There’s this old story in which now ex-Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds was knocked out by System of a Down/Seven Hours After Violet bassist Shavo Odadjian in Las Vegas back in 2007. It’s a story that’s been running around the metal world for nearly 20 years, but thanks to a recent interview, Odadjian is trying to clear the air and kill the notion that he laid the guitarist out in a fight.
For those that don’t remember, the story goes that Odadjian was hanging out with rapper Rev. William Burk when the fight broke out. Hinds ended up worse for wear after the fight and a police report detailed that all three men were involved.
At one point, the story in question was loosely covered in a part of Mastodon’s Crack The Skye documentary, in which the band discussed the fight and its aftermath without going into too much detail. What we do know is it not only landed Hinds in a weeks long coma, but also saw him suffer two black eyes, brain hemorrhaging, a broken nose, was laid out in a coma, and experienced symptoms of vertigo, dizziness and nausea for eight months afterwards. And while it heavily influenced the guitarist’s contributions to that iconic album, it had to have been a scary moment.
Now, in a recent interview with Metal Hammer, Odadjian lays out what he says is the series of events that happened that night.
“I never knocked out Brent Hinds. That’s something that Brent was told by I-don’t-know-who. What happened was, we were in Las Vegas, outside Mandalay Bay after the MTV Music Awards, and I was with my friend, [rapper] Reverend William Burk. Brent Hinds comes out of a taxi and he’s like, ‘Bro, I love you!’ He was inebriated and swinging his shirt. He kept coming up to hug me. He was very in-my-face.”
Odadjian said he eventually got away from Hinds’ attention but when he looked behind him, Hinds and Burke were fighting. That’s when he said Hinds “fell and hit his head and got knocked out.” Odadjian was ultimately picked up by police and questioned for four hours. However once they checked the hotel security footage, the bassist said he was released.
Now who’s going to go find Hinds and ask him for his side of the story?
