'I'm the greatest guitar player alive.'

Mastodon once again proves that they are the metal juggernauts of our time.
story taken from pitchforkmedia.com

Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds allegedly got himself into another altercation last night (September 18), this time with garage guru Arish "King" Khan. According to multiple sources, including a report by Chad Radford for Creative Loafing Atlanta's Crib Notes blog, Hinds punched Khan in the face, sending him to the hospital, after an appearance in Atlanta at the Highland Inn Lounge's weekly Kirkwood Ballers Club open mic.

Khan played the gig to support his friend and Atlanta scene fixture BJ Womack. Kristin Klein, King Khan's manager, told Pitchfork that Womack was "just diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, so Arish came into Atlanta from Berlin...to see [Womack], because it could be the last time he sees our friend." Frank Jensen-- Womack's "best friend of, like, 25 years [and] the drummer for [Chicago bands] the Tyrades and the Busy Signals"-- also flew into Atlanta to play the gig with Khan and Womack. (Klein also provided these photos.)

According to Klein, the trio (plus drummer Jessica Juggz) played a few songs, including a cover of Them's "Gloria", before Hinds, who was in attendance, spontaneously joined them on guitar. "Brent was fucking around with Arish's guitar," says Klein. "Arish dumped a beer on Brent's head, and then after the show was over, Arish went outside and was like, 'Hey man, sorry about the beer. Let me buy you a drink.' And Brent said, 'Do you know who I am?' And Arish said, 'No, not really. Kind of. I don't know.' And Brent said, 'I'm the greatest guitar player alive.' And Arish said, 'Well okay man, but this is all about our friend BJ, you know?' And he went to walk away and he got sucker punched. Split his lip open."

Klein took Arish to the Atlanta Medical Center, where Khan "ended up getting three stitches in his lip."

Before leaving for the hospital, Klein approached Hinds. "After I got Arish an ice pack and some salt water to swish out, I went up to Brent and was like, 'Hey man, that was a little bit fucked up," she said. "We gotta go to the hospital and get stitches instead of hanging out, this night, with our friend. The least you can do is pay for his stitches. It's like $150 [to] walk in.' He was like, 'I only got $80.' I was like, 'Okay.' He was like, 'It was a dick move, but I'm a dick sometimes.' He gave us the cash, which was cool. It was nice of him to do that.

"Then we went to the hospital, and the bill was actually $2,700," Klein said, laughing.

According to Klein, "everything is cool" now between the two parties, and Khan will not take legal action. "I took him to the airport, and he's on a plane to San Francisco where he's gonna be playing with a reunited Gris Gris at Urban Outfitters on Saturday," she said. "We went this morning to breakfast with our friend. [Khan] was in town for BJ... I don't want [that] to get overshadowed because these two goons in rock bands freaked out."

Pitchfork has been in touch with a representative at Mastodon's label, but we've not yet received any comment from Hinds or the band.

For his part, Khan seems to be recovering nicely. In the aforementioned Crib Notes post, he told Creative Loafing, "It sucked to get punched in the face, but I live for these kinds of adventures and I love this town."

This is Khan after getting shamed.

BTW . . . Im sure Stefan is going to have a story like this within a couple years.