Steven “Thee Slayer Hippy” Hanford, best known for his work as a drummer in the influential Oregon punk band Poison Idea, has died, according to Portland alt-weekly Willamette Week and Blackhouse Records, which released music from Hanford’s band Fetish. According to a memorial GoFundMe, Hanford died from a heart attack. Steven Hanford was 50 years old.
“The world just lost a pretty amazing person today. Unreal,” Blackhouse Records wrote. “Steve’s larger than life personality, let alone his drumming and producing work over the years was something of legend, unforgettable and historic to say the very least.”
Steven Hanford joined Poison Idea before the recording of their second album, 1987’s War All the Time. He played with the band through the 1990s. In an interview last year with Kerrang!, Hanford opened up about his time in prison for committing armed robberies in 2008. While incarcerated at Pendleton Correctional Facility in Indiana, Hanford became involved in the music program, producing and recording other inmates’ bands. Upon his release, he picked up work drumming in the Skull and the Accüsed A.D.