Mastodon filed paperwork this week asking a judge to dismiss several claims in a lawsuit brought by the estate of the band’s late former guitarist, Brent Hinds. The band’s response was reported by Rolling Stone.
The lawsuit was filed by Billy Hinds, Brent Hinds’ father, on behalf of the estate. The band’s legal filing challenges the estate’s claims about compensation for using Hinds’ likeness on their recent album Marrow Deep. It also disputes allegations that the band breached its duty to Hinds and stole his ownership stake in Mastodon.
“The members of Mastodon filed paperwork on Monday asking a judge to dismiss parts of a lawsuit that Billy Hinds — the father of the band’s late former guitarist, Brent Hinds — filed on behalf of the estate of Brent Hinds against them,” Rolling Stone reported. “Much of the 20-page filing picks apart the phrasing of the original complaint. ‘These distinctions matter,’ it says in the filing.”
“In the memorandum, obtained by Rolling Stone, they dispute that they owe the guitarist’s estate any money from using Hinds’ likeness on the cover art for their recently released album, Marrow Deep, and take issue with the ‘buyout process’ related to divesting Hinds of Mastodon’s business interests,” the report added. “‘Even assuming the truth of the Estate’s allegations, large swaths of the Complaint’s legal theories fail to state a claim and should be dismissed,’ the band’s lawyers write in the paperwork.”
“In a section contesting the Hinds estate’s allegations of ‘breach of fiduciary duty,’ they stand by the decision to use his image on their album cover,” Rolling Stone further said. “They claim that the estate failed to prove a fiduciary relationship between the band and the use of the image in the artwork. And in another section addressing ‘conversion’ (theft), they contest allegations that they stole Hinds’ 25 percent ownership interest in the band. ‘While the Estate alleges that [Mastodon] purported to redeem those interests and refused to recognize its rights, there is no allegation that [Mastodon] seized, transferred, or withheld any stock certificates or other documents embodying Hinds’s interests,’ according to the filing.”
The filing was submitted as part of the ongoing legal dispute between the band and the Hinds estate over the guitarist’s legacy and his former stake in the band.
Brent Hinds co-founded Mastodon in 2000 with bassist Troy Sanders, guitarist Bill Kelliher and drummer Brann Dailor. The band announced in March 2025 that Hinds and Mastodon had “mutually decided to part ways.” Hinds died in a motorcycle accident in Atlanta in August 2025 at the age of 51, before the financial terms of his separation had been finalized.
The estate claims that Mastodon and its members never bought the guitarist out of his share of the band and its related businesses before his death. According to the estate’s filing, the band offered a check for $80,000 to represent Hinds’ share in the band as a buyout, but the estate refused to cash it. The estate also alleges that despite the disagreements while Hinds was alive, band members used an image of his face on an album cover after he died.
Mastodon’s ninth studio album, Marrow Deep, was released on August 28, 2026, making it the first studio album recorded without Hinds. The album’s cover features Hinds’ likeness, and the estate contends that the band is profiting from his image and death. After Hinds’ departure, band members including bassist-vocalist Troy Sanders spoke publicly about Hinds’ issues with substance abuse and said that performances in support of previous albums had suffered because of his inebriation.
