Shannon Hoon, Blind Melon singer died today - TIMH

20 years ago today rock and roll lost one of its brightest up and coming stars in Shannon Hoon. The lead singer of the band Blind Melon, Hoon died as a result of a cocaine overdose while on tour with the band in New Orleans.

Born in Lafayette, Indiana in 1967, Richard Shannon Hoon was a three-sport athlete in high school in addition to being a musician and singer. He had a vibrant, magnetic personality that belied his struggles with addiction. A gifted lyricist, he drew his musical influences from the sounds of the 1960s and 70s, particularly Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead and the Beatles.

After graduating from high school, Hoon knocked around Indiana for a spell while playing in local bands and trying to avoid further run-ins with the police. After four years of this lifestyle he decided to move to Los Angeles. As he was leaving, his sister called up an old high school friend of hers, William Bailey. Bailey had also relocated to L.A. and she asked him to keep an eye on her little brother. Bailey, now known as Axl Rose, agreed and a friendship was born.

Upon arriving in L.A., Axl introduced Hoon to Rikki Rachtman who owned the infamous club called The Cathouse. Rachtman gave Hoon a job at the club and he started getting acquainted with the L.A. scene. He started jamming with a few guys from Mississippi that he met at a party and this eventually grew into Blind Melon. The name of the band was a nod to the old Cheech and Chong character Blind Melon Chitlin.

Blind Melon recorded a four song demo and shopped it to the record labels. They were signed by Columbia Records and recorded an EP with Columbia. The EP didn’t capture the sound the band was looking for and they weren’t comfortable in L.A. They relocated to North Carolina and lived together in a rented home they called Sleepyhouse. This time was wisely spent and Blind Melon emerged as a tightly knit unit.

They moved on to Seattle in 1992 to record their self-titled debut album at London Bridge Studio. London Bridge had built a reputation of helping launch major bands through their work with Alice In Chains, Mother Love Bone, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Temple of the Dog. While at work in the studio the band took a break to go on tour as the opening act for Soundgarden. The album was finally released in September of 1992 and Blind Melon went on tour with Guns n Roses.

The song “Tones of Home” was released as the first single but didn’t have much success. Things changed dramatically with the release of their next song, and more importantly the video for, “No Rain”. This video featured the “Bee Girl” and immediately captured the attention of the pop music world. Over time, this was a blessing as well as a curse because most people only associated the band with that one song and video.

In the short term, however, Hoon basked in his new found glory. Blind Melon was riding high, opening for Neil Young and then touring with Lenny Kravitz. They were featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine and played on Saturday Night Live. They continued to tour until Hoon’s alcohol and drug use spiraled out of control. The band cancelled a tour in early 1994 while Hoon checked into rehab.

After getting out of rehab and settling down for a bit, Blind Melon played the most important show of their career at Woodstock ’94. Hoon appeared on stage hopped up on LSD while wearing a dress and barrettes in his hair and absolutely, positively killed it. His performance, and the band as a whole, was one of the highlights of the entire festival. Following the legendary Woodstock show, the band opened for the Rolling Stones.

After the Stones tour the band relocated to New Orleans to record their sophomore album “Soup”. New Orleans proved to be more temptation than Hoon could handle and his drug use again started raging. Soon after recording he learned he was going to be a father and again checked himself into rehab. His daughter, Nico Blue, was born in July 1995 while “Soup” was released in August of the same year.

The band toured again, this time with a “handler” specifically hired to babysit Hoon. This worked for a short while but Hoon was quickly back to his old tricks. The band played a show in Houston and Hoon performed rather poorly. They made their way to New Orleans for their next show and Hoon binged throughout the night. The next morning Shannon Hoon was found dead from a cocaine overdose at the age of 28.

Here’s Blind Melon with one of the first songs Hoon ever wrote, “Change”. Hoon wrote this song prior to forming Blind Melon and actually played it on an acoustic guitar for his future bandmates the first night they met.