Brent Hinds, the former lead guitarist and co-vocalist of Mastodon, died in a motorcycle crash in Atlanta Wednesday night (August 21), local news outlets report. Hinds was riding a Harley Davidson when an SUV failed to yield at a turning, causing a fatal collision, according to Atlanta News First and an Atlanta police memo. Hinds was 51 years old.

William Brent Hinds grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, where he learned the banjo as a teenager and picked up the fret-tapping technique he would later bring to bear on the electric guitar. He was “a total hellion, straight outta hell, with red eyes and everythin’,” he told The Guardian’s Stevie Chick in 2009. “I was very dysfunctional at school, just a jackass. I’d take LSD and come to class still tripping. I was too creative, never doing my homework, just filling my notepad up with drawings of skulls.”

Despite his aversion to the school system, he spent a year studying classical guitar at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, before moving to Atlanta, in the mid 1990s, after seeing his future Mastodon bandmate Troy Sanders play with his Four Hour Fogger outfit in Birmingham, and invitating himself to join the band. After that group’s dissolution, the duo sought to form another, eventually picking up drummer Brann Dailor and guitarist Bill Kelliher to form Mastodon at the dawn of the 2000s.

Their 2002 debut album, Remission, on which Hinds and Sanders traded lead vocals and songwriting duties over virtuosic, hardcore-infused metal, caused a sensation in heavy music circles. But it was the 2004 successor, the Moby Dick concept LP Leviathan, that elevated them to the upper echelons of metal, among both fans and critics. The studio follow-up, 2007’s Blood Mountain, earned them a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance. The band also picked up a nomination at an ill-fated MTV VMAs that left Hinds comatose following an altercation. He eventually recovered from brain hemorrhaging, a broken nose, and pair of black eyes.

Mastodon’s inventive, progressive tendencies came to the fore on subsequent LPs, starting with 2009’s Crack the Skye—which introduced Dailor to the band’s suite of lead vocalists—and 2011’s The Hunter, which was dedicated to Hinds’ late brother. Their final studio albums with Hinds were 2014’s relatively radio-friendly Once More ’Round the Sun, the course-correcting Emperor of Sand in 2017 (which won their first Grammy, for Best Metal Performance), and the 2021 double-album Hushed and Grim.

Hinds’ unceremonious departure from the band was revealed this year. Though the band’s own announcement was cordial, Hinds later said he was “kicked out” and called his former bandmates “horrible humans” in Instagram comments. He continued to perform live around Atlanta in bands such as Fiend Without a Face, West End Motel, and Dirty B & the Boys.

Soon after the news broke, Mastodon wrote a tribute to their former bandmate on social media:

We are in a state of unfathomable sadness and grief… last night Brent Hinds passed away as a result of a tragic accident. 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. Our hearts are with Brent’s family, friends, and fans. At this time, we please ask that you respect everyone’s privacy during this difficult time.

RIP Brent