Travis Barker and Kourtney Kardashian were friends for more than a decade before the reality TV star sent the Blink-182 drummer a text that he said changed both their lives forever. Speaking to the U.K.’s The Times, Barker, 50, recalled first befriending Kourtney’s younger sister, Kim, in the early 2000’s when she was a wardrobe assistant to his then-girlfriend socialite Paris Hilton.
The drummer, who grew up working class in Fontana, Calif., then became friendly with the whole ultra-glam, decidedly not blue collar Kardashian clan when he moved near them to Calbasas, Calif. after making some money in Blink. “I mean, even when we first met, I was obviously tattooed from head to toe and in a band. I think that’s why I felt so comfortable being Kourtney’s friend because we were such opposites,” he told the paper. “I was like, ‘oh, I can think she’s cute or attractive or a great mom’ [Kourtney was mother to three children with her ex, Scott Disick] because we’re so different.”
But things changed in 2021 when he said Kourtney texted “something crazy” to him that moved them out of the friend zone. “I was like, ‘what?’ I had to look at my phone four times. I thought, there’s no way! I’d left any thoughts of us ever being anything more,” he said.
Barker recalled giving a mutual guy friend some dating advice about just having fun and hooking up with women, advising him to think of dating as a sport, while trying to not get too emotionally invested. “‘Try to find your bearings,’” he told his friend.
And then Kourtney texted something to the effect of, “‘Why don’t you teach me how to find my bearings?’” He recalled thinking, “‘Oh my gosh.’ And I was scared because I thought, I can’t mess this up, I can’t mess this up.”’
So, after being friends for 15 years and getting closer during the 2020 COVID lockdowns, the couple went Instagram official in 2021 and married in 2022 in a pair of ceremonies in California and Italy. Barker and Kardashian welcomed their first child, son Rocky Thirteen Barker, in 2023.
Last week, Barker revealed he was recently hospitalized for surgery to deal with arm, hand and finger numbness due to a pinched nerve in his elbow that required a cubital tunnel release procedure.
This story originally appeared on Billboard
