Travis Barker on Addiction, His Deadly Plane Crash and Living for His Kids: 'I Don't Take Any Second for Granted'

Travis Barker is a changed man.

On tour for California, Blink-182's first album in five years, the drummer is at the best point in his life.

"I'm feeling younger and better now than I did when I was 20," the rocker tells PEOPLE.

When the band first broke out in the '90s, "I was probably one of the most unhealthy human beings, from what I ate to what I put in my body," Barker adds. "There have been so many hardships in my life. Now I know how to handle them ... I just feel so blessed."



Indeed, at just 40 years old, Barker has endured more than most. He has admitted to abusing painkillers and once said he would mix drugs like Vicodin, Oxycodone and Valium with alcohol to self-medicate his fear of flying.

But, "It just goes to show it's really about how you carry yourself and how you treat yourself, and I definitely made a lifestyle change years ago that made me 100 percent better," says Barker, who knows he was once "very young and wild."

That change came when Barker learned he was going to be a father.

"I felt myself change immediately," says Barker, who welcomed son Landon with ex Shanna Moakler in 2003; the pair had daughter Alabama in 2005. "I started running, I boxed every day – it's just something that made me want to be the best parent I could be."

While Barker has said he had used drugs after having kids, another major life change got him clean. In 2008, a private plane he was riding crashed after takeoff, killing four of the six on board. Barker was left with 65 percent of his body covered in burns and underwent 30 surgeries, but focused on his kids to recover.

"I knew I had to bounce back. I'm a father – I had two human beings who were looking to me for guidance," he says. "I was sober from that point on."

Just 11 months after the crash, the only other survivor, Barker's close friend Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein died of an overdose.

"If I didn't already know how precious life was, I was definitely smacked in the face and reminded," says Barker of the tragedy.

After the crash, "I never wanted to leave home again in my life," he adds. "I wanted to be with my kids."

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These days, Barker shares joint custody of the kids with Moakler, with whom he finalized a contentious divorce in 2008. And while he's balancing his music career, his primary focus is still on the kids, who are often on the road with him.

"They've been on tour since they were 2 – music is in their blood," says Barker, adding Landon, 12, raps and plays drums, while Alabama, 10, sings and plays the piano.

As it turns out, they've even gone in the studio with him – and his daughter is on "She's Out of Her Mind," a new Blink-182 track.

"We were still figuring out parts, and Alabama walks over to the piano and says, 'I have an idea,' and she starts playing this idea that ended up becoming the bridge part of the piano; it was very organic," says Barker of the process. "I was so proud of her."

And the kids aren't just helping make the music – they're inspiring it, too.

"There's a song called 'Growing Apart.' For me, it was about our kids," says Barker. "You raise them, and you're so close to them: They're your everything, but you know they're going to grow up and move on ... To take their whole life as your own is the most beautiful thing in the world, and at the same time it's a really sad thing, too."

With their teenage years looming, "I just want to spend as much time with them as I can," Barker says, adding with a laugh: "There are girls chasing my son and boys chasing my daughter – I told them if things get out of hand, we're moving far, far away. We'll have our own island somewhere."

Adds the star: "I don't take any day – any second – for granted."