Mastodon bassist Troy Sanders opened up about the death of former bandmate Brent Hinds, saying he wasn’t surprised by the news despite the shock, according to Loudersound. Sanders, along with guitarist Bill Kelliher, reflected on Hinds’ passing, which came shortly after he was dismissed from the band. He explained why the news, while devastating, wasn’t entirely unexpected.
Sanders described his immediate reaction upon learning of Hinds’ death, emphasizing that his lack of surprise came from years of trying to support his former bandmate.
“I was immediately shocked and saddened,” Sanders said. “But unfortunately, I wasn’t surprised. I don’t mean that in any distasteful manner, whatsoever. I’ve done everything I could as a friend and as a bandmate over the years. I don’t know what else I could’ve done, so I’m kind of forced to just let go.”
Kelliher echoed a similar sentiment. He noted that while the outcome wasn’t shocking in a broader sense, the specific circumstances of Hinds’ death still caught him off guard.
“I wasn’t surprised that it happened, but I was shocked,” Kelliher said. “I just didn’t think it was going to happen like that.”
Kelliher went on to share how Hinds’ presence had become deeply embedded in his everyday life. He also described how he had long believed his former bandmate was somehow invincible.
“Whenever someone rides by on a loud motorcycle, I think of Brent first,” Kelliher continued. “He was omnipresent in my life. Even though we didn’t always see eye-to-eye – more times than not we did – I cared about the guy. I always thought he would outlive us all, because he had nine lives and got away with everything.”
The events leading up to Hinds’ death paint a fuller picture of the turmoil surrounding his final months with the band and the circumstances of the crash that took his life.
Mastodon announced in March 2025 that Hinds had departed the band after 25 years together, framing the split as a mutual decision at the time. Hinds later pushed back on that characterization, revealing months afterward that he felt he had been “kicked out” rather than having chosen to leave on his own terms.
Hinds died on August 20, 2025, in Atlanta, Georgia, following a collision between his Harley-Davidson motorcycle and a BMW SUV. He was 51 years old. Police reports indicated the SUV driver turned left at the intersection of Memorial Drive and Boulevard, striking Hinds as he rode through.
A revised police report released weeks after the crash placed responsibility for the accident on Hinds himself. It determined that he had been traveling between 63 and 68 mph in a 35 mph zone at the time of the collision. The finding added a grim new layer to an already tragic story, coming just months after his acrimonious exit from the band he helped found.
The timeline underscores why Sanders and Kelliher’s reactions carried such weight. Hinds’ death arrived less than half a year after the band’s public split, compounding the shock of losing a founding member with the unresolved tension of how that chapter had ended.
