Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker has admitted that he was shocked when his wife Kourtney Kardashian first suggested that they get together romantically having been friends for over a decade.

The pair began dating in 2021 and got married in 2022, holding ceremonies in California and in Italy. The punk rock star and the socialite were introduced by Kardashian's younger sister Kim - who Barker described as "fucking hot" when they first met in 2006 - and were friends for years before Kourtney suggested in a text that perhaps they should become more than just friends.

"I was like, what?" Barker admits in a new interview with The Times newspaper. "I had to look at my phone four times. I thought, there’s no way! I’d left any thoughts of us ever being anything more."

Asked what exactly the text said, Barker recalls, "I had offered a mutual guy friend some dating advice. I was like, just have fun hooking up with girls. Think of it like a sport. Don’t try to get emotionally invested with everyone. Try to find your bearings.

"And then Kourtney texted something like, ‘Why don’t you teach me how to find my bearings?’ I’m like, oh my gosh. And I was scared because I thought, I can’t mess this up, I can’t mess this up."

"When we first met," he reflects, "I was obviously tattooed from head to toe and in a band. I think that’s why I felt so comfortable being Kourtney’s friend because we were such opposites. I was like, oh, I can think she’s cute or attractive or a great mom [Kardashian has three children with her husband of nine years Scott Disick, the pair divorcing in 2015] because we’re so different."

"I looked like I would be different than I am. But she saw the person inside and slowly we became really good friends."

Following their marriage, Barker and Kardashian appeared together the reality show 'Til Death Do Us Part Kourtney & Travis.

Barker's own documentary, Travis Barker: Louder Than Fear premiered on Disney+ earlier this year.