Their story is pretty plain.  Blind Melon, that hot new band who walks a string of love beads between grassroots retro and college cool, are really just five long-haired joes whose formula for success reads like a compendium of accidents.

    Accident # 1: They Found each Other at All
        Thousands of country miles separate the tiny hometowns of Blind Melon.  Singer Shannon Hoon hails from Lafayette, Indiana; guitarist Christopher Thorn from Dover, Pennsylvania; and guitarist Thomas Rogers Stevens and bassist Brad Smith from West Point, Mississippi.  Like the bee girl in the band's video for "No Rain," each ran away to a magical place where they hoped to find others like themselves.  "It's just one of those stroke of luck happenings that we all met in L.A.," Smith says.
        Hoon, Smith and Stevens formed the band in March 1990.  Thorn was then lassoed and, after auditions failed to produce a drummer, Smith and Stevens rang Glen Graham, an old Mississippi buddy.  They considered the named Naked Pilgrims, Head Train, Mud Bird and Brown Cow.  "Blind melons" were what Smith's father once dubbed some unemployed hippy neighbors.
        Killer showcases and a popular four track demo raised enough A&R eyebrow to get Blind Melon signed only eight months after forming.  Capitol Records hired producer David Briggs (Neil Young) but the EP, Sippin' Time Sessions, never happened.  "There was too much reverb and it wasn't honest enough," Smith says.  "We didn't need cannon sounding drums."

      Accident #2: Shannon visits Guns N' Roses in the studio during the recording of "Don't Cry"
        Axl Rose, who went to high school with Shannon's older brother and sister, looked at Hoon and thought it would be fun to try a vocal duet.  The resulting sound hit like a speeding four by four.  Shannon reprised his role in the "Don't Cry" video. When MTV aired it, the only question asked as much as "Where's Izzy?" was "Who's that other singer?"
        "I think it helped thremendously," says Smith.  "A lot of people probably went out and bought the album for that very reason.  And I think that half the people that bought the album because of Guns N' Roses were probably unpleasantly surprised.  I think if a really heavy Guns N' Roses fan goes and buys a Blind Melon album, he's go 'What is this hippy shit?'"
        Before the group's self titled debut album was even recorded, Blind Melon opened national tours for Soundgarden and MTV's 120 Minutes, featuring PiL and Big Audio Dynamite II.

       Accident # 3: The Reign of "No Rain"
        "The whole Guns N' Roses connection got us 90,000 records," Smith says.  "We've sold five times that through this video already." Smith who wrote "No Rain" between solo folk gigs just after his arrival in Hollywood, is dumbfounded.  "None of us think it's the best song on the album," he says.  "It was just one of the songs I had on a cassette somewhere...It's out lightest song - this lame song about co-dependecy-but it's like our mascot song!"
        "There are other messages we want to get out to the people," Smith continues, "and I think they're going to come across just as strong as 'No Rain.'"  He pauses, then offers an anecdote only a long-haired bumpkin from West Point, Mississippi could conjure: "I think it's like, the big field has been plowed and we're going to plan our seeds for real now."