales.

Barker -- the bulletproof timekeeper of Blink-182, +44, and the Transplants -- sat down with Billboard to promote his upcoming memoir, Can I Say. Much of the discussion centered on the aftermath of a 2008 plane crash that killed four of Barker's friends and left him with burns on 1/3 of his body.

He almost didn't even board the plane that night, he told Billboard.

"We got [to the ­airport]," Barker said, "and I did my normal thing: I’m medicating. I called my dad. I don’t know what it was, but I said, 'Pops, I have a really strange feeling about this one. Something just tells me it’s not right.'"

Despite the premonition, Barker boarded anyway -- a decision that nearly killed him, but also one that ended up kicking off eight years of sobriety that continue today.

It's a good thing, too, because as Barker details, the drugs might have eventually killed him, even if the plane crash didn't. He said he developed an addiction to Oxycodone years earlier. "I had a security that would actually sleep during the day and then stay up at night to make sure I was breathing," Barker said. "I wasn't proud. I was scared."

The drug use was so bad, Barker said, it made it difficult for surgeons to operate on him after the crash. He actually woke up during several of the surgeries. "That wasn't fun. And you wake up, and you don't know what's going on. You just feel extreme pain, and I'm trying to sock doctors and hit 'em. It really exposed what a mess I was."

It makes sense, then, that the horrifying experience led to him quitting all drugs, including marijuana. "Once I was clear-headed, and I hadn't been clear-headed in so long, I was like, I can never go back. And I'm still thankful."

Barker tells Billboard he's much better now, even if he's still haunted by the reminders of that terrifying day. "I get so much love and happiness out of playing music and playing the drums and my kids," he said. "There's nothing better. I couldn't ask for more."