When reading the headline above, you may ask yourself “Wait, when was there ever bad blood between Mastodon and System Of A Down?” Well, rumors started to spread about tension after an altercation between Mastodon’s Brent Hinds, System Of A Down’s Shavo Odadjian, and musician William Hudson took place after the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards in Las Vegas. The fight that followed that night hospitalized Hinds with brain hemorrhaging, a broken nose and black eyes.

So is there any bad blood between Mastodon and System Of A Down (who just recently appeared on the Soundwave Festival in Australia together)? Well according to Mastodon bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders, there never was tension between the two bands. You can watch video of Sanders’ entire interview with Australia’s Hysteria Magazine TV after the jump. But when asked about whether it was strange to be touring with SOAD, Sanders said the following:

“No, no. This is a giant piece of false information that has been [interrupted by interviewer who says “Proganda’ed everywhere?”] Yeah. Mastodon and System Of A Down, we’re all friends. That was not the problem at all, that was a different issue. Our band is so far beyond removed from that incident, but it had nothing to do with… System Of A Down was there, but they’re our friends. It was a different individual that this altercation went down with.

So to set the record straight, to this day all the System Of A Down guys and Mastodon, we’re all friends. We have no problems with each other what so ever. It just got blown up in the wrong way through storytelling and through internet and through press of all sorts. So to clear the record, System Of A Down and Mastodon have no qualms with each other what so ever, and we never have.”

So there you have it, System Of A Down and Mastodon remain friends. Now if only the two would tour the States together… that we might have to wait a little longer for. You can watch Sanders’ entire interview with Hysteria Magazine TV after the jump [note: Sanders’ comments about SOAD and Mastodon’s relationship starts roughly around the 5:25 mark].

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwZzubqCNgY[/youtube]

[via The PRP]