Mastodon have addressed the proverbial elephant in the room via a new 30-minute mini-documentary of sorts. In it, the band work through the grief of the loss of their guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds, who passed away in a motorcycle crash on August 20th, 2025, at the age of 51.
His death occurred during a period of pronounced volatility between himself and the band, as Hinds had frequently communicated his displeasure with his former bandmates in the progressive sludge metal band after shockingly splitting with them months prior to his death.
Mastodon have commented on their split and made and tributes to Hinds since, be it in the press, or their recent first single to be released without him, “Your Ghost Again“. Now, in this new video dubbed ‘The Mastodon In The Room‘, the group’s core members in guitarist/vocalist Troy Sanders, drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor and guitarist Bill Kelliher speak at length about their relationship with Hinds and how the loss has hit them.
That doc looks back at their shared history together, with the aforementioned trio holed up in a theater watching a compilation of archival footage of their career together, including an abundance of behind the scenes footage and some of their favorite times with Hinds. They also give their thoughts and recollections of those scenes and ears.
The above-mentioned collective also don’t flinch on discussing the harder times they endured together, in particular when it came to Hinds chaotic behavior and how there were times they had to “defuse’ situations that would emerge backstage with him. They also touch upon the the 2007 ‘MTV Video Music Awards’ altercation, which left Hinds with substantial brain damage after a physical altercation ensued between himself and System Of A Down bassist Shavo Odadjian, and Rev. William Burk.
The trio further spoke of the fractures that began to take hold in the band with Hinds as the mounting pressure of Mastodon‘s success and the struggles of pulling off the growing complexity of their material live began to clash directly with Hinds‘ hard partying ways. According to the band, those clashes led to a disconnect that saw Hinds begin to withdraw himself from the band.
Deep into the discussion, Sanders opened up on their last few years with Hinds [transcribed by theprp.com]:
“The dark tones, and the alcohol, and the things that had their grips — had their nails in him — harder than ever before. And there’s always been ups and downs for the 25 years of our band, but I think it was at its peak unfortunately during these past five years.”
“I mean ‘Hushed & Grim‘, those those few years of touring on it, was the weakest band solidity and performance that we had had in a decade. And I knew in my heart that this was possibly going to plateau. And then what happens after it plateaus is it goes down.”
Kelliher added, “It was a foreshadowing of what was on on the horizon, it just seemed like his heart wasn’t into it really.” Sanders went on to offer:
“So, the evidence was clear clear as day. Unfortunately. We knew in our hearts that this was never going to change. And I cannot tell you how many heart-to-hearts that the three of us had, daytime sober, as a fourpiece, pleading to someone that you’ve been with the bulk of your life to listen to us. And you need to take these avenues that you need for your happiness, for your health, for our sake, for your sake, for your wife’s sake, for all of this.
And I think it got to the point where the shows were declining in the live environment and we were exhausted, exhausted by throwing all this love at something that was straight up not listening or or not caring. And at some point we realized like we can’t do anything else. What is there to do? We’ve exhausted all of this. Are we going to continue shooting ourselves in the foot, or are we going to keep conquering the world?”
Dailor stated of his reluctance to part ways with Hinds:
“Yeah, I was sort of the last hold out. I kind of was thinking he would be able to turn it around at some point, but I mean, how many times can you get up on stage with somebody, and go out there, and the person is just you can tell they’re just inebriated, you know? And you’re like this performance might fall apart.”
Kelliher reaffirmed Dailor‘s assessment, stating:
“You’re only as strong is like your weakest link, you know? And the three of us could be out there practicing all day and and rehearsing and, you know, we’d go out there and it would rely on him and it was killing us. Killing all of us.”
Dailor then went on to offer of those dark times:
“Yeah. It was horrible, you know? It was really depressing and sad and fucked up. And we just wanted that beautiful, amazing creature, Brent Hinds, to be out there serving up the honey baked ham and and screaming his head off and playing, ripping amazing, incredible, beautiful solos.
We desperately wanted that guy, but he showed us time and time and time and time and time again that that person wasn’t coming back without some kind of dramatic change.”
As for how the decision came about to let Hinds go, Sanders recalled:
“I called the guys and I said, ‘Hey man, I love you guys, but we have to make a change.’ And they both just said, ‘Yeah, agree.’ ‘Agree.’ I said, ‘I’ll start it.’ You know, I called a band meeting at 1:00 in the afternoon, because that’s the most that all four of us will be alert and coherent and hopefully have an adult conversation. I just came in and I had written a very long letter of all the reasons why I’m unhappy, and all the reasons that we’ve tried and pleaded and begged and tried to keep this together, you know, being forever hopelessly optimistic, but to no avail.
And I just started reading my letter, and not even halfway through my letter, Brent realized that all of my issues, that they [Dailor & Kelliher] shared as well, were all directed at him. And it’s the same stuff we’ve had dozens of band meetings about in the past. And before I’m halfway through my letter that I’m reading, the same way I’m speaking right now, he stands up and walks out of the practice space. And that’s the last time I ever saw him again.”
Dailor offered:
“We really were coming from a place of love. It’s like maybe this will be like some kind of bottom for him. You know what I mean? You never know. you know? We had to set some boundaries and we had to take care of our own sort of mental health.”
Sanders however remained hopeful that they would one day reconcile:
“I knew, and I can’t believe I was wrong, but I knew it in my heart that there would be that time —I don’t know if it was going to be months or maybe even a year or two — there was going to be that turnaround, where just like thousands of times before, we meet, we apologize, we hug and say, ‘I love you.’ I knew it was going to happen. I didn’t know when, but I knew it would happen. And I was fucking wrong.”
Dailor too felt that the hatchet would eventually be buried:
“Yeah. I mean, we all thought that. We’re all like, he’s, you know, talking shit on the internet, you know what I mean? And I knew that that was going to happen. And I just kind of rolled my eyes when I would see it and I’d be like, ‘Okay.’ But I knew like he didn’t mean any of that shit, and as soon as we saw each other, I’d be like, ‘Dude, what was all that bullshit?’ You know? He’d probably laugh and we’d hug and say, ‘I love you.’ and get back to it. That’s what I thought was going to happen.”
Sanders added, “Me, too.” Speaking of this new mini-documentary, Mastodon collectively stated:
“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.
Mastodon“
