Steve Albini’s Big Black Bandmate Santiago Durango Honors His ‘Loyal and Lifelong Friend’

Big Black guitarist Santiago Durango remembered his bandmate Steve Albini as a “caring and giving person” whose sudden death earlier this week “has left a huge hole in my life.” 

In a statement shared with Rolling Stone, Durango said the news of Albini’s death from a heart attack at the age of 61 was a “total gut punch.” He was “too young,” Durango continued. “I always believed Steve would outlive me. It makes me happy to know Steve lived a full life doing what he wanted to do.”

Durango went on to say, “What gets overlooked about Steve is that, when everything else is stripped away, he was simply a decent man. Everything makes sense when Steve is viewed through that lens. He was a loyal and lifelong friend because he was a decent man. He was a much better friend than I deserved. He had a long marriage to Heather because he was a decent man. My heart aches for Heather. He never screwed anyone over because he was a decent man. He was a caring and giving person because he was a decent man. His unexpected passing has left a huge hole in my life.”

While Albini founded Big Black as a solo project in 1981, it became a full-fledged band over the next few years, with Durango and Jeff Pezzati joining in 1983 (both had been playing together in the Chicago punk group Naked Raygun; Pezzati was replaced a few years later by Dave Riley). In just a few short years, Big Black released a handful of EPs and singles, along with two studio albums — 1986’s Atomizer and 1987’s Songs About Fucking — before breaking up.

In a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone celebrating the 30th anniversary of Songs About Fucking, Durango spoke about his friendship with Albini, saying, “You may not talk to them for a while, but when you talk, it’s like you had just talked yesterday.”

Along with Durango, tributes to Albini have poured in from the myriad artists he worked with over the years as  a musician, engineer, and producer, such as PJ Harvey, Urge Overkill, Superchunk, and Code Orange.