Sam Henry

Though some may think of Sam as Portland's quintessential punk drummer, he also played funk with Shock, 1930s swing jazz with the Stolen Sweets and roots music with Michael Dean Damron, Sam also offered drum lessons to many up-and-coming musicians.

Around age 19, Henry met Portland punk pioneer Greg Sage, who drafted Henry into his band, Hard Road.

The two bonded over both being considered outcasts in school.

"'He [Greg Sage] got picked on for being different because of his hair in school, and I got picked on my whole life for not being able to see.'"

After some time, Hard Road would turn into the Wipers, the Northwest punk band that would eventually influence everyone from Nirvana to the Melvins.

Samuel William Henry (December 28, 1956 – February 20, 2022) born legally blind, was an American drummer, best known for his work with the punk rock group The Wipers.

Napalm Beach was Henry's longest running band, playing their final show on Sam's 60th birthday.

With Dave Koupal on bass, the trio played for a year or so together before moving to Cape Coral, Florida, and forming what then became the band the Wipers in 1977.

According to Henry they had to move out of Portland because the insurgence of the 70's disco left them with no place to play.

After moving out of Florida and back to Portland The band recorded and released their first two singles ("Better Off Dead" and "Alien Boy"), as well as their first full length Is This Real?.

In 1979 Henry left the Wipers and joined Fred Cole and his wife Toody Cole to play in the pre-Dead Moon band The Rats.

After the recording of 1980's Is This Real?, The Wipers relocated to New York.

The band was not well received there, so Henry decided to quit and come back home to Portland while the Wipers continued without him.

He was also working at Fred and Toody's guitar shop called Captain Whizeagle's. In 1981 The Rats released the full length album, Intermittent Signals, on Fred's label Whizeagle Records.

Simultaneously, he joined Portland psychedelic grunge band Napalm Beach.

When Cole learned of Henry joining another band he gave him an ultimatum: It's either the Rats or Napalm Beach.

He chose the latter, and Cole fired him—from both jobs.

Henry was the drummer in The Rats until 1981 when he left the band and joined Chris Newman to play in Napalm Beach.

Napalm Beach, was a staple of the scene that formed around the Portland club Satyricon in the early ’80s.

Although charged with punk energy, Newman’s guitar playing maintained elements of the heavy blues and psychedelic rock, which, along with his bellowing vocals, would influence the grunge sound that eventually emerged from the Pacific Northwest.

In 2009 Henry formed the Portland band "Don't" with Jenny Connors, Dan Lowinger, and David Minick.

The group released two full-length LPs, "Away, Away" and "Fever Dreams, including multiple 45's on Kelly Halliburton's label "Doomtown Sounds", one single on the Long Island label "Dead Broke Rekerds", and a single on the German label "Twisted Chords". The Full length, Fever Dreams, came out on the German label "Rockstar "Records and Doomtown Sounds".

He was inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame in 2011.

In addition to the Wipers, other bands that Sam appeared in were The Rats, Napalm Beach, Poison Idea, Snow Bud & The Flower People, Jenny Don't and the Spurs, DON'T, and Morgan Grace.

His early bands were a staple at Portland's legendary Satyricon.

Don't went on tour with Pierced Arrows as direct support for two U.S. tours in 2011 and 2012 and toured Europe in 2013.

In 2012 Jenny Don't and Kelly Halliburton formed the roots/alt-country band Jenny Don't and the Spurs with Sam Henry on drums.

The trio released their first single on Fred Cole's label Tombstone Records.

After completing a two week tour with Jenny Don't and the Spurs throughout California, Henry fell ill while still out on the road.

The band canceled their last show in Washington state and drove back to Portland where he was admitted to the emergency room.

Two weeks later Sam passed away from complications of stomach cancer on February 20, 2022, at the age of 65.