former Poison Idea drummer Steve "Thee Slayer Hippy" Hanford, RIP

May 22, 2020

Veteran punk/metal musician Steve “Thee Slayer Hippy” Hanford, who most famously played in Poison Idea as well as Gift, Fetish, The Accüsed A.D., and more, has passed away from a heart attack. As Lambgoat points out, Fetish’s label Blackhouse Records broke the news:

Just got the news that FETISH/Accused AD/Poison Idea drummer Steven “Thee Slayer Hippy” Hanford passed away this morning. The world just lost a pretty amazing person today. Unreal. 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.

We at Blackhouse had the honor of putting out the new Fetish record just last year and he just jumped on board to take on touring duties with The Accused AD shortly after that as well.

Rest easy and in peace Mr. Hanford. You’re going to be missed by so so many.

Before joining Poison Idea, Steve played in the Portland thrash metal band Mayhem (not to be confused with the Norwegian black metal band). He was in Poison Idea from 1987 to 1993 and played on all of their albums from 1987’s War All the Time through 1993’s We Must Burn. The year after that, he played on Gift’s first and only album, 1994’s Multum in Parva. As Blackhouse Records’ quote points out, most recently he was playing in Fetish and touring with The Accüsed A.D.

Hanford was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison in 2008 for involvement in robberies of pharmacies shortly after leaving rehab, as he recounted to Punk Globe in an interview after he was released.

Update: there’s also been a Memorial Fund launched on GoFundMe, which reads:

On Thursday, May 21, 2020, Steven Hanford suffered a massive heart attack from which he did not recover. Please donate to help cover expenses for all the things that have to happen now. Kitty and the family shouldn’t have to worry about funds for anything right now. RIP Steven Hanford.

You can donate here.

Rest in peace, Steve. You’ll be missed.

Watch a video of Steve playing with Poison Idea back in the day and a clip of him being interviewed for Poison Idea’s Legacy Of Dysfunction DVD, and stream some studio work from his various bands, below.