BLINK-182 drummer Travis Barker says it was "the lamest shit ever" for former CANNIBAL CORPSE singer Chris Barnes and others to criticize Kourtney Kardashian after the reality TV personality and social media star was photographed wearing one of CANNIBAL CORPSE's t-shirts.
In the widely circulated photo, Kardashian is seen sporting an "Eaten Back To Life"-era long-sleeve T-shirt from the death metal veterans while she and Barker, who is her fiancé, were in Venice for the Dolce & Gabbana show. Her stylist, Dani Michelle, had since confirmed to Vogue that Kourtney borrowed the shirt from Barker, who has a large collection of punk and metal t-shirts. "Kourt has told me before that his closet is an archive itself. She can pick any t-shirt to wear and it's the softest, coolest thing ever," Michelle told Vogue. "Sometimes she just wants to raid it."
Last September, Barnes shared an article about Kourtney's latest wardrobe choice and he wrote simply: "Posers." He also tagged Vogue writer Liana Satenstein and wrote in a separate tweet, "here's my response", adding a thumbs down emoji to really express his disapproval.
Now, in a new Revolver interview with Barker, the BLINK-182 drummer has chimed in on the controversy, saying: "That's the lamest shit ever. Obviously my fiancée doesn't listen to CANNIBAL CORPSE, but I do. I grew up loving them. For [someone] to mention that in a negative light — fucking lame, you know? She's wearing it because she's [cool]. She's not claiming she knows every song. But I do! I bought every album, and I learned how to play every album.
"I grew up a punk-rock kid, [but] everything with punk rock — 'I'm more punk than you' — just fuck all that. Be stoked that people are into music. Music is beautiful! It changes people's lives. It creates the best memories. Just celebrate it, you know?
"But yeah ... I have a gang of CANNIBAL CORPSE t-shirts," he added with a laugh. "I still love them. I have a gang of KING DIAMOND t-shirts and rare SLAYER shirts because I fucking love those bands. I grew up on them. Even though I'm, you know, whatever the world wants to view me as — 'Oh, that's BLINK-182's drummer' — actually that guy was playing in a garage with a bunch of speed-metal kids listening to D.R.I. and S.O.D. I enjoyed every fucking minute of it."
Kourtney is just the latest in a growing trend of celebrities wearing heavy metal t-shirts as high fashion. Rapper Kanye West has previously been criticized for repping vintage band tees, and Kourtney's sister Kim Kardashian is regularly spotted wearing METALLICA t-shirts. Kim's maternal half-sibling Kendall Jenner was seen getting around in a SLAYER tee, and EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt — who also played with SLAYER for nearly a decade — apparently responded by wearing a t-shirt onstage that read "Kill The Kardashians".
After Kanye was seen wearing a TESTAMENT t-shirt in 2016, the band's guitarist Alex Skolnick reacted negatively in an online post, writing: "Goodness gracious. This whole decrepit clan must have picked up a pile of old concert t-shirts (the same pile Kourtney K's SLAYER shirt came from) which have somehow become a 'thing' in trendy fashion (who'd have thought?!!). Inconceivable that any of these pop-culture vultures know who the heck any of the bands are. My guess is he thinks it's a religious group (not the first time that's happened). That is, if he thinks at all, which lately seems unlikely. And I thought this time period couldn't get any weirder..."
Barnes exited CANNIBAL CORPSE in 1995, one year after the release of the band's "The Bleeding" album. He has since been replaced by George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher.
Photo credit: Jordan Knight
