BILLY CORGAN NAMES TRAVIS BARKER MOST INFLUENTIAL DRUMMER

Billy Corgan called Blink-182’s Travis Barker the “most influential” drummer of the last 30 years during an episode of his podcast, The Magnificent Others, released on 14 October. The Smashing Pumpkins musician told Barker: “I think you are probably the most influential drummer of the last 30 years.” Corgan said Barker had influenced more popular drummers than anyone else he could think of during that period. He credited Barker’s playing with changing the approach of other rock and alternative drummers. Barker replied: “That means so much. Yeah, I mean, I don’t even know what to say.”

Barker described his style as “just this weird kind of mixture of everything that I was raised on”. He named Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe, Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, Dennis Chambers and The Meters among his influences. He also said Animal from the Muppets was his biggest influence as a child. The conversation covered Barker’s recovery from a 2008 plane crash that killed four people and left him with severe burns. Barker said playing music was the first thing he did after leaving the burns centre.

The Smashing Pumpkins released a song called ‘Black Stars’ on 16 October for the soundtrack of The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. The band worked with producer Butch Vig on the track, their first collaboration since the 1993 album Siamese Dream. Corgan had initially developed ‘Black Stars’ as a solo track. The film has a scheduled cinema release on 20 November. Barker also recalled seeing Lee bring the drummer to the forefront of a band.