10 NASA-related items from the personal collection of Boston drummer Sib Hashian.

Hashian was chosen by Boston founder and band leader Tom Scholz in 1975 to replace original drummer Jim Masdea when Epic Records demanded that Masdea be replaced for recording. Hashian is heard on Boston’s self-titled debut album, as well as on the follow-up Don’t Look Back, although the drum parts he played on many tracks were note-for-note transcriptions of Masdea’s original drum arrangements. Hashian was involved in the early sessions for Boston’s Third Stage album, but was later replaced when Masdea returned. After leaving Boston, Hashian sued Tom Scholz for back royalties and the two later settled out of court.

Hashian was of Armenian and Italian ancestry and lived in Lynnfield, Massachusetts with his wife, Suzanne. They had one son, Adam, and two daughters, songwriter Aja Hashian and singer-songwriter Lauren Hashian, who appeared as a contestant on the reality series R U the Gin in 2005 and has been in a relationship with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson since 2007. The two were married on August 18, 2019. Prior to his death, Sib was the maternal grandfather of their two daughters. The Hashian sisters write and produce music together.

Hashian died on March 22, 2017, at the age of 67 of a heart attack, after collapsing in the middle of a set while performing on board a cruise ship, the Independence of the Seas.

Boston is an American rock band from namesake Boston, Massachusetts, that had its most commercial successes during the 1970s and ’80s. The band’s core members on their most popular recordings included multi-instrumentalist founder and leader Tom Scholz, who played the majority of instruments on the band’s debut album, and lead vocalist Brad Delp, among a number of other musicians who varied from album to album. Boston’s best-known songs include: “More Than a Feeling”, “Peace of Mind”, “Foreplay/Long Time”, “Rock and Roll Band”, “Smokin’, “Don’t Look Back”, “A Man l’Il Never Be”, “Hitch a Ride”, “Party”, and “Amanda”.

The band has sold more than 75 million records worldwide, including 31 million units sold in the United States, of which 17 million were the band’s 1976 self-titled debut album and seven million copies of the band’s second studio album, Don’t Look Back (1978), making the group some of the world’s best-selling artists. Altogether, the band has released six studio albums in a career spanning over 47 years. Boston was ranked the 63rd-best hard rock artist by VH1.