Atlanta progressive metallers Mastodon have shared a 35-minute video in which they reflect on their relationship with co-founding guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds, who departed the band in March 2025 and passed away in a motorcycle accident five months later. The video arrives as Mastodon emerges from a European summer run and prepares to continue as a three-piece with touring guitarist Nick Johnston.
In a statement accompanying the video, the band wrote: “Hello Everyone. We just wrapped up Europe and every country we hit showed up and gave us everything! Truly a summer we’ll never forget! We can’t thank you enough for rockin’ with us! As we enter a new chapter of Mastodon, we want to do this the right way and talk about Brent. We’ve all seen the clips, headlines, and speculations, but we haven’t told our story in our own words about our 25-year relationship.”
“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. Both things are true, and we aren’t interested in chasing one truth over the other. Losing him has meant sitting with a type of grief we never expected. No more hugs, no more high fives, no more disagreements, no more making up. That part has been hard; it’s real. We put this conversation out there so you can hear it directly from us; you all deserve that. Thank you for the past 25 years of showing up for us and Brent.”
Hinds was reportedly riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle on August 20, 2025, when he was struck by an SUV turning left and failing to yield at the intersection of Memorial Drive SE and Boulevard SE in Atlanta. He was found unresponsive by officers who responded to the crash around 11:35 p.m. and was pronounced dead at the scene. A crash report later determined that Hinds was at fault, with investigators calculating his speed at between 63 and 68 mph — approximately twice the posted limit — based on video of the intersection.
In March 2025, Mastodon revealed that the band and Hinds had “mutually decided to part ways” after “25 monumental years together.” Hinds later claimed he had been ejected from the band and called his former bandmates “horrible humans” in a social media post. Since 2000, Hinds had served as lead guitarist and vocalist alongside bassist/singer Troy Sanders, drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor and guitarist Bill Kelliher. The band’s lineup had remained unchanged for 25 years, spanning eight studio albums from 2002’s Remission through 2021’s Hushed and Grim.
Hinds was involved with several projects outside of Mastodon, including Giraffe Tongue Orchestra — alongside members of The Dillinger Escape Plan and Alice in Chains — as well as Legend of the Seagullmen and the long-running project Fiend Without a Face. He had a solo European tour scheduled for November and December 2025, billed as “An Evening With Brent Hinds.”
Canadian guitarist Nick Johnston, who has six solo records and has worked with Polyphia, Guthrie Govan and Periphery, stepped in for Hinds for the band’s spring 2025 tour and will reportedly appear on Mastodon’s upcoming ninth studio album. Last month, the band released the new song “Your Ghost Again” — produced by Patrik Berger (Taylor Swift, Robyn) and Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou — as the first single from the forthcoming LP, describing it as a tribute to Hinds. The album is due later this year.
Mastodon has placed nine albums on the Billboard 200 and earned six Grammy Award nominations, winning Best Metal Performance for “Sultan’s Curse” in 2018.
