Travis Barker is legendary for hitting his kit with wild abandon. But with the Blink-182 reunion slated to kick off on March 11 in Tijuana, Mexico, the dynamic drummer may want to slow his roll and heal up after suffering yet another injury to his ring finger. Two weeks after revealing that he’d smashed his finger so hard during rehearsals that he dislocated it and tore some ligaments, Barker said he did it again.
TMZ reported that Barker posted an Instagram Story on Sunday in which he showed off his clearly swollen, bruised ring finger, with what looked like a giant bump on his middle knuckle, captioning the image “again.”
Barker confirmed the news in his Story on Monday, posting two x-ray images of his left middle finger that clearly depicted a serious ding on the ring fing. At press time it was unclear if the injury would have any impact on the band’s touring plans in support of their as-yet-untitled reunion album with twice former singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge; a spokesperson for the group had not returned requests for additional comment at press time.
In January, DeLonge teased that the collection is “the best album we’ve ever made,” assuring fans that they need to “buckle up.” Amping up the excitement, DeLonge added, “I’m personally tripping and so proud of what we have created TOGETHER. As one unified force of fun, eternal youth, and most of all- close friends.”
DeLonge — who rejoined the band in 2022 after leaving for a second time in 2014 — tagged bandmates drummer Travis Barker and singer/bassist Mark Hoppus in the post about the eagerly awaited follow-up to the trio’s 2019 album Nine, their second, and final, studio effort featuring fill-in third member Matt Skiba (Alkaline Trio).
While a release date and title for the new album have not yet been announced, the collection’s first single, “EDGING,” has been a smash at alternative radio.
The reunited trio’s massive world tour is slated to kick off on March 11 in Tijuana, Mexico at the Imperial GNP festival and keep the band on the road in South America and Mexico through April 2 before shifting to North America on May 4 with a show at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota; those dates will run through a July 16 gig in Nashville at the Bridgestone Arena and then move on to Europe in September and Australia/New Zealand in early 2024.
