Travis Barker Recorded Three New Blink-182 Songs With a Broken Finger

Last month, Blink-182 postponed their Latin American tour dates due to an injury drummer Travis Barker suffered on his ring finger. He smashed the finger during rehearsal, leading to emergency surgery and a later-than-expected launch of the band’s first tour with singer and guitarist Tom DeLonge since 2014.

Barker offered an update to Rolling Stone on his recovery: “I’m recovering really, really well,” he says. His cast was taken off a week after last month’s surgery, and he has been in physical therapy working to “expedite the process” of his healing.

“I recorded the last three songs on the album with a broken finger,” he reveals. (As of publication, the band has not announced an official release date for their next LP). The world tour is set to kick off with the North American leg in early May.

“We will be playing before anyone is expecting us to play,” Barker says, referring to their recent addition to the Coachella line-up.

DeLonge originally exited Blink-182 in 2015, hoping to dedicate his time to his company To the Stars…Academy of Arts & Sciences, which investigates UFOs. Barker and singer/bassist Mark Hoppus carried on with the group and enlisted Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba to round out the group. With Skiba, Blink released two albums.

In 2021, Hoppus announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer. Around this time, he and Barker had begun meeting with DeLonge to rekindle their friendship. Within the next year, Hoppus was declared cancer-free, and DeLonge officially re-joined the band. 

From Rolling Stone US.