Blink Barker 'not mad' at DeLonge

Travis Barker insists he is not angry with Blink-182’s estranged frontman Tom DeLonge – but he feels the singer’s actions are “childish.”

DeLonge walked away from the band in January, leading his former colleagues to bring in Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba for the Musink festival on March 22. They last week confirmed Skiba would also play with them on March 20 in San Diego.

Barker tells Yahoo: “I’m in no way, shape, or form mad at him. If anything, I just wish he would own up to not wanting to be in the band and go do his other stuff.

“There’s a sympathy card he’s pulling right now. And that doesn’t even really piss me off, it’s just kind of childish. But if years down the line it makes sense, I’ll never say never.”

The drummer says he changed his attitude to such situations after surviving the 2008 plane crash that killed four others. He adds: “I made a promise to myself not to deal with bullshit. Life’s too short. We’re all healthy, we’re fortunate enough to play in a band that’s adored by millions, and if you’re going to take that for granted or shit on it, do your own thing.”

Skiba has impressed the drummer in rehearsals so far – he says: “He’s killing it. It’s one thing to have someone there that’s not only motivated and stoked, but he just sings on key. Harmonies exist now.

“It’s kind of like when something happens to you and you’re like, ‘Damn, this is the way it should be.’ So it was kind of a bum-out how it happened, but it’s been amazing.”

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.