I finished reading Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death, and Drums, Drums, Drums by Travis Barker over the holiday season. Going a little left field on this one…
Anyone who knows me will know that I play the drums and have done for many years. Throughout my teens I was a huge Blink 182 fan (Skateboard, hoody, etc.), not sure I ever really came out of that phase entirely. Travis was always an idol of mine, I still have a pair of his signature Zildjian drumsticks, which were really thick and somewhat like playing with white painted tree trunks.
I really enjoyed reading about his journey, pre-Blink, joining Blink and after, his family life and business. The biggest takeaway of this book for me, however, is that his work ethic is truly phenomenal, (and really the reason I’m blogging). He truly is self made, as his knuckle tattoos would allude to, it’s not luck that he is as successful as he is, he got there through hard work and determination.
I won’t spoil the book, but Travis Barker went through some really rough times in his youth, drug dependency, and obviously the plane crash. Can I Say offers an honest and heartfelt trip through all of the events in his life, with overall a really uplifting message that with the right mindset you can cope with anything life throws at you. His attitude and his rock and roll mentality is something that really resonated with me, being a rock lover myself, I think the outlook it gives is something that never really leaves you, and with Travis being so successful it reaffirms some of the feelings that I think anyone interested in reading the book most likely already have (even if they’ve not really spent the time to think about what music means to them).
I’d happily recommend this book, I think we could all learn something from Travis.
