Drumming grandmother Dorothea Taylor challenges Blink-182's Travis Barker to a drum battle after performing What's My Age Again?

She may not look like your average idea of a pop-punk fan, but the ‘Godmother of Drumming’, Dorothea Taylor shows her appreciation for Travis Barker’s rudimental style in Drumeo’s latest video, where she performs a drum cover of Blink-182’s What’s My Age Again?, before throwing down the drum-off gauntlet to Travis Barker.

Dorothea - who is in her 70s and has been drumming since she was 13-years-old - became an internet sensation after uploading a video of herself playing paradiddles to Instagram in 2019. 

Her demonstrations and explanations of rudiments caught the attention of online drum lesson site, Drumeo, and Dorothea was invited to become a Drumeo coach.

Since then, she has hosted and performed multiple lessons and drum covers via Drumeo and its YouTube channel, covering subjects such as warm-ups, rudiments, and ‘The Egg Challenge For Drummers’. Dorothea’s drum cover of Disturbed’s Down With The Sickness has racked-up over 14 million views to date.

She says of Blink-182’s 1999 hit, “What I like about this song, in the very beginning and the intro, Travis Barker uses drum rudiments - and you know how much i love drum rudiments. so, if you’ve never thought about what that was that he was playing: they were flams, five-stroke rolls, and pataflaflas. So this is a great example of how to incorporate drum rudiments into punk rock drumming.

Dorothea then goes on to offer Travis BarkerYou probably would never have expected someone like me to sit behind [the kit] and play along to Blink. i’ve learned my rudiments over the years and was able to incorporate and understand what Travis was playing. So, Travis Barker, are you watching? How about a drum battle?” 

Watch this space to find out if he accepts.