Brent Hinds from Mastodon: “I F*cking Hate Heavy Metal, and I Don’t Want to Be in a Heavy Metal Band”
If, like me, you’re wondering why the heck Mastodon, probably one of the best metal bands of their generation, stopped playing metal. Well, as it turns out, it’s basically Brent Hinds’ fault.
Says Hinds in a new interview with Guitar Player:
“I never really liked heavy metal in the first place. I came from Alabama playing country music, surf rock, rockabilly, and stuff like that. I just went through a phase in my 20s where I thought it was rebellious to play heavy metal. And then I met Brann [Dailor, Mastodon drummer] and Bill [Kelliher], and they were really, really, really into heavy metal. And ever since then, I’ve been trying to get Mastodon to not be such a heavy metal band, because I f**king hate heavy metal, and I don’t want to be in a heavy metal band.”
This statement seems destined, and possibly even designed, to piss off metal fans. Which I think is perfectly fair: even if you’ve given up on the idea of Mastodon ever making something like Leviathan ever again, there’s no denying that the band started out being metal, were sold as metal by a metal label, endorsed by the metal press, and greeted with open arms by metal fans. Or, put more simply: Mastodon would not be where they are today without metal.
But there’s a flip side to that sentiment, of course, and that flip side is this: Mastodon would not be Mastodon without Brent Hinds, talented guitar player who fucking hates heavy metal.
So I guess my point is this: I don’t think Hinds should have lied, necessarily… but I don’t know that he had to use such emphatic language. A simple “Brann and Bill are really the metalheads in the band” would have sufficed. Or he could have just not slammed metal and used the whole “sin of omission”/”I didn’t lie I just didn’t tell the whole truth” angle. At the very least, that would have saved him being asked about this quote in his next million or so interviews, right?
Your thoughts, ladies and gentlemen?
[via Metal Injection]
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