Rockstar Drummer Travis Barker’s Reading List at Age Seven

We’re not seeing clearly and that simple fact can lead us astray. I was reminded at how much of the information we take in comes with a hidden bias. The bias is that when you see, meet, or hear about someone, you’re meeting them at the current moment. Anything about the context of their past is subject to the inaccuracies that naturally come with recalling the past. 

Even if you read Elvis Presley’s humble beginnings, you still can’t unknow that he’s the King in the end. 

I was struck by this (again) after listening to a character that I chose to feature in my book about this very topic. Travis Barker makes his way into a section of Going Right: A Logical Justification for Pursuing Your Dreams because he chose what he perceived in his highest expression of life in music, despite the odds against musicians to support a living with it. 

Barker, who was a trash man at the time, decided that if he covered his body in tattoos he had to make a career in music because no other “regular” job would hire him based on his appearance. That’s why I featured him in the book, at least. 

Well, in this interview he talks about his earlier life, specifically parts I was unaware of. Like when he would read and investigate books cover to cover on stick placement and Jazz drumming patterns at ages seven and eight. Seven years old. 

If I’m to stereotype, most people observe the rock star drummer as talented and rare. Keen observers might hear cute stories about his tattoos like the one I regurgiteted to you, but few of us see and understand an obsession that was unrelenting for 36-months before his tenth birthday. 

For more, excellence is unrelatable not just because of the outcome, but mostly because the process is foreign, too.  

If you want something bigger for your life, look to the mundane, repeatable, small tasks that aren’t observable publicly. That’s where I’d start, at least. That’s where Travis started.