Sib Hashian was the drummer on two of the best-selling rock albums of the 1970s. He drummed on Boston’s self-titled 1976 debut album, which sold more than 17 million copies in the United States alone and remains one of the best-selling debut albums in rock history. He drummed on Boston’s 1978 follow-up album “Don’t Look Back,” which topped the Billboard 200. His playing carried “More Than a Feeling,” “Peace of Mind,” “Foreplay/Long Time,” and “Don’t Look Back” onto American FM radio, where they have been playing ever since.
He was born on August 17, 1949, in Boston, Massachusetts, as John Thomas Hashian. His father, James Thaddeus “Jack” Hashian Sr., was an Armenian-American novelist and former State Department official who wrote “Mamigon,” a novel about Armenian Genocide survivors and Armenian immigrants in Boston. His mother, Jennifer Giovanna “Jenny” Trovato, was the daughter of Italian immigrants. Sib was the youngest of four children. The family lived in Lynn, Massachusetts.
He started working at 8, delivering newspapers. He graduated from Lynn English High School with the Class of 1967. He served in the Ordnance Unit of the 4th Infantry Division during the Vietnam War, rising to the rank of First Lieutenant before being honorably discharged.
He returned to Massachusetts and rejoined his high school friends in the local Boston-area music scene, including guitarist Barry Goudreau and bassist Fran Sheehan, both of whom would become his future Boston bandmates. In 1975, Tom Scholz, the founder of a new band recording a demo for Epic Records, needed a drummer to replace Jim Masdea, whom the label had rejected. Barry Goudreau brought Sib in. Scholz hired him.
Boston’s self-titled debut album was released in August 1976. It went gold in seven weeks and platinum in eleven weeks. It has sold more than 17 million copies in the United States and is still ranked among the best-selling debut albums of all time. Sib’s Afro hairstyle in the album’s promotional photographs became one of the recognizable images of 1970s rock.
“Don’t Look Back” followed in 1978 and hit number one on the Billboard 200. Sib remained with the band through the early sessions of the “Third Stage” album in the early 1980s. He was replaced when Masdea returned to the group. He later sued Tom Scholz for unpaid royalties. The case was settled out of court.
After Boston, Sib drummed on Barry Goudreau’s 1980 self-titled solo album, which produced the rock radio hit “Dreams.” He appeared on Sammy Hagar’s “Live: Hallelujah” album in 2003. In 2006 he co-founded the rock supergroup Ernie and the Automatics, which toured for five years before disbanding in 2011. He also co-hosted a local New England TV show and made his stage acting debut in the 2001 play “9-Ball” at the Cape Cod Repertory Theater.
Sib Hashian passed away on March 22, 2017, at the age of 67. He suffered a heart attack while performing on a rock legends cruise off the coast of the Bahamas. CPR and a defibrillator were used onstage. He was pronounced dead the same night.
He was survived by his wife Suzanne, whom he had married in 1980, his son Adam, and his daughters Aja and Lauren, both songwriters. Lauren later married the actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, with whom she has two daughters. Sib is their maternal grandfather.
In his memory, Suzanne Hashian established an annual scholarship for Lynn, Massachusetts students in the arts and music.
“More Than a Feeling” is still played more than 130 times a day on American classic rock radio. Somewhere in every hour of every day, an Armenian-American drummer from Lynn, Massachusetts is keeping time.
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