Pop Talk by George Varga

SANTA MONICA, CALIF. — "Everything, absolutely everything, means more to me now," said Travis Barker, the 33-year-old drummer in blink-182, following one of the first performances by the successful rock band since it broke up four years ago.

The pop-punk trio's spirited appearance at a taping for Fuel TV's "The Daily Habit" show came less than nine months after Barker was one of two to survive a South Carolina plane crash that killed four people.

It took Barker's near-death experience to reunite the estranged members of blink after they acrimoniously disbanded in early 2005. The group, which has sold more than 13 million albums, launches its reunion tour July 24 in Las Vegas.

Its performances will be almost a year after Barker suffered second-and third-degree burns from his feet to his waist and on both hands when the Learjet he was on crashed on takeoff. Two passengers, the pilot and the co-pilot were killed.

Barker has since undergone more than a dozen surgeries and spent more time in hospitals than he cares to remember. But there was no visible or audible sign of his injuries, when more than 100 fans jammed the small studio to watch blink-182 soar back into action. The show will air June 19.

As singer-guitarist Tom DeLonge, 33, and singer-bassist Mark Hoppus, 37, rocked out in front of him on the TV soundstage, Barker drummed with typical flair and finesse. Although the band was required to do several consecutive run-throughs of blink favorites "The Rock Show" and "Feeling This," his percussive attack grew more energetic and intense with each new rendition of the songs.

"The only time when I feel free is when I'm behind my (drum) kit," Barker said. "That's when I don't have my mind racing about, or dwelling on something, whether it's the past or the future. It's my time, when I'm just in it and I don't think about that (crash) now. I just zone out. Playing the drums is my favorite place to be."

In a separate interview, DeLonge and Barker both sounded older and wiser as they discussed the band's reunion — and the tragedy that led to their getting back together.

"I like to think this is something positive (coming) out of something very tragic," DeLonge said. " ... The fact that the three of us can get together, for whatever the reason, means a lot to a lot of people, especially ourselves."

Barker is uncomfortable discussing the crash that nearly took his life. But he left no doubt that being back together with blink is exactly where he wants to be.

"Oh, it's so fun," said the drummer, who is married to former Playboy model Shanna Moakler and has two children. "This is a breath of fresh air."

Barker, who was previously the drummer in The Aquabats, replaced original blink drummer Scott Raynor in 1998. The band, which was formed in 1992 in San Diego by DeLonge and Hoppus, already had several albums under its belt for small record labels when Barker joined.

Energized by his virtuosic drumming and the trio's constantly improving songwriting and performance skills, blink struck gold — make that platinum — with its next album, multimillion-selling "Enema of the State," in 1999.

More hit albums and world tours followed for the band, which — like its many young fans — reveled in blink's potent mix of brash punk-rock songs about teen angst and potty-mouthed humor about sex and various bodily functions.

"It makes the live situation (on stage) fun," Hoppus said. DeLonge smiled. "That's how we started," DeLonge recalled. "We'd say (stuff) to make each other laugh. And years and years later, people would laugh. It was really just a way to out-trump each other with what was the most off-color remark we could say. And it really took us places!"

By 2004, blink ranked among the biggest rock bands in the world. But personal tensions among the three members boiled over at the end of the year, following a lengthy tour. The global trek left DeLonge craving time with his wife and two children, while Hoppus and Barker — who are both also married and have young children — were eager to resume work with blink as soon as possible. Unable to reach agreement after a series of heated arguments, the trio announced in early 2005 that it was going on "an indefinite hiatus."

DeLonge subsequently launched his own band, the four-man Angels & Airwaves, with which he has released two albums. Barker and Hoppus regrouped in a four-man band called (Plus 44) and released an album of their own. Yet, while neither new band fared nearly as well — commercially or artistically — as blink, this year's reunion would not have come about were it not for Barker's near-fatal plane crash.

"I don't think (a reunion) was in any of our heads a year ago," Hoppus said. "Three years ago, I would have said it was a total impossibility; a year ago, I would have thought it was highly unlikely."

DeLonge nodded in agreement.

"I think a year ago it probably wouldn't have been something on our minds," DeLonge said. "But it's definitely (interesting) how rapidly things can change from day to day."

The members of blink are now engaged in the most intense rehearsals of the band's career, in part because, as DeLonge put it, "I have a lot of anxiety right now about the tour and how big it is."

The tour will visit 48 cities in the United States and Canada between July and Oct. 3, when it's scheduled to conclude in Atlantic City, N.J. Recording began this year on a new album, which blink expects to complete after the tour and release next year.

Will this reunion last for only one tour and album?

"Hell, no," Hoppus said. "I hate when bands get back together and do one tour and it feels like they're going to make a bunch of money, and then they go away for a while and then come back again. We did this (reunion) to continue being creative and having fun. I see us continuing to tour and put out albums as long as it's fun. There's no end game and no plan at all. We enjoy playing music together, that's all."

DeLonge laughed. "No end game, no plan and no practice," he said. "We're just going to see where that takes us."

To find out more about George Varga and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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