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Remembering Blind Melon's Shannon Hoon
10/21/2000 7:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen
(10/21/00, 7 a.m. ET) - Five years ago today, Blind Melon singer/songwriter Shannon Hoon was found dead aboard the band's tour bus in New Orleans outside Tipitina's, a club where the band played that night. A month later a coroner confirmed that he died of a drug overdose.
Although Blind Melon's other members kept a relatively low profile following the tragedy, Christopher Thorn (guitar) and bassist Brad Smith (bass) re-emerged in Unified Theory, which released its self-titled debut earlier this year.
Thorn tells LAUNCH that Hoon will always be in his thoughts: "I think you deal with it every day. I think anytime anybody loses a friend, you don't forget about it and move on. You move on, but you don't necessarily forget about it. He was a family member, a band member, a friend. So, you deal with it, but you try to use it and become a better person, or realize that things are more precious than you thought."
Soon after the tragedy in 1995, Lt. Defillo of the New Orleans Police Department told LAUNCH that Hoon had been asleep on the bus with two sound engineers when the bus pulled up to the venue in preparation for that night's performance. Several of the band members and crew attempted to wake Hoon without success. Emergency medical technicians called to the scene tried unsuccessfully to revive the singer.
Blind Melon broke up soon after the tragedy. The band had several hits, including the cross-format smash "No Rain."
Hoon is survived by his child, Nico Blue Hoon.
--Darren Davis, New York and Neal Weiss, Los Angeles Got news tips, comments, or questions? Send them to newstips@launch.com.
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