Travis Barker Undergoes Surgery

Travis Barker is thanking fans for their “love and prayers and understanding” after undergoing surgery to repair a torn ligament in his finger, which he injured last month. The Blink-182 drummer, 47, took to Instagram to share a selfie from his hospital bed alongside a graphic photo from his surgery as he shared a message to fans.

“Thank you for all the love and prayers and understanding this week as I went into surgery,” he wrote. “It was a hard decision to make but ultimately I couldn’t continue to play the drums without it. It was inevitable that my finger would have dislocated again without fixing the torn ligament surgically.” Barker continued with a shoutout to his doctor, writing, “So grateful for Dr. Shin and that my surgery was a success so that I can keep doing what I love and see you guys on tour soon.” The rocker ended with a trigger warning for his followers, warning that the “last photo is hard to look at.” 

The rocker announced last week that he would be undergoing surgery as he showed off his swollen and gnarled finger, which he first injured during rehearsals for Blink-182’s upcoming reunion tour.  “I was playing the drums at rehearsals yesterday and I smashed my finger so hard I dislocated it and tore the ligaments,” the musician tweeted on Feb. 8. Shortly after the initial incident, he shared a photo of his injured knuckle on Instagram, writing that he hurt it “again.”

Barker’s surgery required Blink-182 to postpone its world tour, which was scheduled to launch March 11 in Tijuana, Mexico. The reunion tour is now scheduled to kick off on May 5 in St. Paul, Minnesota, and will wrap its North American leg in Nashville, Tennessee, on July 16 before heading overseas to Europe in September and Australia in February 2024.

“I’m so sorry to everyone in South America that we couldn’t come down there. This has been something we’ve been aiming to do for so long and we work so hard and we just kind of had one of those freak accidents that nobody saw coming,” frontman Tom DeLonge said in a video last week. “Travis needs to go in and have surgery on his finger and we have to get that well. We have to get that strong before we can do anything else. This is just so sad.” 

“I know it seems like you waited so long that you have and we waited so long to do this is just devastating on so many levels, but we’re going to get Travis better,” DeLonge continued. “And we’re going to come down, the three of us together, and we’re going to rock and we’re going to have an incredible time with you guys.” He continued, “But I really want you to know from my heart to yours, how important you guys are to us and this is not something that we could even have saw coming. It’s just devastating. But we love you. Blink-182 loves you. We will see you soon.”