Mastdon Members Pay Tribute To Brent Hinds

NEW YORK, NY – MAY 19: Brent Hinds of Mastodon performs at Rumsey Playfield, Central Park on May 19, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images)

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Since Brent Hinds’ tragic death last week, the rock and metal scenes at large have been mourning the late Mastodon guitarist and co-founder. Hinds’ music and colorful personality touched so many within the scene, and the outpouring of love for him as a person and musician has been endless over these past few days.

It was reported by Atlanta police that Hinds was riding a Harley-Davidson on Wednesday night August 20th, when a BMW SUV failed to yield and collided with Hinds at the intersection of Memorial Drive SE and Boulevard SE. Hinds was found unresponsive and pronounced dead only moments after.

Mastodon Speaks On Hinds’ Death

Mastodon had parted ways with Hinds only a few months prior to his death. The band was on tour when they had received the news and they were gearing up for their final show in Alaska on August 21st. Before their show Mastodon had put out a statement as a band regarding Hinds’ death, but during their performance drummer Brann Dailor delivered a heartfelt message to the audience:

“We lost somebody very special to us yesterday. Brent Hinds, 25 years with us as our guitar player, one of the most creative, beautiful people that we’ve ever come across in this world, tragically left us. Very, very unfortunate. We loved him so, so, so very much.

“And we had the ups and downs of a 25-year relationship. You know what I mean? It’s not always perfect, it’s not always amazing, but we were brothers to the end. And we really loved each other and we made a lot, a lot of very beautiful music together. And I think that that’s gonna stand the test of time, evidenced by you people here tonight. “So we will continue to play [Hinds]

‘s beautiful, beautiful music that he helped us make, that we formed this band together and traveled the world together, slept in a van together, laid our heads down on beds of fucking kitty litter, got way too drunk to remember anything the next day about a thousand, million times over and over again with the love that we shared and the beauty, all the audiences that we played, for all the stages we stepped on.

“I don’t know. We’re just at a loss for words. We’re absolutely devastated and crushed to lose him and to be able to never have him back again. But you guys made it okay for us to come on stage and do this tonight. So that was for fucking [Hinds], okay?! Thank you guys so much. We will see you real soon. Okay? I’m gonna give you guys some fucking pieces of wood, okay? We love you.

“Thank you, Alaska, for having us. It’s the 50^th state for us to cross off of our bucket list. So thank you for the amazing milestone and thank you for helping us get through that one. It was fucking tough for us, but you guys are fucking amazing, so thank you, thank you, thank you once again. We’ll see you real soon, okay?! We love you, we love you, love you, love you so much. Good night.”

Mastodon’s performance in Alaska looked spectacular. The gig was the band’s final show before heading off to the studio to record their next studio album, which will be their first LP without Brent Hinds. Guitarist Nick Johnston has been touring with the band since Hinds left, and while it’s likely he’ll be recording on the upcoming record it’s not been made clear by the band what their plan is.

Mastodon Guitarist Bill Kelliher Pays Tribute to Hinds

Following the band’s Alaska show, guitarist Bill Kelliher posted a tribute to Hinds on social media:

“It’s been hard to get a grip on my emotions this week. We had our good and bad times just like in any relationship. All that we accomplished after that first fistfight in the van 25 years ago. I didn’t think you’d be taken from us like this, absolute loss of a true one of a kind guitar wizard extraordinaire.

“Keeping up with you taught me a lot. You were a brother, we were a family, you were a wild man not to be tamed, you could f*ck up bowling ball with a feather. You weren’t perfect but you were always DIRTY-B!! Your vagabond/gypsy/wild child lives on through your music, I will miss your crazy ass Manimal.”