All There Is with Anderson Cooper
All There Is with Anderson Cooper

Travis Barker: The ‘Wound That Almost Never Heals’

August 20, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Travis Barker’s mother, Gloria, died the day before he started high school. Her last words to him were to pursue music. Nearly two decades later, in 2008, Barker survived a plane crash that killed his two close friends and both pilots; he was burned over 70 percent of his body and underwent roughly 30 surgeries. The only other survivor, DJ AM (Adam Goldstein), died of an overdose less than a year later. In a conversation with Anderson Cooper, Barker describes how these losses shaped him, how he pushed grief down for decades, and how he eventually—through breathwork, of all things—got on a plane again.

The wound that almost never heals

Barker describes grief as “a wound that almost never heals.” It can go dormant for days, weeks, or months, and then something—a smell, a touch, a memory—reopens it. He was 14 when his mother died, and he had no framework for processing it. His father, a steelworker and Vietnam veteran, taught him to be tough. So Barker showed up to high school the next day, tried out for marching band, joined jazz band and orchestra, and kept his head down. He didn’t talk about his mother with anyone. He didn’t cry at her funeral until an aunt approached him, and then he broke down. After that, nothing changed. His father still worked 60-hour weeks. Barker just played drums.

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:20) **Early Loss: Travis’s Mother’s Death** - Travis describes his mother Gloria’s death from Sjogren’s syndrome the day before high school, and the profound impact of her final words.
  • 2 (05:03) **Silence and Toughness After Loss** - Travis discusses not talking about his mother’s death, trying to be “tough,” and how he threw himself into drumming as the only outlet.
  • 3 (08:23) **The Unprocessed Wound and Its Consequences** - Travis explains how years of not dealing with grief led to risky behavior, drug use, and a lack of hope for the future.
  • 4 (11:25) **The Plane Crash: Trauma and Survival** - Travis describes the 2008 plane crash that killed his best friends and left him with 70% burns, including the moments of terror and the physical agony that followed.
  • 5 (17:25) **The Wound of Recovery: Pain and Relearning** - Travis recounts the excruciating pain of burn treatment, 27+ surgeries, the fear of amputation, and the struggle to walk and play drums again.
  • 6 (19:44) **Post-Traumatic Life: Hypervigilance and Avoidance** - Travis explains the severe PTSD that followed the crash, including hiding from planes, the smell of jet fuel triggering him, and the feeling of waiting for something else to happen.
  • 7 (21:33) **Grief as a Wound That Never Heals** - Travis defines grief as “a wound that almost never heals” that can be reopened by a memory or a sensory trigger.

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Guests on this episode

Travis Barker Anderson Cooper

Show Notes

Travis Barker’s mom, Gloria, died the day before he started high school. In 2008, the Blink-182 drummer survived a plane crash that killed four people, including two of his closest friends. The only other survivor, friend and collaborator Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein, died less than a year later from an overdose. Travis talks with Anderson Cooper about facing fear and grief after decades of “muscling through” his hurt and how he carries the people he’s lost with him. For more of “All There Is with Anderson Cooper” visit cnn.com/allthereis.


Host: Anderson Cooper Showrunner: Haley Thomas Producers: Emily Williams and Kyra Dahring Video Editor: Eric Zembrzuski Technical Director: Dan Dzula Bookers: Kerry Rubin and Kari Pricher

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