Blind Melon

Blind Melon’s greatest gift has always been the simple, often profound, wisdom that they so casually weave into their home-spun alt-rock—a legacy somehow perfectly encapsulated in the free-spirited moves of their beloved Bee Girl mascot. Formed in 1990 by a group of Los Angeles transplants just as grunge broke, Blind Melon spoke to a vast spectrum of disaffected youth across America. But their sound was rooted in classic rock and psychedelia, all soaked in southern comfort thanks to the Mississippi roots of guitarist Rogers Stevens, drummer Glen Graham and bassist Brad Smith. Meanwhile, Indiana-born howler Shannon Hoon, first heard singing backup on Guns N’ Roses’ “Don’t Cry”, brought the existential pain and pathos: “Nobody here really understands me,” he drawls on first single “Tones of Home”, summing up the thoughts of teens and outsiders everywhere. That paisley-plaid swirl lifted Blind Melon’s 1992 self-titled debut album onto the charts, and eventually to multi-platinum status thanks to the folksy, snap-along “No Rain”—not to mention its video starring the LP’s Bee Girl cover star. Their 1995 follow-up, Soup, took a darker, deeper dive into swampy, bluesy rock, but its release would be overshadowed by Hoon’s tragic death by overdose just two months later. Shaken, the remaining members waited over a decade to reunite. In 2006, they invited Travis Warren—whose raspy cry carries its own weathered ache—to resurrect Blind Melon’s rootsy sound while honouring Hoon’s most haunting words, from 1992’s “Change”: “And when your deepest thoughts are broken, keep on dreaming, boy/’Cause when you stop dreamin’ it’s time to die.”