Marcus King has spoken about the decade he spent as a friend of Brent Hinds, a year after the guitarist’s death.
The blues rock musician described the friendship in an interview with Guitar World, part of which has been published ahead of the full piece.
“Man, I had Brent in my life for the better part of a decade,” he said. “We became really good friends really quickly. And something indicative of his character is that anybody who knew him knew that if you were going to be friends with Brent, you knew it very quickly. And we did become really good friends really quickly. He was a groomsman at my wedding, and just a good friend to talk to. He was a brother.”
They talked about music less than people might assume.
“He was also sometimes like, ‘Oh, man… f**k it. Dude, let’s go do something else.’ We never really spent much time talking about playing per se, but every now and then we’d nerd out about a Mark Knopfler solo. We’d just sit outside, get really stoned, and nerd out about a solo or two. But his playing style and his ability to bring chicken pickin’ into the metal realm… I was always really inspired by that. He also has a really good sense of melody and was just a beautiful composer,” he added.
One of the last solos Hinds recorded is on a Marcus King Band track.
“Red Door” closes No Room For Blue, the companion release to King‘s album Darlin’ Blue, which documents his own path to sobriety. It first appeared in a limited pressing for Record Store Day‘s Black Friday event last autumn and only reached streaming services in May, at which point listeners began to notice Hinds was on it. His contribution had not been prominently credited.
The account of how it was recorded came from Banker Handcrafted Guitars, the American custom shop whose instruments Hinds played for years, in a post accompanying photographs taken during the sessions.
“For those who may not know, this song you are listening to has one of the last guitar solos Brent Hinds recorded. He slept on the living room couch for a week (or two, whose counting) with The Marcus King Band at the house they rented down in Macon, Georgia while they were writing and recording their latest record, Darlin’ Blue at the legendary Capricorn Studios.”
“The final song on the companion release titled ‘Red Door‘ was one that Brent collaborated and performed on. Ever the stubborn perfectionist, he managed to do 278 takes before landing on the one he liked best. These are some photos I took while hanging out and watching it all unfold for a couple of days.”
Capricorn Studios in Macon is where the Allman Brothers Band made their records, and the room that effectively built Southern rock as a recorded music.
The two had worked together before. In 2020 they performed Black Sabbath‘s “Electric Funeral” together during a livestream, and King posted a tribute after Hinds died.
King has also spoken publicly about the more chaotic side of the friendship, including an episode on a shared tour that ended with Hinds being sent home early.
He told Joe Rogan at the time: “Man, I got to send you some some choice [Mastodon] cuts, but OK. Brent was, he was the f**kin’ man. He just died back in September [Editors note: Brent Hinds died on August 20]. I took him on the road right before that, which was messy. Brent, he and Mastodon kind of had a mutual agreement that he would leave the band. So he was doing his solo thing, and like he’s one of my heroes, you know? And I was like, ‘I’ll take you out. Sure.’ And he just threw it together somehow and then I ended up having to kick him off the tour, which broke my heart, but he kind of forced my hand.”
The tipping point for the tour occurred during a bizarre backstage incident. King recalled walking outside to find a tour manager named Angela crying while being consoled by his own tour manager.
“The night in question I walked outside and he had this little tour manager named Angela, and she was crying, and my tour manager was holding her, and she was crying. I was like, ‘F**kin’ a, what happened now?’ She said, ‘I walk into the dressing room and Brent pee on the floor and I said, ‘No, no, you have to stop. So then he pee in his mouth.’ And like I know… So you just have to picture my boy just like pissing, and she’s like, ‘You have to stop.’ And then he’s like, ‘Oh’ [and then pisses right into his own mouth],” he continued.
Marcus later shared the absurd story with Matt Pike of the band Sleep during the funeral for Brent Hinds. According to King, his fellow musician simply brushed the stunt off as a “party trick”. While King found humor in the situation, he acknowledged that the tour manager was deeply upset and offended, ultimately leading the touring crew to decide that the working arrangement could no longer continue.
“And at his funeral, I told Matt Pike from Sleep, I told him that story, and he was like, ‘Yeah, and?’. He’s like, ‘It’s a party trick.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, no, it’s hilarious. But it really offended her and she got very upset.’ And the whole thing just fell apart and that was what did it. I was ready to fix it, but like his whole band and crew, they were like, ‘It’s not working.’”
Regarding the underlying cause of the erratic behavior, King pointed to heavy substance use but emphasized his enduring love for his late friend.
“He was just partying a little too much, you know? And I mean, I really loved that dude like a brother, you know? I miss him. Miss him a lot… I mean, he was a true artist, you know? Like he was insane. And you got to have friends that your wife doesn’t particularly love you hanging out with, you know? There’s something about that friend.”
Hinds co-founded Mastodon in 2000 and spent 25 years in the band, alongside side projects including West End Motel and Fiend Without A Face. He parted ways with Mastodon in March 2025.
He died on August 20, 2025 at the age of 51, after a collision with a car while riding his motorcycle in Atlanta. He is reported to have left behind a substantial amount of unreleased solo material.
