Formation, debut and success (1990–1993) Blind Melon formed in Los Angeles in March 1990 after
West Point, Mississippi, transplants
Rogers Stevens and Brad Smith, a guitarist and bassist respectively, met vocalist
Shannon Hoon, a native of
Lafayette, Indiana. Guitarist Christopher Thorn, originally from
Pennsylvania, was added shortly thereafter; the four eventually convinced drummer Glen Graham to relocate from Mississippi to complete the group after failing to find a drummer in Los Angeles. There is also a
Cheech & Chong character named
Blind Melon Chitlin', who is a parody of the 1920s
blues musician
Blind Lemon Jefferson. The band debuted with a four-song demo,
The Goodfoot Workshop, in 1991.
Capitol Records A&R executive
Tim Devine signed Blind Melon later that year and oversaw sessions with famed producer
David Briggs for an unreleased EP to be titled ''The Sippin' Time Sessions''. The recordings were abandoned due to the band's dissatisfaction with the production quality, which they felt resulted in "slick and doctored" results. Hoon's friendship and association with
Guns N' Roses frontman
Axl Rose accrued additional industry attention for the group, as he provided backing vocals on several Guns N' Roses tracks on 1991's
Use Your Illusion I and
II albums, including the single "
Don't Cry". Blind Melon embarked upon a tour supporting
Soundgarden late that year. At drummer Glen Graham's suggestion, the band relocated to
Durham,
North Carolina, while beginning work on what would become their
self-titled debut album with producer
Rick Parashar, debuting in the
Billboard top 40 on October 9, 1993.
Soup and Hoon's death (1993–1995) The group toured extensively in support of their debut, performing dates in Europe and Mexico and supporting such acts as
Neil Young and
Lenny Kravitz late in 1993. Their activity the following year included a performance at
Woodstock '94 in August and a supporting slot on the
Rolling Stones'
Voodoo Lounge Tour thereafter. Amidst rising success, the band began to experience personal and legal problems related to drug and alcohol abuse, In 1994, the members relocated to
New Orleans,
Louisiana,
Soup ultimately failed to meet sales expectations.
All Music Guide reviewer Theresa E. LaVeck has praised the tune's "'70s feel-good vibe" and "rolling jam-band rhythms". Against the advice of Hoon's drug counselor, on October 21, 1995, in Uptown New Orleans. although it would ultimately take them over a decade to do so. In 1996, they issued
Nico, an album of outtakes and demos named for Hoon's daughter, who was only 13 weeks old when her father died. During this period, the relationships between the band members disintegrated as they attempted to recruit a new frontman. After failing to find a replacement for Hoon, Blind Melon officially dissolved their partnership on March 4, 1999, and the various members went on to other projects, including Thorn and Smith's activity in
Unified Theory, a group they had founded the previous year.
Inactivity (1999–2006) In 2002, Capitol Records released a
Classic Masters CD showcasing twelve Blind Melon songs. Thanks to stronger-than-expected sales, the band released
The Best of Blind Melon in 2005, a CD–DVD package that features Blind Melon performing live from a September 1995 concert in
Chicago. On December 15, 2006, a
tribute album to Blind Melon was released by Yakmusic in
New Zealand featuring bands from all over the world. In April 2006, Capitol Records released the
Live at the Palace CD.
Reunion and For My Friends (2006–2008) Blind Melon announced their reformation on September 15, 2006, which included the addition of new lead singer Travis Warren (formerly of Rain Fur Rent). Three new Blind Melon songs – "Make a Difference", "For My Friends" and "Harmful Belly" – followed on November 9. On October 7, 2007, they performed their first live concert in twelve years in
Providence, Rhode Island. "Wishing Well", the first single from the group's upcoming third studio album, was released on March 4, 2008, to coincide with a U.S. tour. The album,
For My Friends, was released on April 22, 2008, on Adrenaline Records. On September 17, 2008, the biography
A Devil on One Shoulder and an Angel on the Other: The Story of Shannon Hoon and Blind Melon by Greg Prato was published. European tour dates followed thereafter. On November 6, 2008, the band announced the departure of Warren, despite having unfulfilled concert dates. Initially, the band intended to honor their remaining dates, and announced
Chris Shinn of Unified Theory as lead vocalist for the remainder of their tour. However, this was later retracted, and the tour canceled. Warren ultimately returned to perform a previously scheduled gig with Blind Melon on December 31, 2008, in
Dearborn, Michigan, which was announced as his final show.
Hiatus (2009–2010) Capitol Records released the four-track EP "Deep Cuts" in April 2009 as a digital download. The members remained active with other projects: Smith and Thorn played with Codename Mike, while Smith also toured with
Revis as a guest member and Thorn played briefly with
Awolnation. Graham formed the band Jakeleg with his long-time friend Joe Tullos.
Second reformation and new album (2010–present) On November 2, 2010, Blind Melon announced its reformation and Warren's return. Their first performance came November 27, when they played a free concert at the base of
Aspen Mountain in
Aspen, Colorado. They continued sporadic performances over the coming months, opening for
Candlebox at The Hard Rock Hotel in
Albuquerque, New Mexico, on February 4, 2011, and headlining Rest Fest at Crumland Farms,
Frederick, Maryland, on September 5. In 2012 they toured South America, with dates in Chile and Argentina, and Western Europe thereafter. On the status of the group, Graham stated late that year that "Blind Melon is still a functioning entity; Travis Warren is our current vocalist as he has been since 2007; however, we are only doing the occasional one-off and currently have no plans to record full length CDs." To cap 2015, the band played back-to-back shows on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day at Lafayette Theater in
Lafayette, Indiana, with Shannon Hoon's mother present. Nico Blue, Hoon's daughter, took the stage to sing the song "Change." By 2018, Blind Melon had spent the last couple years working on new material for the follow-up to
For My Friends. In a July 2018 interview on
Consequence of Sound's "Kyle Meredith With ..." podcast, guitarist Christopher Thorn stated, "I've been mixing the new single or the new song, I could say ... the new song for the next Blind Melon record. We've been writing a bunch, and we have a song and a video done, so we just mixed the new song last night actually." Thorn also revealed that the band had been tracking some eight songs for the album since last December at his studio in
Silver Lake, but added that there was no date set for release. A documentary about Hoon titled
All I Can Say (composed mostly of footage he shot on a handheld camera from 1990 to 1995) premiered at the
Tribeca Film Festival on April 26, 2019, and was released on June 26, 2020, on online streaming platforms. It was later released on DVD and
Blu-ray on November 24, 2020. In September 2019, Blind Melon released their first song in 11 years "Way Down And Far Below". Thorn stated that the band was expected to release their fourth studio album in 2020; however, in an interview with
Guitar World in February 2021, when asked about the state of the fourth studio album, Stevens said "We're going to release singles every couple of months, and then when there are 10-12 of them, we're going to press vinyl and sell it to whoever wants it," while when Thorn was asked if the plan was to release the album by year's end, he replied, "We've got to get a record out this year.
For sure." On November 1, 2021, author Greg Prato issued a follow-up book to
A Devil on One Shoulder and an Angel on the Other, simply titled
Shannon, and featured all-new interviews with either people who knew Shannon or were admirers of his music (plus a "roundtable discussion" with Stevens and Thorn). In 2025, the band played their first show in six years, when they played the Genesee Theatre,
Waukegan, Illinois on February 15, followed by shows throughout the year. ==Band members==