Marcus King may be going at a thousand miles an hour as the face of contemporary blues rock and Americana. However, between the release of his new signature Epiphone, the El Dorado, and his switch from Orange to Marshall, King is determined to pay homage to his late friend, Brent Hinds.
The Mastodon co-founder died in August last year at the age of 51 following a fatal motorcycle accident that left the guitar world grieving. King, who was both a long-time admirer of his work and a dear friend, looks back on their friendship and how life changed after Hinds’ untimely death.
“Man, I had Brent in my life for the better part of a decade,” he tells Guitar World in a new interview.
“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,” he adds with a laugh. “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.”
One of the top qualities that he admired about Hinds was how equally “passionate” and flippant he was about his playing.
“He was also sometimes like, ‘Oh, man… fuck 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,” he illustrates. “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.”
Hinds also recorded a guitar solo – one of his very last – before he died for King’s 2025 release Red Door.
“He slept on the living room couch for a week (or two, who's counting) with The Marcus King Band at the house they rented down in Macon, Georgia,” boutique American custom guitar shop Banker Guitars wrote on social media.
“Ever the stubborn perfectionist, he managed to do 278 takes before landing on the one he liked best.”
Guitar World’s full interview with Marcus King will be published in the coming weeks.
