Brent Hinds Reveals Mastodon Departure Was Not Mutual: ‘They Kicked Me Out’

Close to six months on from his exit from the band, co-founding Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds has addressed the topic, confirming he was “kicked out” of the group.

Hinds co-founded the Atlanta heavy metal outfit in 2000 alongside bassist/singer Troy Sanders, guitarist Bill Kelliher and drummer/singer Brann Dailor, with their lineup remaining largely unchanged since 2001.

In March, however, the band revealed that Mastodon and Hinds had “mutually decided to part ways” after “25 monumental years together.”

“We’re deeply proud of and beyond grateful for the music and history we’ve shared and we wish him nothing but success and happiness in his future endeavors,” a message from the group read. “We are still very inspired and excited to show up for fans in this next chapter of Mastodon.”

In June, there were hints that Hinds’ departure was a rocky one, with the guitarist noting on social media that he wouldn’t “miss being in a s–t band with horrible humans.”

Now, Hinds has again taken to the comments section, confirming that his exit from the band was not a voluntary one. His latest remarks were made on Instagram in reply to a video which shared a clip of Mastodon performing “Crack the Skye” in Silver Spring, Maryland in 2012. 

“My guitar sounds great, but Troy and prawn [Dailor] sound absolutely horrible,” he wrote. “They are way out of key. Embarrassing and they kicked me out of the band for embarrassing them for being who I am. But what about who they are? They are two people that can’t sing..together live or anywhere else in the world. Rverything they try to sing in the studio is manipulated by autotune because they’re incapable of singing in key.

“F–k these guys,” Hinds continued. “Only I know who they really are. They are the biggest fans of them self’s [sic]. I’ve never seen anyone in my life look in the mirror more than Troy Sanders. He thinks he’s God’s gift to anything. I’ve never met three people that were so full of themselves. It’s disgusting.”

Hinds also added a slight caveat to his comments, writing a separate message accompanied by a laugh-crying emoji to note he was “Not saying I can sing tho.”

While no members of Mastodon have responded directly to Hinds’ comments, Metal Injection reports that Dailor recently reshared a fans’ clip of a recent live performance, captioning it with the message, “Sounds in key to me.”

Among nine Billboard 200-charting albums, Mastodon has landed three in the top 10 of the all-genre chart: 2011’s The Hunter, 2014’s One More ‘Round the Sun and 2017’s Emperor of Sand, with the latter two both hitting No. 1 on Top Rock Albums. From six Grammy nominations, the band has taken home one win: best metal performance for “Sultan’s Curse” in 2018.