Around Christmas time a couple of years ago my best friend told me about a band called Blind Melon. She said that she had gotten their CD for Christmas and wanted me to hear them, so I did. I loved them from the minute I first heard Shannon's voice. I taped it off and listened to it non-stop. Then I got a Blind Melon CD of my own and listened to that all day and night too. They were my favorite band. I wrote "Blind Melon Forever" everywhere I could. I still listened to them in 1995 when I walked by the living room in time to here No Rain playing on the news. I thought to myself, "The NEWS?" and I stopped to hear what was being said. I was incredibly shocked when I found out that Shannon was dead. He died on October 21, 1995, on a tourbus in New Orleans, just before a performance. He had cocaine and marijuana in his system.
All you hear about Shannon Hoon is what a great man he was and its true. He was. He had a beautiful soul. Blind Melon had only released their 2nd album when Shannon died. The first one is self titled, and the 2nd one is called "Soup". Both of them are really awesome, but I always go back to the first one because it has one of my favorite songs on it. Change. I think it's a really awesome song and I will always love it.
Shannon Hoon was the best. And because he was my favorite singer, and Blind Melon was my favorite band at the time of his death, in my mind he always will be the best. Always remembered, everyday of my life, and never ever forgotten.
Shannon's voice can be heard singing with Axl Rose in GNR's song Dont Cry, both versions, on the CD's Use Your Illusion 1 & 2. I happen to love that song too.
The Bee Girl on the cover of this CD is not the same one that is in the No Rain video. On the cover of the CD, is an old picture of someone in the band's sister. Shannon Hoon was born on September 26, 1967 and grew up in Lafayette, Indiana, and even though he hated it as a child and moved away, he did eventually move back so that his baby daughter, Nico Blue, could grow up in a safe place. He believes that children are "God's presents." Explains the title for Carseat on Soup, doesnt it? Also, he has a tattoo of a poem his grandmother (not Vernie) wrote on his left arm that is recited at the end of the song. On the day his girlfriend told him he was going to be a father, Shannon wrote a song called New Life. It is on the CD Soup. On the page where the lyrics to New Life are found, the backgound is a picture of an ultrasound. His baby girl was named after his favorite flower.
The CD Soup has 14 tracks.
The man on the cover of this CD is Andy Wallace, Blind Melon's producer. Galaxie is about Shannon's first love. 2x4 is supposed to be about Shannon shooting up heroin. Vernie is Shannon's grandmother. He loved her. She had a lot of glass chickens in her house. (Thats why he mentions it in the song, =)) Skinned is a song that kinda makes fun of the serial killer Ed Gein. Toes Across The Floor being the serious counterpart to Skinned. "Doesn't anybody feel, that all the killers should be killed?" Dumptruck is a song written about Shannon's friend that died of cancer. St. Andrew's Fall is a sad song. Shannon wrote that to illustrate his feelings when he and the rest of the band saw a woman commit suicide by jumping from a building.
The remaing members of Blind Melon have put together one last CD which was released in November 1996. They named it Nico, as a tribute to Shannon's daughter and it has 13 songs with Shannon on it. There will also be a new and last video from Blind Melon, intitled Letters From A Porcupine. Get them both N O W ! ! !
I got Nico for Christmas. It was origionally going to be an EP called Your Highness.
I love Soup. That song is just awesome. It was performed at Woodstock '94. Shannon wore his girlfriend's dress because the mood suited him. No Rain (ripped away) sounds quite different, but the drums in the end are really cool, and its pretty short, but its a good song. St. Andrew's Hall is better on this CD. I like this version much better. Also, its an enhanced CD, which means that if you put it in your CD Rom, you can see all kinds of cool stuff. Um, what can I say? It's a terrific CD. Shannon's voice is just all there is to it.
The members of Blind Melon have decided to go on and get a new singer and use a different name for the new band. But I don't think anyone will ever be as good as Shannon was.
Shannon lives in our hearts
Visit the Official Blind Melon Page
Andrew's Blind Melon Page
Go see Matt's Blind Melon Page
And John's Blind Melon Page.
I don't feel the sun's comin' out today, it's stayin' in, gonna find another way, yeah. And as I sit here in this misery, I don't think I'll ever, no Lord, see the sun from here. And, oh, as I fade away, they'll all look at me and say, and they'll say, "Hey look at him, I'll never live that way." But thats okay, they're just afraid to change. And when you feel your life aint worth livin', you got stand up and take a look around you and then a look up way to the sky, yeah, and when your deepest thoughts are broken, keep on dreamin' boy cause when you stop dreaming its time to die, yeah, and as we all play darts of tomorrow, some ways will work and other ways we'll play, yeah but I know we cant all stay in forever, so I'm gonna write my words on the face of today....and then they'll paint it. And oh, as I fade away, they'll all look at me and say, and they'll say, "Hey look at him and where he is these days." When life is hard, you have to change. When life is hard you have to change.
If you are as much of a Melonhead as me, please feel free to drop me a line, I always love to hear from other Blind Melon/Shannon Hoon fans...shannonhoon@hotmail.com
pictures from John's Blind Melon Page.