Travis Barker to release solo album


Do you ever hear much about drummers recording their own solo albums? Well, that’s exactly what Travis Barker of Blink-182 has done.

Barker’s solo album, Give the Drummer Some, is due to drop March 15. Give the Drummer Some has some huge names attached to it. Lupe Fiasco, Pharrell, Snoop Dogg, E-40, Busta Rhymes, Slash and The Cool Kids, are only some of the artists featured on the 16-track deluxe edition.

The first single, “Can a Drumer Get Some,” became available on iTunes on Feb. 1. Barker brought together Lil’ Wayne, Swizz Beatz, Game and Rick Ross for the simple, yet explosive track. With a very basic guitar riff, Barker’s drum beats keeps everything under wraps as it drives the rappers’ different verses, some referencing Michael Jackson and even Nicholas Cage.

The only words to the chorus are “Can a drummer get some,” but Swizz Beatz puts enough energy into it, and saves the phrase from becoming too overbearing.

In an MTV News interview, Barker described his new album as something that “helped him overcome the loss of his close friends and saved his life too.”

In 2008, he lost his friends “Lil” Chris Baker and Charles “Che” Still due to a plane crash and then his dear friend Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein in 2009.

Bearing the pain of his own injuries and the loss of his friends, working on his solo album allowed him to channel all the pain into an album that would mean something to him.

“Everyone on the album is someone I was blessed to come in contact at one point or another in my life,” he said to MTV. “That’s a pretty good way to describe how I feel about it too.”