Blink-182's Tom DeLonge On Travis Barker’s Fear Of Flying To Soundwave

Early Sunday morning it was revealed that Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker was not going to make the trip from Los Angeles to Australia for their shows this week due to his fear of flying.

The band had been announced as one of the headline acts for Soundwave 2013 and had booked a run of shows along the east coast as well.

All shows will still go ahead, but with Bad Religion drummer Brooks Wackerman filling Barker's spot.

When speaking with theMusic.com.au's Daniel Cribb earlier this year, Blink-182 guitarist Tom DeLonge said that it was Barker's fear of flying that had prevented the band from visiting Australia in such a long time.

“Oh, yeah, absolutely. I don't blame him one bit; if I were him I'd be doing the exact same thing. It's a big hurdle to get over and that's why we're all excited that this is the time.

When asked how Barker was going to be preparing for the flight, DeLonge admitted he wasn't sure.

“You know, I don't know,” he said “He's an adult and he's got his support group around him, and he's got his own way of handling things – I can't really answer for him – but I think like anybody else your logical steps are making decisions and challenging yourself and preparing emotionally for that kind of stuff, but I can't even pretend to know how somebody does that, because it's monumental.”

When the topic of a possible replacement drummer was broached DeLonge was open, admitting that the band were willing to do anything to make sure they made it back to Australia, no matter what.

“I think we'll cross to that bridge when we come to it. If we're set to come somewhere and people are expecting us to come and, to make good to the fans, I will try and show up no matter what. If Travis can't make it, and we're within reaching distance of a big tour, we might have to think about how to pull it off, even if we can't pull it off to the best of our ability [laughs].

"We still want to be able to make good on what we said we would do, but it's a delicate balance because Blink is the three of us, you know. We're not gonna ever pretend that Blink is a different set of guys. But, you know, we've just got to take it one day at a time and see how it works.

Securing Blink – and Barker – was a massive coup for Soundwave given the drummer's well publicised fear of flying. Barker was on board a plane that crashed upon taking off in South Carolina back in 2008; everyone on the plane died except for Barker and collaborator Adam Goldstein – aka DJ AM – who later died of a drug overdose.

Barker made a statement on his Facebook page announcing the news to fans yesterday.

“I'm sorry to announce I won't be joining Blink-182 on this Australian tour. I still haven't gotten over the horrific events that took place the last time I flew when my plane crashed and four people were killed, two being my best friends.

“I gave the band my blessing to take another drummer if they still wanted to do the tour without me. I hope to come to Australia again some day perhaps by ship if need be. Unfortunately, there wasn't a boat that worked with the schedule this time around. Once again I'm sorry to all the fans.”

Blink-182 also released a statement online explaining the situation to their fans.

“The trip to Australia was planned during our European tour last summer. The band knew the chances of Travis overcoming his fear of flying, which was magnified after the horrible plane crash in 2008, would be a challenge, but we wanted to play for our fans in Australia nonetheless. The three of us tried all measures to get us all there in full form. Travis has been working to overcome his fear of flying. Since we now know we have to make the trip without Travis our friend Brooks Wackerman (Bad Religion, Tenacious D) has stepped in. We love our fans in Australia so cancelling was not an option so we still plan to come and play some kick ass shows.”