“I discovered that you need to be anxious – it keeps you motivated. I try to feed off the anxiety and play guitar”: The life and times of Brent Hinds, the visionary guitarist with a maverick style who made Mastodon a big beast of metal

Brent Hinds plays his lucite Electrical Guitar Company V onstage with Mastodon and pulls a face for the camera.

I met Brent Hinds a few years ago at a Mastodon gig. For some reason, he was standing next to me at the public bar, waiting in line to buy a drink, rather than staying out of sight backstage, so I introduced myself as a writer for Guitar World’s sister magazine, Total Guitar, and bought him a beer and a shot.

We talked briefly before he headed backstage, but I couldn’t quite figure him out. My impression was that he was a bit of an introvert, perhaps not that good with new people – someone who saved his flamboyance for the stage.