Peter Hughes, the longtime bassist and backup vocalist in the Mountain Goats, is leaving the band. Hughes joined the Mountain Goats back in 1995 and performed on every album except their 1994 full-length studio debut, Zopilote Machine. “Sooner or later everybody spots the exit that has their name on it, and for Peter Hughes, my bandmate of either twenty-eight or twenty-two years depending on whether you mark the 1996 tour or the 2002 one as the start point, the time to leave the highway behind is now,” the Mountain Goats said in a statement. “He’s made the call, and all that’s left for us is to salute his legacy.”
“Peter’s contribution to our band and to my life can’t be overstated,” the band’s statement continues. “The time, toil, and sweat he has devoted to making our band better, year in and year out, will always be an indispensable part of what ‘the Mountain Goats’ meant from 2002-2024. Peter, the love Matt, Jon, Brandon and I have for you is forever, and my personal gratitude for your service not to my vision but what became our vision cannot be measured. I speak on behalf of audiences around the world when I say thank you, and that you will be dearly missed.” Read the full statement below.
The Mountain Goats originally had planned for the Bochum Riders Tour, a series of duo shows by John Darnielle and Peter Hughes, to take place this October. With the news of Hughes’ departure, however, those concerts will still take place when scheduled, but as a trio featuring Darnielle, multi-instrumentalist Matt Douglas, and drummer Jon Wurster instead.
The final album that Hughes recorded with the Mountain Goats was last year’s Jenny From Thebes. The band recently announced a special reissue of The Coroner’s Gambit, their long out-of-print 2000 album on which he’s also featured.
The Mountain Goats: