How did 2019 treat you, Troy?
“A little good and a little bad. Focusing on the good, Mastodon continued to be happy and healthy. We did an overseas tour with [Neurosis frontman] Scott Kelly early in the year, which was really enlightening. Then we did a six-week run across the United States, sharing stages with the excellent Coheed And Cambria. It was our third time around the States on [2017 album] Emperor Of Sand and we didn’t know whether the interest was still there, but the crowds kept growing and growing. We don’t ever take that for granted. We get home, hug each other and say, ‘I love you guys, that was amazing.’”
Tell us more about that enlightenment…
“You’ve got maybe 75 minutes onstage each night, but you’ve got about 23 hours off it, and we very much enjoy Scott’s company. Neurosis are influences on us as a band and as people. Scott’s so thoughtful, deep and open. He’s very much still a growing person who loves to speak to and learn from other people. He’s a beautiful soul. It felt like we’d come full circle, where he’d gone from being an important artistic influence to a profound personal one. When we realised he’d done six single songs across six albums with us, and that we had that 30 minutes of material we could perform as a set, it felt like a magical opportunity to take him out with us.”
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Speaking of hero worship, how cool was it getting asked to play bass with Thin Lizzy?
“I was in Hamburg, Germany in February, having just finished a show, when my guitarist got a message from [guitarist] Damon Johnson, asking if he could have my number because Scott Gorham was firing up the band for a few shows over the summer, and they wanted me to play bass. I had to sit down for a second and ask if it was real. I’ve known Damon for a long time, but I never take anything like that for granted. Mastodon will be 20 years old [in 2020], but every time we get together to rehearse I still feel that fire in my belly as a band. That’s special. But to be actually asked to play for Thin Lizzy is a different kind of special. It’s humbling on a personal level, too, because I know there are hundreds of excellent bass players out there they could’ve asked. How and why my name got called first, I don’t know. They’re one of the greatest rock bands ever, so it really warmed my heart to get that call.”