His first claim to fame came to him as a young infant when his mother found a man stranded in a boat that had run out of gas.

After expressing interest in drums, his brother took him to a friend's house where Barbata played on his first trap set.

Soon after the family moved to San Luis Obispo, California, where Barbata went to high school and followed in his older brother's footsteps and joined the marching band.

The rudimentary rhythms and beats from Barbata's time in drum line heavily influenced his technique in later years.

[1][2] After five years with the Sentinals, the band broke up, and Barbata, along with his bandmate Lee Michaels, headed to Hollywood.

Shortly after, Barbata joined Joel Scott Hill of Canned Heat, after his drummer left and went on to play with the Mamas and Papas.

One of his trademarks was to incorporate stick twirling into his performances, a technique also used by Dino Danelli of The Rascals and Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge.

[1] In 1970, Barbata was invited to join CSNY after Neil Young fired their previous drummer, Dallas Taylor.

Barbata continued to play on eight albums with CSNY and the individual members of the quartet, including Graham Nash's Songs for Beginners and Wild Tales, Graham Nash and David Crosby's Graham Nash David Crosby, Stephen Stills' Stephen Stills album, and filling in for Kenny Buttrey with The Stray Gators on Neil Young's live album Time Fades Away.

[1] In 1972, while CSNY were on an extended break, David Crosby introduced Barbata to the band Jefferson Airplane, who were looking for a new drummer after their previous one, Joey Covington, quit to do a solo album.

[1] In October 1978, Barbata was in a serious car crash in Northern California that broke his neck, arm and jaw.

I went around three times and played with the best musicians in the world.”[7] At the age of 33, Barbata retired from the mainstream music industry and built a house and recording studio in the remote redwood village of Comptche, California.