MASTODON Sued By Late Guitarist BRENT HINDS's Estate Over His Share Of Business

According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the estate of late MASTODON guitarist Brent Hinds has filed a lawsuit against the surviving members of the band claiming that he had never been bought out of his share of MASTODON and its related businesses before his death. The estate is also accusing MASTODON of using Brent's likeness after his death to promote the group's recently released album "Marrow Deep".

In the civil complaint, which was filed in Fulton County Court on September 3, the estate reveals MASTODON wrote the estate a check for $80,000 as a buyout of Hinds's portion of the band after sending him a document summarizing the terms of their separation. However, Hinds never signed that agreement and the estate has held off on cashing the check until a full accounting to be done that will determine the actual number Hinds's estate is owed for his share in the MASTODON companies.

Despite the fact that Hinds did not contribute musically to "Marrow Deep", the album cover, which was inspired by the Three Fates who control the thread of human destiny, includes the face of Brent as well as that of Michele Jeanne Lawrence, mother of MASTODON drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor, who also passed away in 2025. The faces are subtly hidden beneath Atropos — the Fate associated with cutting the thread of life.

In the lawsuit, the estate takes issue with the fact that Brent's face appears on an album which he did not contribute to, writing: "Defendants selected and placed a recognizable image of Brent on the album cover of 'Marrow Deep' and disseminated that cover to advertise, market, distribute, and sell physical albums, digital downloads and streams, merchandise, and related goods or services."

The lawsuit also criticizes Dailor, MASTODON bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders and guitarist Bill Kelliher for revealing personal information about Brent, including implying that his struggles with substance abuse led to his exit from the group, in the recently released documentary titled "The Mastodon In The Room". In the emotional 35-minute feature, Dailor, Sanders and Kelliher addressed Hinds's passing directly, saying they wanted fans to hear their story after seeing the speculation and headlines surrounding his death.

While the lawsuit does not directly address the substance abuse allegations, it calls out Dailor, Sanders and Kelliher for disclosing "details about [Hinds's] private life that they learned in confidence — details he chose to keep private while he was alive."

In March 2025, MASTODON revealed that the band and Hinds had "mutually decided to part ways" after "25 monumental years together."

Since 2000, Hinds had served as lead guitarist and vocalist for MASTODON, alongside Sanders, Dailor and Kelliher.

MASTODON's lineup had remained the same for 25 years, recording eight studio albums, beginning with 2002's "Remission" until the band's 2021 LP "Hushed And Grim".

Hinds later claimed he had been ejected from MASTODON and called his former bandmates "horrible humans" in a social media post.

Brent was reportedly riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle late on August 20, 2025 when he was hit by an SUV turning left and failing to yield at the intersection of Memorial Drive SE and Boulevard SE, less than two miles from downtown Atlanta, according to Atlanta police.

Hinds was found unresponsive by officers who responded to the crash around 11:35 p.m. and was pronounced dead by medical workers.

According to a crash report, investigators found that Hinds was at fault for the accident because he was speeding. Relying on video of the intersection, investigators calculated that the musician was going between 63 and 68 mph, which is roughly twice the speed limit at the crash site, the report said.

In a recent interview with The Break Down With Nath & Johnny, Dailor spoke about the "The Mastodon In The Room" documentary, which arrived more than a month prior to the release of "Marrow Deep". Brann said: "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" is 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."