The Story Behind Mastodon Getting Their Band Name

2024-09-02

Mastodon. Heavy metal band Mastodon has a unique name. Here's the story behind how they got that moniker.

Heavy metal band Mastodon has a unique name. Here’s the story behind how they got that moniker. – Author: Anne Erickson, Photo via Clay McBride

Heavy metal band hails from Mastodon, and they’ve brought a lot of originality and depth to the metal scene ever since they’re arrived in it. The band has a progressive sound, but they also work in some great sludge, doom and stoner metal, so it’s truly a sound that’s unique to Mastodon.

Mastodon band members Brann Dailor, on drums, and Bill Kelliher, on guitar, played in bands years before Mastodon, and both of them relocated to Atlanta, Georgia, in 2000, according to Metal Storm. Once in Atlanta, Dailor and Kelliher met bass player Troy Sanders and guitarist Brent Hines at a High On Fire show that Hinds had, get this, in his basement. From there, Mastodon was formed.

The Meaning Behind Mastodon and Their Band Name

In an interview with Metal Underground, Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher shed some light into the meaning behind the band’s name.

When asked where the guys got the name Mastodon and if it holds “any significance to the band on a personal level,” Kelliher gave the whole story.

“Honestly, when we first got together in 2000, we tossed around a lot of different names,” Kelliher said in the 2009 interview. “We were all at my apartment and we were all sitting on the couch and Brent was looking at my (pause) I have a tattoo on my arm I’ll show you guys… cause I’m a star wars nerd. It’s way up here this thing like the Boba Fett insignia on my arm right there same spot, and so Brent was looking at that, and we were talking about mammoth and he was like oh what’s that prehistoric mammoth kind of thing; like elephant you know? And I was like a Mastodon? And he was like yeah Mastodon, that’s it.”

He added, “And we were all cool that’s the name like right then and there. After Brent saw the thing on my arm, he was like “ah that looked like a mammoth skull,” so he couldn’t think of the name of the animal and I was like a Mastodon. Then we were trying to decide a way how to spell it. Then we made a few shirts that were spelled with an ‘a’ ‘Mastadon,’ and then we were like nah, I looked it up it was with an ‘o.’ So there are a couple shirts out there, from the first couple of shows that are probably pretty rare to find with the misspelling.”

Rejected Mastodon Band Names

In a separate interview with Spin Magazine about the band name, Kelliher said pretty much the same thing regarding the band name.

“We were sitting around at my apartment putting our little brains together,” he said in the 2010 interview, “when [guitarist-singer] Brent [Hinds] looked at the Bantha skull tattoo on my arm — that’s a symbol that you can see on Boba Fett’s arm in ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ — and he said, ‘What’s the name of that creature that’s like a prehistoric elephant?’ I replied, ‘A Mastodon?’ We all looked at each other and said, ‘That’s it, that’s the name.’ We knew right then and there.”

He also talked about rejected band names, which included “Abra Cadaver, Everyday I’m Dead, Savage Hamper, Rabid Taxi, and Fishy Joe and the Pickles.”

Anne Erickson
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Posted by Anne Erickson | Features, Metal, Music

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