Blink-182's Travis Barker has weighed in on the infamously controversial moment last year where he and his then girlfriend (now fiancée) Kourtney Kardashian stepped out in public, each in a band T-shirt — The Cramps for Barker and Cannibal Corpse for Kardashian.
It wasn't Barker who anyone originally expressed uproar over — vintage psychobilly acts felt perfectly befitting of the pop-punk icon. Kardashian in a death metal shirt depicting Cannibal Corpse's Eaten Back to Life debut (with the old school logo to boot), however, yielded fierce opinions. Former Cannibal Corpse frontman Chris Barnes, who appeared on the influential group's first four records, caught word of what had happened and branded the couple a pair of "posers."
See the T-shirt in question directly below.
"To speak on that, that's the lamest shit ever," Barker told Revolver in an interview centered around his production work on SKIN, the new album by Ho99o9.
Speaking further about the controversial moment, the drummer explained, "Obviously my fiancée doesn't listen to Cannibal Corpse, but I do. I grew up loving them. For [someone] to mention that in a negative light — fucking lame, you know? She's wearing it because she's cold. She's not claiming she knows every song. But I do! I bought every album, and I learned how to play every album."
Instead of pitting people against each other based on their taste in music, Barker urged a more holistic approach. He noted, "I grew up a punk-rock kid, [but] everything with punk rock — 'I'm more punk than you' — just fuck all that. Be stoked that people are into music. Music is beautiful! It changes people's lives. It creates the best memories. Just celebrate it, you know?"
So where did that Cannibal Corpse shirt come from? Barker's own T-shirt collection, of course. And it's an extensive collection by the sound of it.
"But, yeah ... I have a gang of Cannibal Corpse T-shirts. I still love them," he confessed. "I have a gang of King Diamond T-shirts and rare Slayer shirts because I fucking love those bands. I grew up on them. Even though I'm, you know, whatever the world wants to view me as — 'Oh, that's Blink-182's drummer' — actually that guy was playing in a garage with a bunch of speed-metal kids listening to D.R.I. and S.O.D. I enjoyed every fucking minute of it."
With the mystery solved, perhaps this controversy can finally be laid to rest. That seems doubtful, though.
