Why Travis Barker is an Admirable Person

     One of the people that I admire is Travis Barker. Travis Barker is a drummer in the band

blink-182. Although he may be famous, he acts like a normal guy you see every day. Most people

think of someone who is famous as being egotistical, stuck up and think they are better than

everyone else in the world. Travis basically proves all of those opinions wrong and makes you

realize that although some famous people may be that way, not everyone is.

     Travis is a very talented drummer and takes his work seriously. Travis wasn’t the original

drummer for blink-182. The original drummer wasn’t able to make it to a concert because of

family reasons and the other two members asked their best friend, Travis, to fill in even though
he

didn’t know how to play any of their songs. Even though it was only an hour before the show

when they asked him to fill in, Travis didn’t want to let them down so he said he would learn

every song and perform with them. They didn’t want the audience to hear Travis learning how to

play the songs so they found two sticks and that was what he used to practice with. An hour later,

Travis went on stage and performed with the other two guys in blink-182 and amazed the crowd

as well as his two best friends. When the original drummer said he wanted to go to school and

was leaving the band, they asked Travis to take over since he had amazed the crowd with his

awesome ability to play the drums.

     Travis doesn’t only play the drums, he also teaches drum lessons. Travis visits his home
in

San Diego, CA often and while he is there he gives young children who don’t have much money,

if any, drum lessons. He says he loves working with young kids especially since he knows they

don’t have a lot of money. He says this is his way of giving something back to his

hometown. Travis also likes to think that even though these kids families may not ever have
much

money, they may be able to become a drummer one day and earn some money.

     Even though Travis is well-known, he hasn’t let this affect his life. When people stop him

to say “You’re Travis Barker from blink-182”, he acts like you see someone from blink-182
every

day and lets them have his autograph. He doesn’t think he should let fame go to his head. Often

when he walks into a store the sales person will stop him to talk and then tell him he doesn’t
need

to pay for his items. Whenever someone tells Travis he doesn’t need to pay for something, he

always does because he doesn’t think he should be treated any differently than the person in line

behind him.

     Not everyone probably sees Travis Barker the way that I do, but I think that someone who

can be famous and remain sane and act like he is your typical person is truly amazing. There
aren’t

a lot of people that are like that and even the ones that are, if they became famous they may let
the

fame go to their heads. I admire him because someone who teaches poor kids to play the drums

and he doesn’t just teach them, he enjoys teaching them is a person that I think deserves to be

admired.