Brad Smith was born in West Point, Mississippi (population 8,000) on September 29, 1968.  He played baritone sax in junior high and then snare drum. Brad and Thomas Rogers Stevens first met when they were in Cub Scouts together.

Rogers was born on October 31, 1970 also in West Point, Mississippi.  His mother was a high school English teacher. Brad taught himself how to play guitar by the age of 13 and then he taught Rogers how to play.  The first song he taught him was the Scorpions' Rock You Like a Hurricane.  In high school, they were in a number of cover bands together.  Brad went to college but decided not to complete it and in 1989, they piled up their belongings into Brad's Honda Civic and headed off to Los Angeles.

Richard Shannon Hoon was born on September 26, 1967 in Lafayette, Indiana.  His father was a construction worker and a big sports lover and pushed Shannon to follow in his footsteps.  Shannon excelled in karate (becoming a black belt at just age nine), wrestling, pole vaulting, and all the usual sports but he just made the bare minimum grades to stay on the teams.  He was also a trouble maker and had many run-ins with local police.  Mostly fighting and breaking in and messing up the house of a teacher who had crossed him. He got a fish tattoo on his back which covered the scar from where once he had been stabbed by having been thrown onto a car radio antenna.  In March of 1990, he got on a Greyhound bus and went to Los Angeles with $800 to his name.  After being there less than a month he met Rogers and Brad at a party and the three began jamming and discovered they had something in common: none of them wanted to have anything to do with the city’s metal circuit.  "We hated the whole LA glam scene," says Brad.  "It was just disgusting and we rebelled against that so heavily that we had something really unique."

They decided to look for a second guitarist. Several months earlier Brad had answered an ad in Music Connection magazine.  He never landed with the group, Animal Farm, but kept in touch with the guy who auditioned him,  Christopher Thorn. Christopher was born in Dover, Pennsylvania on December 16, 1968.  His mom was in a bluegrass band.   He was in a band during his high school days.  Afterwards, he moved into an apartment in York with his girlfriend in preparation for his second year of college, but just before the semester was to start, he packed up a U-Haul, quit school and moved to Los Angeles.

For months, the four scoured Hollywood for a drummer but had no luck.  They were looking for someone with finesse.  Finally, Rogers and Brad thought of Glen Graham, a fellow Mississippian they had met on the club circuit back home.  Glen was born on December 5, 1968 and was the son of an attorney.  He was raised in Columbus, Mississippi in what he calls the “the epitome of the American sitcom family.”   Glen was attending his second year of college at Mississippi State University when he received the call from Rogers.  Ironically, the band he was in had just lost its guitarist on the day he got the call and he took the timing as an omen.  He quit school and set out for California with $25 in his pocket and a minimalist jazz kit that the other band members took great delight in scorning.  “The bass drum looked like it was made out of a coffee can,”  said Shannon.

With the final band member added, they were complete but needed to find a name for their new found band. They considered Brown Cow, Gristie, Frog, Mud Bird, Naked Pilgrims and Head Train.  One day Brad asked, “What’s happening, blind melons?” It was how his father used to greet some hippie neighbors back home.  There were about ten of them renting the house next door to the Smith’s, none with any discernible source of income so the image fit.