Photo: WENN
Travis Barker has spoken out about the recent passing of Velvet Revolver and Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland.
Weiland was found dead on his tour bus last week in Minnesota. The cause of death has yet to be confirmed by coroners, although it was recently reported that drugs and alcohol were found on the tour bus. It is also known that Weiland suffered a long term bout with alcoholism and substance abuse addiction.
Within an interview on Billboard, Barker said: "I think it's just ultimately what drugs do when they get the best of somebody. It's sad."
The Blink-182 drummer, who was involved within a plane crash in 2008 that left Barker dealing with post traumatic stress, also spoke openly about his own drug use and abuse: "I was addicted to drugs for a long time and the only way I was able to stop doing drugs was being in a plane crash and having morphine for four months when I didn't want it. That's what it took for me to get sober."
Barker said he met the former Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver frontman a few years back in the hard rock supergroup Camp Freddy. "He's great. Oh my gosh, his contributions to music were amazing," the drummer said. "I saw video of him recently, he sounded great and he looked fine. But you never know what demons anyone is fighting."
He added: "Whatever you're masking when you're doing drugs gets more severe the more you mask it. Everyday you're doing it more and more and you're never facing what you're running from — whatever that is. The masking gets to be so dangerous. It is excessive. It's unfortunate."
"My son at a young age asked me what happened to John Bonham. What happened to Elvis Presley? What happened to Marilyn Monroe? I explained to him that all these people who you know as these huge icons or rock stars died because of drugs or alcohol."
