{"id":915681,"date":"2026-11-13T06:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T06:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/915681\/"},"modified":"2026-11-13T06:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T06:56:09","slug":"travis-barker-reveals-he-had-precancer-of-the-esophagus-before-he-quit-smoking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/915681\/","title":{"rendered":"Travis Barker reveals he had ‘precancer of the esophagus’ before he quit smoking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Travis Barker confessed he quit smoking because he was diagnosed with a sobering condition. <\/p>\n

\u201cI only quit because I got diagnosed with precancer of the esophagus,\u201d the Blink-182 drummer told rapper Kid Cudi during Wednesday\u2019s episode of the \u201cBig Bro with Kid Cudi\u201d<\/a> podcast. Barker, 50, added, \u201cI loved blunts and I would smoke too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

The musician said he asked his doctor, who is also a friend, \u201cIs this serious?\u201d to which the physician replied, \u201cThis is your warning shot, Trav. Don\u2019t f\u2013k around. You gotta stop smoking.\u201d <\/p>\n

Travis Barker told Kid Cudi during a podcast appearance (seen above) that he quit smoking because he received a frightening diagnosis. <\/p>\n

\u201cI got diagnosed with precancer of the esophagus,\u201d Barker, seen in 2006, said. GC Images<\/p>\n

Barker said had he not received the warning from a trusted doctor, he \u201cwould have never stopped.\u201d <\/p>\n

The rock star joked he thought he \u201ccould be like Willie Nelson and smoke to the day I die, you know?\u201d <\/p>\n

Barker has previously shared insight into a past opioid addiction he developed over his lifelong fear of flying. <\/p>\n

Barker said he \u201cwould never have stopped\u201d if he hadn\u2019t been warned by a doctor.<\/p>\n

Barker, pictured above in 2024, has previously spoken out about his past addiction to opioid medications. Getty Images for ABA<\/p>\n

\u201cMy friends knew how much I dreaded being on planes, and one of them gave me a pill to help with my anxiety,\u201d he said in his \u201cLouder Than Fear\u201d<\/a> documentary. <\/p>\n

The rocker said he went from taking just one or two OxyContin-type painkillers prior to flying to \u201chaving to be on them\u201d or else he \u201ccouldn\u2019t even function.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the height of his addiction, Barker divulged he was \u201cdoing so [many] drugs\u201d that he \u201chad a security guard watching him\u201d full time whose \u201conly job was to make sure I was breathing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Travis Barker, seen at the Bacardi B*Live Concert in Miami, began taking the medications to deal with his fear of flying. John Parra<\/p>\n

He previously shared he became sober after a near-fatal plane crash in 2008 that took the lives of three friends. Getty Images for Coachella<\/p>\n

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Shanna Moakler, who was married to the musician from 2004 to 2008, shared that Barker once told her, \u201cI take about 20 to 30 pills a day sometimes.\u201d She recalled thinking, \u201cHow are you alive?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, he said a near-fatal plane crash in 2008 that killed three friends acted as \u201crehab\u201d for him<\/a>. \u201cPeople are always like, \u2018Did you go to rehab?\u2019\u2009\u201d he told Men\u2019s Health in 2021. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I [say], \u2018No, I was in a plane crash.\u2019 That was my rehab,\u201d he went on. \u201cLose three of your friends and almost die? That was my wake-up call. If I wasn\u2019t in a crash, I would have probably never quit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was my wake-up call,\u201d Barker, seen here in October, told Men\u2019s Health in 2021. Getty Images for Complex<\/p>\n

Barker, seen here in 2023, flushed medications down the toilet after an 11-week hospitalization following the crash. Getty Images for Coachella<\/p>\n

He also confessed that before the crash, he smoked an \u201cexcessive amount of weed\u201d and abused painkillers to the point that he developed osteoporosis. <\/p>\n

Barker claimed that during an 11-week hospitalization following the crash, he \u201ccame to\u201d during surgeries because he\u2019d developed a high tolerance for opioids. <\/p>\n

Barker said he flushed everything down the toilet upon his release from the hospital, \u201cincluding stuff that I really needed.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Travis Barker confessed he quit smoking because he was diagnosed with a sobering condition. \u201cI only quit because…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":915682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[9038,236,3172,91,88,216,2294,8116,45892],"class_list":["post-915681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-addiction","tag-celebrities","tag-celebrity-interviews","tag-celebrity-news","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-podcasts","tag-smoking","tag-travis-barker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}