On the Band
On the First Album
On Recording in New Orleans
On Soup
On Nico
On Fame
On Playing Live
On Song Writing
On the Bee Girl
On Woodstock '94
On Fatherhood
On Shannon's Death
 



 
 
 

THE BAND

"If there's a mission for Blind Melon, it is giving you back that feeling of when the world was brand new."
Glen, 1992

"We never were the band that believed in making all that money and becoming stars. It meant more us to have a group that had unity and people to lean on if you were fucking up."
Shannon

"I want people to listen to what we're trying to do...open up their minds.  It's a mind thing instead of a physical thing.  I want people to be able to hear the lyrics and get some sort of message on what the songs are about and what kind of mood we're trying to put across to them.  There may not even be a message...maybe just a mood ."
Brad

"There's no leader of this band, and there never will be.  That's the key. You can't control how the public perceives you--people see rock'n'roll bands as the guitar player and the singer--but that's not Blind Melon. We're fortunate that every person in this band can write a great song."
-Shannon

"I think each of us alone is nothing compared to what we are collectively as a band.   It's like everybody puts in their two cents and we get ten bucks."
Brad

"We're really fortunate. We play music for a living...that's nuts."
Christopher

"We all enjoy the band and what we're doing, but we know this isn't gonna last forever."
Shannon, 1993
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THE FIRST ALBUM
"Occasionally, Shannon will write a complete song and we'll thicken it up, but the songs usually come out of a riff, jamming, then arranging them.  Shannon usually writes the lyrics, Brad (Smith, bassist) does sometimes, basically those two guys. But the music is all of ours."
Glen, 1992

"A lot of the first record was written more in a jam situation because we all lived together.
Christopher

"There are some percussion and guitar overdubs and some of the vocals are tracked, but all of the songs were recorded live.  That's because we are a band, and we have no particular vision of recording other than to represent the band as it sounds live."
Glen, 1992

"I think the first album we did had that kind of mentality 'oh we came from small cities, look at us, we can really tear it up, can't we?'"
Brad

"I think we really almost burnt ourselves out on one record."
Shannon
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NEW ORLEANS
"It definitely tests your will - New Orleans is no place for a frustrated metabolism.  There's so much to do there and there's so much that the city offers; your day is not built around recording a record.  We weren't just down there to make a record - we were down there to blow out all the cobwebs in every part of your body."
Shannon, 1995

“I feel like this is one of the great cities.  There's a high regard for art and architecture, music and all that stuff.”
Rogers

"Coming to New Orleans was the end of one life and the beginning of something new, but it was a difficult transition. Halfway through the recording session, he (Shannon) said the devil is walking the earth and he's in New Orleans."
Chris Jones
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SOUP
"That's what I think I like the most about the record. ... It's a good book, instead of a few good chapters.  I think that the writing has gotten a little bit better, I think it's more diverse. (But) you risk the chance of losing a lot of people, because some people don't like to jump around the board musically like we do."
Shannon, 1995

"We're thrilled and delighted that the first one sold so well - I don't think any of us thought it was going to but I don't listen to it at all, it's painful - it sounded like us still trying to shake our influences.  This one, I like - it sounds like us. If it sells 50 million or not at all, I couldn't care less.  We'll make another record."
Glen, 1995

"We never thought about it until the record was done and people started asking about it and we realized that there's some sort of fascination with death or something on this record. I don't know what it is but it's there.
Rogers, 1995

"I thought Soup was exactly what this album is.  It's everybody adding their own concise ingredient."
Brad

"I found a certain type of sound that I can do which basically sounds like sort of the sound that maybe a national anthem to a small eastern European nation would sound like."
Rogers

"We're still a young band.  This is only our second record.  We were very green on the first record."
Shannon

"It's been three years.  We've all changed."
Christopher

"The songs are more about individual writing and coming together and the other four guys working on this guys song."
Brad

"I feel more confident about what we're doing as a band and what we're trying to do as a band and the way we're looking at it as a band."
Shannon

"We've honed the craft of song writing down somewhat and have managed to shorten the songs and take a lot of the extraneous bullshit out of them."
Rogers

"This is going to be a lot better all the way around I think.   We have more songs to chose from for one thing.  The playing is a lot better and the writing is a lot better."
Glen

"It just seemed like Lets just make a great record and have a really good time doing it."
Christopher

"You have people who are unstable to begin with and then you start to add other factors into the equation and it doesn't add up."
Rogers, 1995

"I'd say we had more good days than bad days, but the bad days were of monumental significance."
Glen, 1995

"I feel we really sampled a lot of musical styles that we were interested in.  You do that at the risk of losing a lot of people, but I think that anybody who really likes the band realizes that we like to change."
Shannon, 1995

"The producer of the thing, he's good. He's the first guy we've used that's actually like  a real producer."
Glen

"I feel like we've made improvements over the last record."
Rogers

"It's an enjoyable project.  I get along with all the guys pretty well and so its been good and its good music. It's a lot of fun musically.
Andy Wallace (producer)

"I like this record a lot more than I do the first record.  The first record was a good reflection of where we were at the time we made it.  But I don't want to live my whole life through one album.  All I can really ask, and I think everybody in the band will agree, is to try to musically move forward. You can't judge the satisfaction of a record based on how many it sells.  All I can ask is that our playing gets better, that our writing gets better and that we feel like we've progressed. "
Shannon, 1995
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NICO

 "These songs deserve to be heard by the people who were into the band.  I want people who appreciated Shannon to get this last batch of songs.  I think some of our best stuff is on this record.  We had a good time working on this record.  It wasn't all somber.  It's not our motivation that's important. We want to make music.  We want to be heard.  We want Shannon to be heard.  Sure, we'd love for it to sell a million copies and make money.  Who wouldn't?  But that's not our reason for putting it out. It's our responsibility to Blind Melon's fans.”
Rogers

"We didn't make the record to win over new fans. It's not about that for us.  It's sort of giving back to the people that supported us. We just want to say, 'Thanks for being there. This is it.  This is everything.  Good-bye.  Now we're moving on.'"
Christopher, 1996

Shannon's greatest creation was Nico, so it seems like a perfect title."
Rogers

"As soon as we got into the studio, it just felt right.  Playing again with these guys was the same as it always was, because we always wrote the music, went in and recorded and then Shannon would come in afterwards to lay down his vocals.  So, instead of coming in later, he was already there on tape."
Glen

“There are a lot more chapters that should have been written as Blind Melon, but that's not going to be.  This is it.  This is all the music we have to put out with Shannon.  We're moving forward because this is all we know how to do.
Rogers
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FAME
"(The band's success) made me realize that all these people who complain about the fame aspect of this and how their privacy has been invaded are missing the whole impact that this makes.  I don't care about what or how any of these affects anybody else's life but my own.  I know that sounds selfish, but you have to look at what it's doing to you personally - are you frustrated because of the way people perceive you, or are you happy enough about the things you've realized about yourself that you can tolerate the way people perceive you?"
Shannon, 1995
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PLAYING LIVE
"We don't necessarily play the songs like the records. Although the record was done live, you don't really get it until you see us. We keep adding segues and intros and outros to keep it evolving into a more rolling, spontaneous thing.  As far as energy on stage, we went through a lull for a long time, which we've  just come out of. It's so depressing you want to give it up. It's what you've  wanted to do all your life, getting to tour, but having a couple of weeks when  you feel like an infant on your instrument, it's awful. But fortunately, it does come back."
Glen, 1992

"I want them to maybe be surprised.  They're hearing something fresh, and they know that we haven't rehearsed it over and over.  Maybe they're seeing something that hasn't happened before, and we're stumbling on to some sort of spontaneous inspiration. Then sometimes it falls flat on its face, and I think that's fair, too. Like, 'Oh, well - we gave it a shot.' "
Christopher, 1992

"About the time 'No Rain' came out,  we'd been touring for over a year - we were ready to make another record, but we had to keep going.  That drained us, we weren't ready for that - complicated by the fact that we only had 13 songs to play, plus a couple of covers. I'm sure people in Denver who saw us four times were going, "OK, all right, great, whatever something new, please!' "Now we can play two weeks worth of sets and not have to repeat the same one. That'll keep us happier longer."
Glen, 1995

"That's when I realize that the people who come to the shows, that's their role...to help us understand why we enjoy doing this sometimes.  You get removed from that a lot, and sometimes you really need the support of the people who listen to your songs and come to your shows."
Shannon, 1995

"Playing the arenas, I got to live out all my adolescent arena rock fantasies."
Rogers

"Our strength is in our live shows and it's not like we're too good to play anywhere.  If the offer is feasible and we can work it out, we'll be there.  It's not as if we're 'above' anything."
Shannon, 1994
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SONG WRITING
"I think it just becomes a matter of respecting the people that you create with," You don't have to be best friends.  Tension is a very inspiring and very creative element in this band."
Shannon, 1995

"You use everything.  You use tragedy you use everything."
Shannon

"He's (Shannon) protective of his songs - they're written unintentionally in an ambiguous style.  He's got a million ideas. He'll write five sets of lyrics and then mix them up and put them together in one tune. I don't even think he knows what they're about."
Glen, 1995

"I really enjoy the therapeutic value of writing songs."
Shannon

"When you start to dislike  something you love to do, there's something going wrong somewhere.  We were catering to the success of a single.  You want to do it because people want to see you play and you want to play.  But sometimes you have to sit back and evaluate whether it's affecting you personally.  You insult people when you get up there and you don't want to be there and you think that they don't see it."
Shannon
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THE BEE GIRL
"I'm extremely talented.  I guess when the director first set eyes on me, he liked me.  I try my best to be an actress, and I'm just great.  I'm the one and only Bee Girl.  I didn't even know how to tap-dance.  I just made it up.  I feel like a celebrity but I have to say, I see myself so much on TV that when the Bee Girl comes on, I just click right through the channel."
Heather DeLoach (the bee girl), 1993

"That girl was so annoying I was ready to strangle her the day we were shooting the video.  Her parents got mad because I took off all my clothes and ran through this field.  They didn't take too kindly to that and grabbed her by a wing and left."
Shannon, 1995

"Some people are trying to punish us for making a great video, which is just absurd.  It's like saying, 'They were cool until they had that big video.' What are you talking about, man?  Just because it got shoved down people's throats, it's not our fault.  We don't make those decisions.  This video has enabled us to do more things.  It's given us power to take more control, to have time to write the songs we want to write and to be creative."
Christopher, 1994

"We thought it was just a classic American thing.  Every girl we knew had to do some recital thing and wear little costumes. It was an easy image to relate to."
Glen, 1996

Glen is always joking, 'You don't understand what a big deal it was, you were one of the most famous album covers of all time.' I'm, like, 'Fine. Whatever.'"
Georgia Graham (Glen's sister), 1996

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WOODSTOCK '94
"The only time you felt the remnants of the first Woodstock was Joe Cocker.  We went on after Joe Cocker, and to see Joe Cocker sing Feelin' Alright was something that just blew me away.  I was like, "Oh, my God, not only am I blown away by this, but we have to play after this. ' "I met Peter Max there.  That was someone I've always wanted to meet.  I asked him to sign my guitar and he turned my acoustic guitar over and drew a whole picture on the back of it. I was like, 'Wow, if this rock 'n' roll thing doesn't work out, this'll pay the rent for a while.'"
Shannon, 1995

"We rehearsed for Woodstock for like four hours and it turned into a beerfest."
Brad

"I was so overwhelmed.  I was just numb."
Christopher

"I was truly cynical about it."
Rogers

"That was probably the most terrifying gig I've ever had in my life.  I don't get stage fright or anything.  We went on right after Joe Cocker and we got out there and...it was satellite broadcast around the world."
Glen
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FATHERHOOD
"We decided after the first record , we can't sit and wait and say,  'When things slow down, we'll start then.' Because if I keep doing this for the next 10 years, I want to be able to relate to my child.  I don't want to have a generation gap between my child and me that is unapproachable as far as communication goes."
Shannon, 1995

"Having a child can make you re-evaluate how you need to be there.   I need to start caring about myself if I'm going to be the proper father.  It's something that I couldn't even imagine how to prepare myself for.  It makes being here and doing this a little bit harder, because I'm going to be a father longer than I'm going to be a singer.  This is all fun and youth prolonging, but I want to be a father, and it's hard to be when you're away.
Shannon, 1995

"A kid does that to you, Lisa and I are trying to build a very good home for her, and I don't think that me being in jail somewhere is the appropriate way to go about it."
Shannon, 1995

"Being a father floored him, he had talked about how he wanted something pure."
Chris Jones
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SHANNON'S DEATH
"Now that Shannon's dead, you sort of realize he was basically telling us what was going to happen to him.  Everybody knew he was putting himself in danger living his life the way he did.  I went into complete denial.  I kept expecting the phone to ring and him to be on the line screaming at me.  It took awhile to realize he wouldn't be.  I talked to Shannon every day for five years."
Rogers

When your best friend ODs, it's a real eye-opener especially someone like Shannon, who had 50 times the energy I'll ever have.  If it got him, it can get me ... or just about anybody I know.  It was a senseless thing.  We learned some hard lessons.  You begin to realize the impact his death had on everybody around him.  I spent a lot of time getting mad at Shannon; in the end, I know he was really trying ... but his demons got the best of him."
Rogers

"I really loved the guy and I feel just horrible for his baby."
Doug Goldstein, 1995

"He was the kind of guy that could get you to do anything.  He seemed like the kind of guy nothing could stop."
Donnie Boles (Longtime friend)

"We're a little taken aback, because he seemed to have things going his way.  We knew that he had straightened up.  I think he was trying to get things more stable in his life."
Jake Burton (a family friend and athletic director at McCutcheon High School)

"His death was something that doesn't surprise you totally.  It surprised me, because he was a father and he enjoyed that role. But I guess it's hard to balance everything when you you are in that (rock star) lifestyle."
Amy Anderson (grew up with shannon)

"Shannon was in a lot of pain and dealing with a lot of stuff himself. But he had such a big heart. He really cared about the fans . . . about his daughter, about Lisa, about his friends, about everybody. I feel fortunate to have known him and to have been close to him.  He had an extreme passion for life, he loved his daughter more than anything in the universe. "
Chris Jones (Blind Melon's manager)

"Whatever he did, no matter what it was, he took it to the limit," his mother said. "And he just thought he was invincible, I think."
Nel Hoon (Shannon's Mom)

"We did all we could do, we gave him the information and all the tools he needed. After that, it's up to the person.  Ultimately, I think he was running away from the demons.  But there were a whole lot of demons there."
Chris Jones
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MISCELLANEOUS

"Can't eat at McDonald's every day."
Shannon, 1993

"When we're not doing band things, the last thing we want to do is be around each other."
Glen, 1995

Shannon Hoon says he "always suffered from being somewhere and wanting to be somewhere else."
1995

"We wanted to let the No Rain thing  go away and we wanted to go away.  We wanted people to just forget about us."
Shannon, 1995

I want to do more. I'm never satisfied with what I've done.
Shannon, 1995

 "(Shannon) is a rock star in every sense of the word."
Glen, 1994

"I like to be really high."
Shannon

"I made a living out of being a class clown."
Shannon

"Life isn't a tiptoe through the tulips..."
Shannon, 1993

"I hate the word 'hippy.'  I hate a lot of people, and hippies don't do that!"
Shannon, 1994
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