Travis Barker has recalled the one time that getting high before a blink-182 show turned an otherwise normal set into an endurance test for both him and Tom DeLonge.
During a new interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music, Barker was asked whether he has ever performed under the influence. The drummer explained that he avoided doing so because of how much he cares about his playing and the high-octane nature of blink-182’s shows. There was, however, a memorable exception.
Barker traced the story back to a stretch of touring with No Doubt and Cypress Hill, when B-Real and Sen Dog convinced him to smoke with them before the final show. Barker initially resisted, explaining that he normally waited until after performing, but eventually gave in after they pointed out that they would be leaving right after.
“Dude, let me tell you, it was the longest fucking show,” Barker recalled. “Songs felt like they lasted forever.”
The effects were especially strange from behind the drum kit. “It was like my body was working, but everything up here was silent, and I was noticing stuff I don’t normally notice,” he said. Apparently, DeLonge wasn’t having much of a better time. Halfway through the set, the guitarist came up to Barker and told him, “I wanna go home.”
“And I was like, ‘Me too,'” Barker continued. “It was so awful.” Mark Hoppus, meanwhile, had no idea what his bandmates were going through. Barker came away from the experience with a fairly straightforward conclusion: “Smoking before shows is not my thing.”
His chat with Lowe comes ahead of the premiere of Travis Barker: Louder Than Fear, a new documentary exploring his life and career that arrives August 13th on Hulu in the US and Disney+.
Barker has been making headlines elsewhere this month, revealing that blink-182 are already working on a new album and admitting that, despite appearing alongside wife Kourtney Kardashian on The Kardashians regularly, he doesn’t really watch the show.
B-Real, meanwhile, has been busy with Cypress Hill’s next chapter, recently detailing the group’s first original Spanish-language album, Dios Bendiga, and plans to take the record on tour.
Watch a clip from Barker and Lowe’s conversation below.
