Former Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds spoke candidly about his lifelong passion for motorcycles in what would become his final interview, published by Revolver magazine. Hinds passed away in 2025 following a motorcycle accident.
In the interview, Hinds was asked what riding gave him that nothing else could. His answer touched on freedom, healing, and honesty.
“The breeze on my knees, brother,” Hinds said. “Riding takes something from me and gives something to me. Sex might come close, maybe. I’ve ridden through pain, loss, wrecks, and bullshit — but the breeze never lied to me. That’s church. That’s therapy. You’ll never meet a motherf*cker like me that don’t give less of a shit about anything other than that breeze.”
He was also asked about the greatest life lesson motorcycles had taught him. Hinds explained that riding, more than music, represented his truest self.
“Find what you love in life — what makes your heart sing — and never let it go,” Hinds continued. “People think music is my life, but music’s my profession — it’s not my hobby. I ride motorcycles because I love it. It’s the only time I feel fully like myself. I don’t ride to look cool. I don’t ride for Instagram. I ride because it saves me.”
He closed with a final reflection on how he wanted to be understood.
“You want to understand who I am? Watch me on a bike. That’s the real Brent. Everything else is just noise.”
The words carry a haunting weight in light of what came just months later.
Hinds died on August 20, 2025, in Atlanta while riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He was struck at the intersection of Memorial Drive and Boulevard when the driver of a BMW SUV failed to yield while making a left turn. He was 51 years old.
The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office later confirmed the cause of death as blunt force injuries. Hinds was found unresponsive at the scene and was pronounced dead hours later at Grady Memorial Hospital.
A subsequent Atlanta Police Department report determined that Hinds was traveling between 63 and 68 miles per hour in a 35 mile-per-hour zone at the time of the collision. Investigators placed fault for the crash on him, despite the other driver’s failure to yield.
The tragedy came just five months after Hinds parted ways with Mastodon, the band he co-founded 25 years earlier, in March 2025. His final interview now stands as one of the last times the world heard him speak in his own voice. In it, he described the one thing that made him feel most alive.
