Blind Melon, new singer carry on

A new studio album will likely come out next year.

By JOHN BENSON

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

“When your deepest thoughts are broken/Keep on dreaming boy, cause when you stop dreamin’ it’s time to die … But I know we all can’t stay here forever/So I want to write my words on the face of today.”

— Blind Melon’s “Change” (also etched into Shannon Hoon’s gravestone)

There’s no doubt that Blind Melon singer Shannon Hoon, who died in 1995 of a cocaine overdose at age 28, left his words on the face of today. More than a decade later, the surviving Blind Melon members — Christopher Thorn, Rogers Stevens, Brad Smith and Glen Graham — are attempting to write a second chapter of the band with new singer Travis Warren.

“I think everybody had been away from the band long enough that the legacy of Blind Melon with Shannon is kind of solidified,” said guitarist Smith, calling from his North Hollywood recording studio. “That’s never going to go away. I’m sure there are going to be naysayers that will like the old band and like Blind Melon Mach 1 with Shannon because he was such an amazing memorable inspirational character.

“But I think that the new band with Travis has a lot to offer as well. Hopefully we won’t tarnish the legacy. I don’t think it’s possible.”

For all intent and purpose, that legacy begins and ends with the band’s lone radio single, the ubiquitous “No Rain,” which while successful, truly doesn’t represent this rock act. In fact, in listening to concerts from the early ’90s, one could easily see how Blind Melon would have followed a similar path taken by the Black Crowes, which during the course of the ’90s went from radio rock act to jam band.

“I think so, and it’s crazy, right?” Smith said. “Chris and I went to Bonnaroo and we were looking around going, ‘This is our crowd. This is our crowd we’d be playing to if the band was still together.’ 

“We’re kind of a jam band by default. The truth is we try to write songs, but we just can’t help ourselves. That’s the problem. We get bored. We always run the risk or fear we’re being self-indulgent, too.”

Considering the magic songwriting ability offstage and amazing chemistry onstage provided by Hoon, the members of Blind Melon thought about carrying on without their engaging singer after his death, but it wasn’t meant to be. The members all went their own ways. Eventually, Smith and Thorn led rock act Unified Theory for a few years.

It wasn’t until the pair was working in the studio with ex-Rain Fur Rent singer Warren that the notion of re-starting Blind Melon was revisited.

“The band got together completely out of left field,” Smith said. “It was almost spooky, spiritual, fate … all of the clichéd stuff you can think of about something that’s supposed to happen or meant to be. Travis came to the studio, we wrote a few songs together and we were like. ‘This guy is freaking us out.’

“He reminded us, on a personality level, of Shannon so much. And the timbre of his voice was really weird. He sounds like himself but he could totally sing songs in Shannon’s range. So we just straight up asked him, ‘Hey, what do you think of singing Blind Melon songs?’ And he was just like flipped out. So we had to call Rogers and Glenn, and it’s just like been like home ever since.”

Without any major label pressures — a new studio album is already recorded and will come out next year, most likely as an independent release — the new Blind Melon is slowly easing back into the grind. You can see the group tonight at the Grog Shop in Cleveland and Oct. 20 at Diesel in Pittsburgh.

“I think Shannon would be happy because we’re totally honoring the songs,” Smith said. “Shannon would have wanted us to go on, probably before now but hey, what can we do?”