Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher opens up about Hinds' surprise exit
Scott Legato
Mastodon officially announced the split from their founding guitarist on March 7th, marking the end of Brent Hinds' 25-year run with the progressive sludge icons. While Hinds has yet to make a direct statement, his social media activity suggests the parting wasn't entirely on good terms.
Now, Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher has broken the silence, giving his first interview since the split. Details are still emerging, but this marks the first real insight into what led to the departure of one of Mastodon's founding members.
Speaking with Guitar World, Kelliher shared the following:
What can you say about the legacy of Mastodon's first 25 years with Brent? It's been a fun, wild fucking ride, that's for sure. We achieved a lot of things that I never in a million years would have imagined. There's been Grammys, touring with our heroes, like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Motorhead, and Tool. I cherish all of that.
Like a marriage, sometimes people grow apart, and they get interested in other things. We wish nothing but the best for Brent in chasing his dreams. You know, it's amazing that we made it 25 years with the four of us. I mean, it's like being married to three other dudes, traveling the world, trying to stay the course, and having everybody agree.
That we managed to do it this long, I feel like that's a feat in itself. You could never replace any of us because we are the sum of four parts.
That doesn't mean there's not someone else out there that has stuff to offer in a new direction. I think I'll just leave it there, you know? It was a hard decision we all had to make. It's just… it was just time.
11 comments
Post CommentHinds admitted publicly that he didn't really want to be in a metal band any more, was driving them in a less-metal direction resulting in increasingly mediocre albums, is a very high-strung/difficult personality who has a drug problem, looked and sounded like absolute sh!t during the LoG run last summer. Definitely time to part ways. Can you imagine being in a tour bus for months on end with that dude coked out and in your face all the time? Surprised they made it this long.
They sounded off and not tight when I saw them with Gojira in '23 -- it is definitely time
They have always sucked. Should have quit the band from the beginning. This is the most boring, fat man, brewery tour at Noon with your dog and obese girlfriend metal I have ever heard.
^the friendless fat guy speaks....and no one cares. Stick the nachos, lard ass.
I've always been indifferent to ricks stupidity, but now it's time to hang it up. You and lurk should form a pact since you're both useless buckets of lard polluting the population.
We still have everything up to and especially including Crack the Skye. So I'm good.
was driving them in a less-metal direction resulting in increasingly mediocre albums, Except Hinds BARELY contributed to those records.
rick_tocchet 3 hours ago They have always sucked. Should have quit the band from the beginning. This is the most boring, fat man, brewery tour at Noon with your dog and obese girlfriend metal I have ever heard. How's your blood pressure and your early on-set heart disease?
Remember when Brent was being a c*nt and got cracked so hard by cuzzy from System of a Down that he couldn't handle loud music, and forced the whole band to write an album of mediocre yacht rock? Coz I do.
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Yeah, I see Brent getting bitter in about 6 months, someone gets footage of a current member saying something during a live event/show and Brent files a lawsuit. "It was time" = he realized the last 3-4 albums sucked.