BRANN DAILOR Explains Decision To Address BRENT HINDS's Death In 'The Mastodon In The Room' Documentary: 'I Was On The Fence About It'

In a new interview with The Break Down With Nath & Johnny, MASTODON drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor spoke about the recently released documentary titled "The Mastodon In The Room". In the emotional feature, Dailor, MASTODON bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders and guitarist Bill Kelliher addressed original MASTODON's guitarist/singer Brent Hinds's passing directly, saying they wanted fans to hear their story after seeing the speculation and headlines surrounding his death.

Referencing the fact that "The Mastodon In The Room" arrived more than a month prior to the release of MASTODON's long-awaited new album, "Marrow Deep", which marked the band's first full-length effort without Hinds, who was fired from the band in March 2025 and died five months later in a motorcycle accident, Brann said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Of course, I had huge question marks about putting out 'The Mastodon In The Room'. I was, like, 'That's pretty personal.' And Brent's not here to defend himself. And so I didn't like that part of it either, and I talked about that with everybody. I was just, like, sort of on the fence about it. But we left our fans with all these questions because Brent obviously attacked us in the press. And I knew that that was coming, and I address that in the video as well. And I knew that he didn't mean that. I don't know how many times I had heard him late at night, with a few, say some ridiculous shit, and I'd just be, like, 'You don't feel that way at all, but whatever. Okay.' But we couldn't come out and be, like, 'Oh, R.I.P., Brent. We love you. And here's our new record,' and that's it. I felt like we had to address it and just be honest, and that's all we were. We were just being honest, and really didn't get... We didn't really spill any tea about him. I don't think we threw him under the bus at all. And we didn't even touch the tip of the iceberg with that whole very complex relationship."

Brann continued: "['The Mastodon In The Room'] was a very basic, honest conversation about really what was going on. That's what was going on. I don't know what to tell you. And I don't know if [Brent] would've said, 'Yeah, actually, that was what was going on.' But that's exactly what was happening. And like I said, we didn't really get really too much into it, but I wasn't even mad at him. I wasn't. I just wanted him to be happy. I wanted him to be happy and healthy and feel good. I know he was having a hard time [after we parted ways], but trying over and over again for 10 years plus, it does a number on yourself. And I'm, like, 'I'm a person, too.' What am I supposed to do? What are we supposed to do? It's kind of, like, forcing our hand, and then at some point you need to protect yourself and your own mental health and be, like, 'I don't know, man. I don't know what else to do. Obviously we just need a break [from him] or something.' And I really honestly thought that — I don't know if it would be a year, I don't know if it would be two years or whatever happened, but that we would eventually squash it and just be, like, 'Dude, what was all that bullshit?' Hugs and kisses. And I don't know if we would've jammed again, but we probably would've, I would imagine. But it just sucks that we won't have that opportunity."

Circling back to the decision to address Brent's death directly in "The Mastodon In The Room", Brann said: "If we say nothing, the fans are just left with, like, 'Oh, I guess they're just three shit human beings in a terrible band.' I just think it's ridiculous thinking that myself, Bill and Troy just woke up one day and said, 'Hey, let's fire Brent. Let's get rid of one of the greatest guitar players ever, and let's just be dicks and do that. What do you guys say?' 'Yeah, high five, let's go do that.' It's ridiculous. I think it's crazy to think that that's what we would do."

Dailor added: "It was one of the hardest parts of my life, going through that — before he died even. Because my mom had just died, and it sucked. And then that happened. I hated it. I really fucking hated it, but I was doing my best."

"Marrow Deep" was co-produced by MASTODON at the band's own West End Sound in Atlanta with Patrik Berger (Lana Del Rey, Charli XCX) and Kurt Ballou (HIGH ON FIRE, CONVERGE) and was mixed by Andrew Scheps (Adele, BLACK SABBATH, METALLICA). "Marrow Deep" is also notably the group's first full-length to feature new guitarist Nick Johnston alongside significant contributions from keyboardist João Nogueira.

During an August 6 appearance on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", Brann stated about the fact that the deaths of Hinds and Dailor's mother, Michele Lawrence, in February 2025 are the thematic core of "Marrow Deep": "Obviously we didn't want the album to be about what it's about, and we would take all the songs and all the lyrics back if we could have our people back, but that's not the situation.

"We started really writing for this record maybe a couple of years ago, and then we interrupted that writing to go on the 'Leviathan' [20th-]anniversary tour [of MASTODON's sophomore album] with LAMB OF GOD around the States," he explained. "And around the end of that tour, we decided, 'Okay, we're gonna hunker down and really start writing.' And that's where we experienced some turmoil with our brother Brent, and I, unfortunately, lost my mother. And we were kind of working away on stuff, and it was tough. Then we went to Europe for a summer tour. We were diligently working on the material, getting it ready to go into the studio in September [of 2025], and unfortunately, another tragedy — we lost Brent at the end of August. But we still had to go into the studio in about a week after losing Brent and kind of thought that maybe it was not the best idea. We weren't sure, but it ended up being exactly what we needed to kind of go in there and lean on each other and just dig in on these songs and put every little bit of all of these couple of tragedies that, unfortunately, visited us into the music, into the lyrics, into everything about it, and to just power through and, like I said, lean on each other to get through and come out the other side with this album that we're all very proud of but is very emotional for us."

Asked if any of Hinds's musical ideas that were written prior to his exit from MASTODON made it on to "Marrow Deep", Brann said: "Unfortunately not. Really, for the last few records, we would try to get him to come down and contribute, but he was just kind of off doing his thing. He was riding his motorcycle around. But we would always keep writing, and we would text him or I'd call him and say, 'Hey, we're gonna be down there at the space. We're gonna be writing. So, just letting you know. And if you wanna get down there with us and get your hands dirty, you're more than welcome. We want you to be more involved.' But he had a lot going on in his life as well, and he was going through some things personally that were tough, and so we understood that, and we were just giving him as much grace as we could and just always leaving the door open. But also, we are three creative people that the faucet just doesn't turn off, and so we just wanted to be, like, 'Hey, man, we're gonna keep on writing, and we're very excited for you to get in on this stuff,' and always left that door open. But, unfortunately, for the last bunch of months of touring and while we were working on the skeletons of the songs that became 'Marrow Deep', he just was kind of nowhere to be found within those writing sessions. And as a result, we don't have any material from him that is on the new record. So it's solely the three of us kind of creating everything from the ground up, and then getting the new members involved towards the end to sort of, quote-unquote, 'punch up' the songs that existed and really get them to be as good as they possibly could be with some fresh and new energy with João and Nick Johnston on guitar."

MASTODON will celebrate the "Marrow Deep" release with the upcoming "The Poisonous Weapons Tour", a nationwide run of dates with support from DEAFHEAVEN and ALCEST. Kicking off September 16 in Orlando, the trio of bands will cut their way across the full country before closing out October 24 at Sick New World Dallas.

The second single from "Marrow Deep", a song called "Snakes For Dinner", features QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE's Josh Homme, who previously joined MASTODON on the band's classic 2006 song "Colony Of Birchmen".