Mastodon's Bill Kelliher pays tribute to 'guitar wizard extraordinaire' Brent Hinds following tragic death
Mastodon's Bill Kelliher has paid tribute to his late former bandmate Brent Hinds following the tragic news of his passing.
Mastodon's Bill Kelliher has hailed his late former bandmate Brent Hinds as "a true one-of-a-kind guitar wizard extraordinaire".
Despite their differences, the heavy metal band's rhythm guitarist always considered the lead guitarist - who tragically died in a motorcycle crash at the age 51 on August 22 - '"a brother" and has been left torn apart by the devastating loss.
Alongside a carousel of pictures of the pair over the years, he penned on Instagram; "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*** 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 a** Manimal (sic)"
The group remembered Hinds at their gig at the Alaska State Fair on Friday (22.08.25).
Drummer Brann Dailor told the crowd: "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."
Hinds claimed that he had been "kicked out" of Mastodon - also including Troy Sanders - earlier this year but Dailor insisted that there was a lot of "love" for him in the band.
The 50-year-old drummer said: "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."
Dailor continued: "So we will continue to play Brent's beautiful, beautiful music that he helped us make, that we formed this band together and travelled the world together, slept in a van together, laid our heads down on beds of f****** 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 OK for us to come on stage and do this tonight. So that was for f****** Brent, OK? Thank you guys so much."
The sticksman concluded: "Thank your for helping us get through that one, it was f****** tough for us. But you guys are f****** amazing, so thank you."
