Brent Hinds, the former singer-guitarist for the Grammy-winning heavy metal band Mastodon, has died in a motorcycle accident in Atlanta, the band and authorities said. He was 51.
Hinds was killed while riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle late Wednesday night when the driver of a BMW SUV failed to yield while making a turn, according to Atlanta police. Hinds was described as “unresponsive” at the scene. An autopsy concluded Hinds, whose legal first name is William, died of “multiple blunt force injuries.”
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“We are heartbroken, shocked and still trying to process the loss of this creative force with whom we’ve shared so many triumphs, milestones, and the creation of music that has touched the hearts of so many,” the band said on social media.
Mastodon had three albums rise into the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart and two that topped the Rock Album chart — “Emperor of Sand” in 2017 and “Once More ’round the Sun” in 2014.
Hinds co-founded Mastodon in 2000 with bassist Troy Sanders, guitarist Bill Kelliher and drummer Brann Dailor. Mastodon’s third studio album, 2006’s “Blood Mountain,” was their first to reach the Top 40, peaking at No. 32 on the Billboard 200.
Hinds left the band in March 2025. No reason for the departure was given. The band said they had “mutually decided to part ways,” but comments made by Hinds on Instagram indicated a rocky relationship with the members of his former band.
“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,” the band said at the time.
Mastodon — which forged ferocious metal, progressive wizardry and sludge rock tendencies — earned six Grammy Award nominations, winning one in 2017 for best metal performance for “Sultan's Curse” from the album “Emperor of Sand.”
Rolling Stone magazine listed Mastodon's 2011 album “The Hunter” among its best off the year, saying the band had "streamlined their molten thrash into a taut thwump that doesn’t pull back one bit on their natural complexity of innate weirdness.”
Hinds was due to tour Europe later this year with Fiend Without a Face, a band that was once a side project during his years with Mastodon.