Travis Barker has revealed the final words his mother, Gloria, spoke to him before her death, and the message was directly tied to the career that would later make him one of rock’s most recognizable drummers.
During an Aug. 20 conversation with Anderson Cooper for CNN’s All There Is, Barker recalled reaching his mother on the day she died in 1990. “Pursue music, I really want you to pursue music,” she told him, according to PEOPLE.
Barker said he had “no clue” that Gloria was about to die and did not understand in the moment that he was hearing her final words. When Cooper asked him directly whether that was the last thing she said to him, Barker answered, “Yeah.”
Gloria died on Sept. 3, 1990, the day before Barker was due to start high school. He went to school the following day, tried out for band and began turning the instruction she had left him into the focus of his life.
Her Final Words Gave Barker ‘Tunnel Vision’
Barker told Cooper that he had been urged to get to his mother’s side and arrived on the day she died. Because he had not expected to lose her, the significance of her encouragement only became clear afterward.
“From the time my mom said that to me, it was like tunnel vision,” Barker said. He described feeling a responsibility to follow through on what she had asked and acknowledged that losing her may have intensified his determination. “I had this desire in me to fulfill what she said to me, and I was like, I have to do it,” he explained, according to the CNN transcript.
Barker also told Cooper that he still feels Gloria’s influence. He said he believes she, along with other people he has lost, continues to guide him through his life.
He Went to High School the Next Day and Made the Snare Line
Barker’s first response to the loss was strikingly practical. He went to school the next day, tried out for band and made the marching band’s snare line, which he remembered as “a big accomplishment.” He also joined jazz band and orchestra.
He told Cooper that he had never experienced a loss like his mother’s and did not know how to process it. Instead of talking extensively about his grief, he kept his “head down” and played drums because that was the one direction that made sense to him.
Music had already been central to Barker’s childhood long before Gloria’s final encouragement. He recalled that both of his parents supported his drumming, with his mother becoming deeply involved in his lessons. She watched what he was learning and picked up concepts including paradiddles, flams and basic beats so she could understand the instrument alongside him.
Gloria also exposed him to artists including The Police, The Beatles and Elvis Presley, while his father introduced him to Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Buck Owens. Barker eventually played in bands including the Aquabats before joining Blink-182 in 1998, when he initially stepped in as a replacement drummer.
The Conversation Comes as Barker Revisits Loss in ‘Louder Than Fear’
Barker’s conversation with Cooper arrives shortly after the release of Travis Barker: Louder Than Fear, a documentary that examines his career through the grief and trauma that have shaped it.
The official Hulu trailer traces his path from working as a trash collector in Laguna Beach to becoming Blink-182’s drummer, while also revisiting the 2008 plane crash that fundamentally changed his life. Barker and DJ AM, whose real name was Adam Goldstein, survived the crash; four other people aboard were killed. Goldstein died the following year.
The documentary also explores Barker’s long fear of flying, his recovery and the role his family played in his life afterward. Directed by Justin Krook and Michael Dwyer, it premiered at the Tribeca Festival in June before beginning its streaming run on Hulu on Aug. 13, with Disney+ carrying it internationally.