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Travis Barker Says He Tried To Bribe Friends To Help End His Life After Near Fatal Plane Crash

Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker has made some absolutely gut-wrenching revelations about his struggles with depression and addiction, following the 2008 plane crash that almost killed him.

The rocker claims that he was so desperate to end his suffering, that he offered friends $US1 million to help him commit suicide.

The good news is that didn’t happen, and Travis is now fully rehabilitated and loving life again; something which should send a powerful message of hope to anyone else out there going through similar dark times.

And now that Travis has made it through, he’s been able to open up about the tragedies of his past, including the deadly crash, the subsequent drug-related death of his best friend and fellow crash survivor DJ AM, and the devastating mental toll that these events had on his life.

To promote his new memoir, Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death, and Drums, Drums, Drums, Travis has appeared on US breakfast show Good Morning America, where he’s described the aftermath of the learjet crash which killed two of his close friends, left him with severe burns over 60 per cent of his body and forced him to spend more than 11 weeks in hospitals and burn centres, undergoing 27 surgeries and skin grafts.

He’s told the show that the excruciating pain from his burns felt “like hell”, and drove him to try to take his own life.

“I would call friends of mine and say, ‘Yo, I’ll deposit $1 million into whoever’s bank account (if you help me end my life…),” he said.

“They had to take my phone out of my room (to stop me calling).”

Travis also got choked up when talking about how his two young children helped pull him through, and added that – despite not setting foot on a plane since the accident – he hasn’t ruled out flying again, one day.

Meanwhile, in between promoting his new book and trolling fans on the internet like a scamp, Travis has also confirmed that Blink have now recorded 5 new songs with ring-in guitarist, Matt Skiba from Alkaline Trio.

“Matt’s killing it,” Travis told NME in another recent interview. “He’s fun to play with and write with. We’re just getting started but I think we’ve got like four or five songs right now that I’m really, really happy with.

“There’s a song called Punk Rock Cliché which I love the most right now. It’s about friends of ours and their relationships.”

When asked about how the new material is sounding, Travis admitted that some things have obviously changed, now that the band is down one Tom DeLonge.

“They sound different but still the same,” he explained. “Obviously, it’s Matt Skiba singing so there’s hints of Alkaline Trio, or at least Matt’s contributions to Alkaline Trio, mixed with my drumming and Mark’s voice and stuff. It’s really cool and I really love what we’ve done so far.”

“The goal here is to come up with an album and just write,” he added. “We don’t put a limit on how many songs we’re gonna write. [We just] Write a bunch of songs and when we feel like there’s an album ready, there’s an album ready. You know, no pressure, no deadlines.”

Check out Travis’s emotional interview with Good Morning America, below.



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