Fans of Travis Barker might not immediately hear Phil Collins when they hear his work. After all, Barker has been the face of so much pop punk and rock production for decades. From Blink-182 to Machine Gun Kelly, it’s hard not to hear his impact on what modern rock sounds like. But when you hear the songs he’s worked on, “In The Air Tonight” or “Sussudio” might not come to mind.
But through his extremely tender, emotional speech at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it’s extremely clear just how much Phil Collins played a role in Travis Barker’s life. During his speech (captured by Consequence), he fondly reflected on being a kid trying to get his drums to sound like Collins. He would beg his parents to help him accomplish the sound he heard in the 80s. Even his mom recognized that if Barker was going to take his career seriously, the Genesis legend was the one to emulate.
“I remember being a kid and purposely not changing my drumheads so my drums would sound like Phil Collins. I remember begging my parents for more toms because I wanted my drums to look like Phil Collins’s kit. At one point, I even put two totally different drum kits together—nothing matched, but I didn’t care because I wanted to be like Phil,” Barker said.
Travis Barker Honored Phil Collins at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
“And I remember watching him play drums in his music videos on MTV and VH1, and my mom would always tell me, ‘That’s the guy. That’s the drummer you need to watch—look at him.’ And she was right. I wanted to be just like him,” he continued.
Then, Travis Barker mused about the biggest and best Phil Collins songs of all time. Inevitably, he got to “In The Air Tonight”, where even the biggest drum novices could tell they were hearing something special.
“And the funny thing is, you look at Phil and you don’t necessarily expect such a huge sound to come out of him. Thor, maybe, but Phil Collins? Yes, Phil Collins, it was you. You made that sound,” Barker said.
Ultimately, what Travis Barker loved most about the 75-year-old rocker was that he never stopped emphasizing his drumming. Even when he was the frontman of Genesis or his own solo artist, he always made it a point to note that he was a drummer first.
Then, he lauded Phil Collins as one of the few artists who truly deserved to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. “But tonight Phil Collins becomes one of them, and I can’t think of anyone more deserving,” Travis Barker concluded in his speech.
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