Mastodon drummer Brann Dailor has opened up about the band’s new song “Your Ghost Again,” offering a heartfelt apology to fans for not properly addressing the death of guitarist Brent Hinds, in a statement shared on Instagram.
The song, described as a tribute to Hinds, draws from Dailor’s personal experience of grief and the haunting sense of absence felt in familiar places. Dailor explained the emotional weight behind the track and what inspired its creation.
“‘Your Ghost Again’ sort of about being in these familiar places that you used to be with people all the time, which is like for us, it was in the studio,” Dailor said. “I just kept seeing him out of the corner of my eye, like where I would normally see him, where he would normally be with his guitar. And it just kept catching me off guard, you know. ‘Your Ghost Again’ is basically about that, kind of your mind plays tricks on you, especially maybe soon after someone dies and you’re in the places where they always were.”
Dailor then spoke directly to fans, expressing how much the song means to him and acknowledging the band’s silence in the wake of Hinds’ passing.
“This song means a lot to me. And so I hope that that is able to translate to the fans and to the people that like our band and the people that are grieving too, you know, grieving Brent,” he continued. “Because I understand that, like, from a fan’s perspective, we never really addressed it. We just couldn’t, you know, it just was too much.”
In an emotional moment, Dailor issued a direct apology to fans for not being able to offer more during that difficult time.
“And to the fans, I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to, like, be more for them when that happened because I couldn’t for myself,” he said. “I’m still unpacking it. Hopefully this album helps everybody. You know, hopefully they can find some piece of it that they, that speaks to them about it, you know.”
Dailor also addressed fans who may be hesitant to engage with the new music due to Hinds’ absence, acknowledging the difficulty of moving forward.
“I know Brent’s not there and I know it’s weird and it’s hard and some people might be like, well, I don’t wanna listen to it because Brent’s not there and I’m hurting about that,” he said. “But we are too.”
The grief behind “Your Ghost Again” is rooted in a tragedy that shook the rock world last year. Hinds had departed Mastodon in March 2025, and just five months later, the music community lost him forever under devastating circumstances.
Hinds — the guitarist, vocalist, and co-founder of Mastodon — died on August 20, 2025, at the age of 51 following a motorcycle accident in Atlanta, as Metal Injection reported. His death sent shockwaves through the metal community and beyond.
His Harley-Davidson collided with a BMW SUV near downtown Atlanta, resulting in fatal injuries, Louder Sound noted. The accident occurred just months after he had parted ways with the band he co-founded, making the loss all the more jarring for his former bandmates and fans alike.
The band did not stay silent in the immediate aftermath of Hinds’ passing. Mastodon paid tribute to Hinds during a show in Alaska, where Dailor addressed the crowd about their 25-year relationship — a rare and raw public acknowledgment of the bond they shared, as Wikipedia noted. The band also released a statement calling Hinds a “creative force,” honoring his immeasurable contribution to their sound and legacy.
Now, with “Your Ghost Again,” Mastodon has channeled that grief into music. The song marks the band’s return in 2026 and has been widely framed as a memorial to their late former bandmate, as Louder Sound reported. It stands as both a personal reckoning for the surviving members and an open invitation for fans to grieve alongside them — a bridge between the band’s pain and the community that loved Brent Hinds just as deeply.
