In a new interview with Radical Metal, MASTODON guitarist Bill Kelliher spoke about how he and his bandmates are going about their search for a replacement for their longtime axeman Brent Hinds. He said: “Yeah, we haven’t really decided how we’re gonna go about that yet. We’re just sort of taking it easy. No update. Nothing that I can really share with you at this moment.”

Referencing the fact that MASTODON hired YouTuber and session musician Ben Eller to perform with the band on March 9 at “Tool Live In The Sand” festival in the Dominican Republic, Bill said: “We had Ben Eller, who’s a great friend, and he filled in for this show. And we’ve got the COHEED [AND CAMBRIA] tour coming up. So, we’ll figure it out. We’ve got a lot of requests and stuff like that. But it’s really hard shoes to fill, obviously. Nobody plays like Brent. He’s a very, extremely unique player. So it’s not gonna be an easy task. We’re all hopeful and we’re gonna figure it out. So that’s really all I have to say about it.”

Regarding how MASTODON hooked up with Eller, Bill said: “I saw him playing some MASTODON stuff [in a YouTube video] and then I was, like, ‘That’s close, but it’s not quite right.’ So I started writing to him. And we became good friends just through that, ’cause he’s, like, ‘Oh, man, show me how to play it right so I can put it up on my YouTube.’ … He’s giving instructions to other people how to play stuff. So I was, like, ‘You’re not quite playing it right.’ … I mean, he’s 99 percent there. He’s a great fucking player. He’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met.”