Richard Shannon Hoon

Sitting alone in the comfortable chair, I was looking at the beast. Stuffed with wool, it still had a ferocious look on its visage. Its fangs were gleaming underneath the blue sparkle from the overhead tube. To my right was a king size John Lennon stark naked huddled besides Yoko Ono in what appeared to be a schmaltz display of passionate love. It’s sad that the guy was shot very soon after this photo shoot. Its considered to be a very emotional photograph by the guy who did the photo shoot. With my sprained neck, I have to make sure that I do not involve my neck into any sudden involuntary movement. So after a deliberate attempt at getting some attention from the waiter, I walked up to the bar man and got myself a light. The feeling of a bar in the early afternoon of a Sunday morning is very peaceful to me. You can literally spend some quality time thinking about the world (I jest). But on a serious note, its like walking bare feet in the mansion of your head, studying the mess the guests from yesterday had made, smiling at the corner yonder, where you sat and just falling in love with the morning emptiness of your otherwise crowded house. Being fairly acquainted at a bar has its own benefits, like every one knows what drink you will have, when you need a refill, how many cigarettes you smoke, at what rate you smoke (and with the previous two trivia info they can make a rough back of the envelope calculation as to when you would be needing a light) etcetera. So all the waiters, like well crafted players in a well documented play, appear only when its bare necessary and with the same agility they disappear thereby leaving the protagonist the way he prefers, unfettered solitude. As soon as I felt the sweet tinge of nicotine flirting languidly with the remnants of the American yeast, I started swaying with the grunge vocals of Richard Shannon Hoon (lead vocalist Blind Melon). The name Blind Melon is a term for hippies from Mississippi. As per the general trivia the guys were sitting together after a Jam session and were figuring out a name for their band. Just then Brad Smith (bassist) walked in and said, “ What’s up, blind melons.” And so the name stayed. It was a term coined by Brad's dad. It’s sad though that Shannon OD ed on Oct 21st, 1995 in New Orleans, when he had so many musical arrows unfired in his quiver. Their song “Change” is my all time favorites although the “Bee girl”, No Rain is one of their more popular songs. Richard Shannon knew Axl Rose who was a friend of Shannon’s sister. Shannon used to hang around during GNR’s jamming sessions and started giving back up vocals for many of their songs. In case you have noticed his voice in the song Don’t Cry by GNR. In 1990 Shannon teamed up with Roger Stevens (guitar & Piano), Brad Smith (Bass & Flute), Glen Graham (Drums & Percussions) and Christopher Thorn (Guitar, mandolin & Harmonica) and came out with their self-named debut album produced by Rick Parashar (the Pearl Jam guy). Their single No Rain was a smash hit. In 94, Blind Melon opened for Joe Crocker in Woodstock. Backstage, Shannon asked Joe to sign his guitar. Apparently Joe turned around the guitar and signed it all the way across. Shannon said, “If this music thing doesn’t work out, I have my rent paid up with this autograph.” By 1995, Shannon’s drug abuse was getting out of control. He used to get violent onstage and once during a live show threw the Congo in the audience. During his way in the patrol car he smashed the window glass, bit the duty officer, spat on his face and trashed the telephone at the station. After being in and out of Detox, Shannon seemed to be stable and the band looked fit, but deep down inside Roger Stevens (guitarist) knew that as long as Shannon doesn’t get his act together and quits crack and cocaine, they would crash and burn any day. During their last concert together, the band checked into Le Meridian at 07:00 am, Roger and Shannon rode the elevator together. All the band members checked into their rooms and around 08:30 am Shannon called up his girlfriend and they spoke for 45 minutes. Somehow during that conversation he was able to disguise how messed up he was at that time. Afterwards Shannon took the elevator down, stopped to invite the doorman to their evening concert and then he walked out of the hotel. He reached LA Smoothie and ordered a smoothie for himself where the girl taking his order said that he apparently dialed one of those 1-900 numbers and spoke to a psychic. After spending around an hour reading newspaper and talking on the phone Shannon walked back to the crew’s van. He took off all his clothes, folded them neatly into a pile and laid down in Christopher Thorn’s bed and never woke up. At one in the afternoon the band members saw Shannon’s feet sticking out of the bus. When he did not responded to their tickle on his feet they soon realized the gravity of the situation. They gave him CPR and rushed him to the hospital where he was declared, “brought dead”. His death shocked the whole community. I personally feel he could have done better with his stay on earth, but as they say, death got better of him. His mother was quoted as saying on his burial, “ He will probably sing to the angels now. They also need a good singer like him up there.” The band tried a lot many times to get back together, they placed ads in local newspapers for lead vocalist, but the void of Shannon was not be filled again. They released an album named, NICO after Shannon’s daughter, which had their unreleased songs. The profits from this album went to an organization, which helped musicians who wanted to come clean of drug and alcohol abuse. The band officially disbanded on March 4th, 1999. Ironically during their last tour, Roger walked up to Shannon who was sitting with his stash of cocaine and said, “ I have your eulogy ready with me. Do you wanna hear what I am gonna say at your burial.” Quite ironic, don’t you think? Shannon’s epitaph: “ I KNOW WE CAN’T ALL STAY HERE FOREVER SO I WANT TO WRITE MY WORDS ON THE FACE OF TODAY AND THEY’LL PAINT IT” from their single Change. Note: I have taken some quotes and dates from the bands official website blindmelon(dot)org.