Travis Barker recently drummed up business for a young fan’s lemonade stand in Los Angeles. On Aug. 18, the Blink-182 drummer visited the Dream Machine Foundation to surprise Grayson Roberts, a 9-year-old blind drummer, at his Limitless Lemonade stand. Roberts founded the stand in the hopes of raising enough money to achieve his dream of traveling the world while he still has some vision left in his remaining eye. “What’s up, Grayson? How are you?” Barker said as he approached the stand and dropped a generous donation in the tip jar. “Nice to meet you. I brought you some drumsticks.”
“I feel so blessed I got to be a special part of this.”
After introducing himself to Roberts, the father of three also agreed to an impromptu jam session with the elementary schooler. “Do you want to sing or play drums?” he asked Roberts before they hopped on stage to perform “Street Fight” by Adam Jensen in front of a cheering crowd. “I feel so blessed I got to be a special part of this,” Roberts wrote on his Instagram Stories. “Thank you @wanderingfurther for making this all possible.”
The sweet moment was made possible thanks to entrepreneur and music manager Charlie Rocket, who encountered Roberts’s lemonade stand on the street and decided to help him bring in more customers. “I’ve always been very passionate about finding ways to get good news to spread faster than bad news,” Rocket wrote on his IGS. “The only way to fight darkness is with light!” As a result of the performance, hundreds of fans stopped by the stand to donate to Roberts’s cause.
On his Instagram account, Roberts shared more about the congenital disorder that resulted in his vision loss and the inspiration behind his Limitless Lemonade stand. “My name is Grayson. I was born with Axenfeld-Rieger syndrome which is an eye disorder, although it can also affect other parts of the body,” he wrote in 2019. “[It] is characterized by abnormalities of the front part of the eye. For me, it left me with Glaucoma (eye pressure) and Aniridia (no iris). I’ve had 32 surgeries and 5 cornea transplants to help save some of my vision.”
The 9-year-old added that he’s grateful for the opportunities he’s been given and he hasn’t let his vision loss affect his happiness. “Everyday with even a fraction of sight is an opportunity for me to connect with my surroundings. I don’t let my limited vision stop me. I’m funny, happy, love to sing and make music, travel, learning and I believe I can do anything. I was served lemons but I choose to make lemonade everyday because everyday has sweet sunshine. Thanks for following me and joining me in my journey.”
The jam session comes just one month after Barker and Kourtney Kardashian announced they are expecting their first child together. Ahead, see Barker and Roberts’s performance, and check out the 9-year-old’s drumming skills at his school talent show.