We ran into Mastodon guitarist-vocalist Brent Hinds at this year’s NAMM convention, and we wanted to ask him about his new musical endeavors. Instead, he decided to talk about horse meat and burning down his studio for the insurance money.

Dressed in what we assume to be a horse leather vest, Hinds told us how he actually managed to break his leg, and no, it wasn’t from starting his motorcycle. “I broke my leg with a hammer on purpose to get more pain pills and start a fashion resurgence of Mad Max knee braces and missing arms and s—t,” Hinds relayed. “You’ve gotta liven up life every once in a while and hurt yourself a little bit.”

When we asked Brent about a new studio he’s building in Atlanta, he accidentally let it slip that the structure is an insurance scam. “It’s something we’re building so we can burn it to the ground and collect all the insurance money,” said Hinds. The rehearsal space may be used by other groups, but as Brent said, they’d better not be arsonists themselves.

Brent Hinds is actually planning to release some solo work on Record Store Day 2017 called Cold Dark Place. According to Hinds, Cold Dark Place will feature a bunch of recordings he’s been sitting on for years and will tackle the theme of “living and how much it f—ing hurts to be alive.”

Check out our extremely confusing and hilarious interview with Brent Hinds above! Mastodon’s seventh studio album, Emperor of Sand, will be released March 31.

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