Famed Record Producer, Poker Player Steve Albini Passes Away

Well-regarded music producer and two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Steve Albini passed away Tuesday night at age 61 after suffering a heart attack.

In a career dating back to the early 1980s, Albini produced albums for bands like Nirvana, Pixies, Bush, PJ Harvey, the Breeders, Chevelle, Joanna Newsom, and more, working out of his Electrical Audio studio, while also performing with his own bands Big Black and Shellac.

Albini was well known for his opposition to traditional record industry contracts, refusing to take royalties from the artists he produced for. He engineered the recording of more than 3,000 records overall, most notably Nirvana’s In Utero.

The Chicago resident also had a passion for poker and accrued more than $370,000 in live tournament winnings in a career stretching back to 2010, while playing in a regular home game for many years.

The key to poker is managing risk, it’s one of the very few games where the pieces on the board are money. There’s a misconception that poker is a card game that involves money, it’s actually a betting game that involves cards.

— Steve Albini (@AlbiniSteve) February 26, 2021

Diverse Career & Interests

As a producer, Albini worked with a wide range of artists from alternative rock to Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and Jimmy Page to folk acts and singer-songwriters.

“The recording part is the part that matters to me — that I’m making a document that records a piece of our culture, the life’s work of the musicians that are hiring me,” Albini told The Guardian last year. “I take that part very seriously. I want the music to outlive all of us.”

Poker was a big part of Albini’s life as well and he played in a home game for years with top mixed game pros such as Brandon Shack-Harris, Eric Rodawig, Jason Gola, Matt Ashton, and Matt Grapenthien.

In 2018, Albini grabbed his first WSOP bracelet in a $1,500 Seven Card Stud event for $105,629. Four years later another bracelet came his way in a $1,500 H.O.R.S.E event for $196,089.

“Everything in my life comes in pieces, in parts,” he said after the second win. “Poker is one part of my life. So when I’m playing poker, I try to commit to it. I try to take it seriously. I try to make sure I devote the attention to it that it deserves as an occupation. But it’s only part of my year. I only play tournaments at the World Series of Poker. I play cash games informally in Chicago. It’s a part of my livelihood, but it’s not my profession.”

Albini is survived by his wife, film director Heather Whinna.

In 2020, Albini was interviewed for an episode of Card Player’s Poker Stories Podcast.

Shocked and saddened to hear about the death of @electricalWSOP. We played poker together on many occasions, and always had the best time. Steve was truly one of a kind. Damn.https://t.co/3vLLkYpjzI

— Richard Roeper (@RichardERoeper) May 8, 2024

Sad to hear about the passing of Steve Albini. He was one of the most interesting and principled people I met in poker, and it’s always cool when someone who has great success in life decides to spend the free time they’ve earned playing some cards. RIP https://t.co/HU2UqZeOA6

— TonyDunstTV (@tonydunsttv) May 8, 2024

10 years ago I was in the studio with Steve Albini and a band I was working with at the time – he cut a day’s session short because he got a call there was a “whale” at a poker game in Indiana and wanted to drive out there to try and clear him out.

RIP legend

— Jonathan King (@jonoking138) May 8, 2024

My favorite fact about Steve Albini is him being a high-stakes professional poker player. The man responsible for influencing rock and he ends up winning $100k at a Worlds Series of Poker tournament while wearing a Cocaine Piss shirt (and again 4 years later) pic.twitter.com/9b269npIKG

— Parallel_LCD (@Parallel_LCD) May 8, 2024