Episode #181
Erik “Smelly” Sandin on 40 Years of NOFX, Addiction, Recovery, Reinvention & F*%$in’ Up!
Erik “Smelly” Sandin, longtime drummer of NOFX, sits down with The Hang! to talk about addiction, 34 years of sobriety, the end of NOFX’s live run, 40 Years of Fuckin’ Up, and why punk rock gave him a purpose. Sandin’s relationship with music started long before NOFX. Growing up in Southern California, he remembers hearing Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple and Miles Davis around the house. By his teens, he just wanted to play. It didn’t really matter what instrument. Drums happened to be the open spot in a punk band, and he took it. That eventually led to NOFX and a completely different life. Erik talks about developing his approach behind the kit and why “less is more” became central to the way he plays. For him, drums aren’t there to fill every available space. They’re there to support the song. That leads into a great conversation about young musicians, social media, technical ability, AI-generated music and the difference between copying something well and actually creating something of your own. The conversation gets much more personal when Sandin talks about heroin addiction. Fat Mike eventually told him that unless he went to rehab and got sober, he was out of NOFX. Erik describes that moment as realizing he was about to lose the last thing in his life that still meant something to him. He went into a 60-day program determined to give it everything he had. More than three decades later, he says one of the biggest changes wasn’t simply stopping drugs. It was acceptance. Erik also looks back at his relationship with Fat Mike, the intervention NOFX later held for him, the band’s final shows and what it was like realizing just how far this group of teenage punks had traveled. NOFX concluded its farewell tour with three San Pedro shows in October 2024 after more than four decades together. There’s also 40 Years of Fuckin’ Up, the 2026 James Buddy Day documentary about NOFX’s history and farewell run, and a conversation about why the Punk Rock Museum matters as a place where the punk community can actually see its history under one roof. And before Erik has to run, we talk about something else changing punk: more women finding their place in the scene and more parents bringing their daughters to shows. We didn’t get to everything. Pickle Stix, Erik’s custom surfboard company, is waiting for Part 2. Sandin turned his longtime surfboard-shaping hobby into a business during the pandemic. What part of Erik’s story hit you the hardest? Drop it in the comments, and subscribe to The Hang! for more conversations with the people making music and the people who helped shape it. https://linktr.ee/Nofx83 https://www.40yearsoffuckinup.com https://picklestixsurfboards.com/ https://www.thepunkrockmuseum.com #ErikSandin #nofx #smelly #punkrock #40YearsOfFuckinUp #PunkRockMuseum #PunkInterview #drummer CHAPTERS: 00:30 Meet NOFX Drummer Erik “Smelly” Sandin 02:43 Growing Up on Zeppelin, Dylan and Deep Purple 04:10 How Erik Sandin Became a Drummer 07:34 Why “Less Is More” Behind the Drum Kit 11:29 Social Media, Musicians and AI-Generated Music 19:50 Fat Mike and the People Who Changed Erik’s Life 22:32 Heroin Addiction, Rehab and 34 Years of Sobriety 28:00 Looking Back Through 40 Years of Fuckin’ Up 32:21 Is NOFX Really Finished? 35:00 Punk Rock Museum, Community and Women in Punk The Hang! Podcast – Presented by Almost Famous Magazine https://www.almostfamousmagazine.com
