Mastodon Breaks Silence on Brent Hinds: Inside the Split, His Tragic Death, and the Brain Injury That Changed Everything

The surviving members of Mastodon have opened up like never before regarding their complex 25-year relationship with late guitarist Brent Hinds. In a raw, 35-minute retrospective video titled The Mastodon in the Room, bandmates Brann Dailor, Troy Sanders, and Bill Kelliher detail the painful decision to part ways with Hinds months before his untimely passing, as well as the historical traumas that shaped the band’s history.

The emotional documentary arrives nearly a year after Hinds tragically lost his life in a motorcycle accident on August 20.

“We Wanted to Tell Our Story”: Mastodon Addresses the Rumors

In March of the previous year, Mastodon shocked the metal world by announcing they had parted ways with Hinds after “25 monumental years together.” While the band initially handled the split quietly, Hinds posted a caustic comment online in June, just two months before his fatal accident.

Now, the remaining trio is setting the record straight to cut through online speculation. In a statement accompanying the video, the band shared:

“As we enter a new chapter of Mastodon, we want to do this the right way and talk about Brent… It isn’t easy to talk about Brent, he was our family, someone we all loved wholeheartedly. He was a wild man, our wild man, and that came with some challenges… Losing him has meant sitting with a type of grief we never expected.”

Drummer Brann Dailor admitted he wasn’t emotionally equipped to handle the tragedy when it first occurred. “I wasn’t ready to talk about it. I didn’t even know what happened,” Dailor confessed. “To the fans, I’m sorry I wasn’t able to be more there for them. Because I couldn’t be there for myself.”

The Creative Peak and Growing Disconnect

Filmed at Atlanta’s Plaza Theatre, the documentary features the trio watching archival footage of their journey. The band pinpoints the era of their landmark 2009 album, Crack the Skye, as both Hinds’ creative pinnacle and the beginning of a deep internal fracture.

While Hinds was firing on all cylinders creatively, the grueling reality of touring began to take a toll.

• The Pressure: “He had a lot of solos to play, a lot of complicated guitar stuff, a lot of things to sing,” guitarist Bill Kelliher explained. “And if you stay up all night partying, trying to pull all that off; it’s kind of one or the other.”

• The Withdrawal: By 2011’s The Hunter, the band notes that Hinds had largely stopped showing up to rehearsals, leaving the other three to practice alone.

• The Breaking Point: The disconnect peaked during the recording of 2021’s Hushed and Grim. Troy Sanders described it as “the most separate we’ve ever been in the studio,” noting that dark tones and alcohol had a tighter grip on Hinds than ever before.

Despite numerous daytime, sober interventions, the band realized things weren’t going to change. Sanders eventually volunteered to write Hinds a letter explaining they needed to make a lineup change. Mid-meeting, Hinds stood up and walked out. It was the last time his bandmates ever saw him alive.

The band expected the split to be a temporary wake-up call. “I knew there would be that time… that turnaround, just like a thousand times before, where we meet, we hug, we apologize, and say I love you,” Sanders said. “But I was fucking wrong.”

The 2007 Brain Injury and the Birth of Crack the Skye

The documentary also sheds light on a terrifying, pivotal moment in Mastodon’s history: Hinds’ infamous 2007 head injury following the MTV Video Music Awards.

While internet rumors long falsely linked the altercation to System of a Down’s Shavo Odadjian, Dailor clarified that an intoxicated Hinds simply “pissed off the wrong person” at a casino, resulting in a devastating punch and a severe fall.

“It was really, really, really scary, and we thought we might lose him then,” Dailor recalled.

“Yeah, we thought the band was over,” added Kelliher. “He’s crossed the line; he’s gone too far. He was really fucked up for a long time.”

Fearing the brain damage was irreversible, the band was stunned when Hinds’ recovery sparked an unprecedented wave of musical genius. Confined to playing acoustic guitar during his rehabilitation, Hinds channeled his experience into a flurry of new compositions.

“Every riff and song and composition that he brought in at that time, I was in absolute awe of it,” Sanders reflected. “It was next-level Brent; it was peak Brent… It led to this magical, spiritual-like moment that became Crack the Skye.”

A New Era: “Your Ghost Again” and Fall Tour

As Mastodon navigates their immense grief, they are also looking toward the future. The band recently dropped “Your Ghost Again,” their very first track recorded without Hinds.

The single features new guitarist Nick Johnston and serves as a preview for their highly anticipated upcoming studio album, slated for release later this year. Mastodon will officially debut the new lineup live when The Poisonous Weapons Tour kicks off on September 16 in Orlando, Florida.