Video: Mastodon Talk LSD, Iron Maiden, Singing in Dave Grohl's Bathroom

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On their new prog-metal masterpiece Crack the Skye, Mastodon pen tales about a paraplegic traveling through space, Russian visionary Rasputin, wormholes and fighting with the Devil. Weird subject matter, that is, until you meet Mastodon. The group's thunderous rhythm section, drummer-lyricist Brann Dailor and bassist Troy Sanders, recently stopped by the Rolling Stone studios to discuss scatterbrain topics like opening for Iron Maiden and Metallica, serenading Dave Grohl in the Foo Fighters' bathroom and taking copious amounts of LSD. Also, Dailor wonders aloud how ironic it is that Steppenwolf coined the phrase "heavy metal" (in "Born to Be Wild"), yet weren't heavy metal at all. Check out all the band's rants in the video above.

The band's high-flying concept album originates in one very simple place: "It comes from taking too much acid," guitarist Brent Hinds tells Rolling Stone in a feature in our current issue. "Acid is the best drug in the world. It did the most amazing things for my creative psyche, and it still is doing it for me." Somehow, Hinds' LSD love is the least shocking revelation in RS' profile of "the greatest metal band of their generation." In just the first paragraph, Hinds threatens to kill Rolling Stone writer Brian Hiatt if he incorporates what was intended to be an off-the-record story about a female celebrity into the article. Hiatt observes Hinds is an "authentic rock & roll madman — sometimes too authentic."

So how did Axl Rose react when Hinds stole his groupie backstage at a 2006 Guns n' Roses concert? Find out in our explosive Mastodon profile in the Lil Wayne-fronted issue of Rolling Stone on stands now.

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Song Stories

“Everyday People”

Sly and the Family Stone | 1968

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.

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