The Vinyl Guide - Artist Interviews for Record Collectors and Music Nerds · The Vinyl Guide

Ep531: Erik "Smelly" Sandin of NOFX

·42 min·2 clips

After NOFX's last song, Smelly says he sobbed for a day after breaking down onstage.

1. The Vinyl Guide episode 531 features Erik “Smelly” Sandin of NOFX and centers on the band’s final-shows era, new music, and the Punk Rock Museum event in Las Vegas. 2. Host Nate Goyer talks with Smelly, the NOFX drummer, and Smelly explains why his perspective matters because he was inside the band’s touring life, recovery work, and post-tour transition. 3. The episode asks what NOFX looks like after touring stopped, what the band still records, and what Smelly is doing next. 4. Smelly says he was in the studio with Mike and other band members about three or four months earlier and recorded six or seven songs. 5. He says Mike is constantly writing, while he has never written a song and sees the band as being on “cruise control.” 6. The conversation turns to the January 16 through 18 NOFX retrospective at the Punk Rock Museum, where Smelly says he will give tours and take part in a roundtable Q&A. 7. He says he does not know exactly what will be in the exhibit because the museum’s archive team is curating the material. 8. Smelly says he is not the band’s pack rat, gives things away, and did not keep much of NOFX’s physical history because he was homeless for several years. 9. He says some old NOFX items, including an original PMRC copy, have become unexpectedly collectible and can sell for thousands of dollars. 10. Smelly describes the final shows as deeply stressful, saying he was focused on reaching the finish line and felt pressure from the size of the audience and the weight of the moment. 11. He says that after the last song, “The Decline,” he thrashed the drum kit, broke amps, and then broke down sobbing. 12. He also says he cried the next day and that the end felt like losing a career, not just finishing a set. 13. Smelly explains that he was often the “conductor” of NOFX, keeping the band on track and calling songs from the stage. 14. He says recovery changed how he experienced the band because he had to keep his walls up around other people’s drinking and reactions. 15. He says the band’s ending was tied to Mike carrying the singing, songwriting, and business work, and that Mike had grown tired after COVID. 16. Smelly says NOFX chose between a large farewell and stopping then, and he adds that he would not have ended it on his own terms. 17. The interview stays informal and open-ended, with Smelly using blunt language, jokes, and personal detail while still answering directly. 18. The energy moves between memory, humor, and reflection, especially when he talks about therapy, marriage, fatherhood, and the next phase of his life. 19. Listeners who follow NOFX, punk history, recovery stories, or backstage band dynamics will get the most from this episode. 20. People who want a short, tightly edited music-news segment without long personal reflection may skip it.

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