The first time I spoke with Shannon Hoon, lead singer/personality of Blind Melon, the call came in from Virginia where he and his fellow bandmates were enjoying a rare day off.

        This time around, Hoon called from a laundromat in Austin, Texas, where he was tending to the wash.  It seemed nothing had really changed since our last conversation earlier this year - the hype and success surrounding the band had in no way tainted the free spirit of this young down home quintet.  The five guys, Glen Graham (drums), Brad Smith (bass), Rogers Stevens (guitar) and Christopher Thorn (guitar) were fully intact with their small town mentality, and refraining from being touched by the business of it all.

        Blind Melon, as a band, has been together since 1990.  The boys hail from Mississippi, Indiana and Pennsylvania, areas that are not well known birthplaces for whoopin' rock bands.  As a result, these five musicians relocated themselves, and concurrently found each other in the hiss and hoorah tumult of LA.  "LA..." Hoon started "...after being out there for a while, I found myself surrounded by a lot of people, and the only thing they really had was who they knew.  All they could talk about was who they knew, how they knew them, what parties they'd been to, and what rock stars and movie stars they hung out with.  It was all part of the big city attitude, and I was subjected to a lot of people like that.  Meeting up with Brad and Rogers was real refreshing.  Being from Indiana, where if you didn't play basketball you were pretty much an outcast, our small town lives were so different from LA, we could pretty much plan our whole month ahead of time as till go about it as planned.  We were learning to enjoy dealing with LA and it was definitely a growing experience."

        The history of Blind Melon begins with a 4 track they used to record music they sent to friends as proof of what they had been up to.  They never gigged because they couldn't be bothered by all the bullshit.  Yet, consequently, they got signed by Capitol Records and didn't have to after all.  "Back then we were just waiting for the right time," Hoon explained.  "We didn't like all the politics that were involved with the clubs.  People just needed a little less attitude.  That whole heavy metal attitude scene was going on at that time and we didn't' fit into it."

        Their cassette somehow landed in the hands of a lawyer who ended up representing the band.  Forging through a mess of red tape and corporate crap, the record contract was still stalled for a good year and a half.  "Creative control is important to us," states Hoon.  "We weren't' going to sign if we weren't going to get that.   It took a year and a half for them to realize to just let the artist do that art.  It's about time the labels take a stance of letting the bands do what they do, rather than try to sign them and change them."

        In September of 1992, Blind Melon released their self titled debut album.  Production credits went tot he acclaimed Rick Parasher (Pearl Jam, Temple of the Dog).  "He wasn't an ego producer who had a formula," stressed Hoon.  "We met him out in Seattle.  We realized that he wasn't a big rock n' roll fan either, so his ears weren't shot.  We just knew he was the right guy.  We worked well together."

        Their faith in being 'real' had not only landed them a record deal and a top notch producer, but a slew of gigs.  Most of these opening spots were with some very happening names, bands that most musicians would be happy just getting tickets to see.  One of their first shows was with Soundgarden, a two week stint that  Hoon bitches was much too short.  "But it was long enough for me to realize that Soundgarden is as awesome as I always thought they were."  The list continues with names such as Live, Flowerhead, P.I.L., the legendary Ozzy Osbourne and his 'No More Tours' tour, Alice in Chains, Guns N' Roses, Europe with Soul Asylum and The Cult, Inclined, Neil Young (with Pearl Jam, Dinosaur Jr., Social Distortion) and now North America with Lenny Kravitz.  Hoon modesty explains their mega line up of gigs as "just being on legs of different tours and having their booking agents hooking up with our booking agents."  To the band, getting out and touring was the best way to shop their music to the masses; being associated with big names was just part of the package.

        "In the States, our album just went platinum (one million sales).  We know it's topping a few charts and it's all pretty crazy.  But it's been a second wind.  We were starting to think about making the next record and who we were going to work with, and then all the sudden the song "No Rain" took off and we ended up getting another five months of touring.  It's actually better this way, and it seems a lot more homegrown.  People don't see that we had to work for it.  We were touring on this album four months before it was released, and we've been touring it for about a year and a half before anything happened.  I have road coma now (laughs)..and we also want to kill each other.  But that's okay (laughs)."

        Hoon informed me that Blind Melon was a term that was used around the guys when they were growing up, and it stuck.

        "It's just a term Brad's dad used to use," explained Hoon.  "It was about a commune type living situation which was going on next door to where Brad was raised.  His dad used to call all the people over there 'blind melons' just so he didn't have to remember their names and all.  I survive on circles of friends and working with people.  We kinda have a commune type situation as far as us and all our girlfriends.  We've all been together for a long time, and we can find what we need within."

        This laid back, laquid attitude pretty much defines their sound as well.  Their bio reads that their "Tones often recall the flow and free spirit of pioneering bands from the late '60s and '70s, with an overall sound that is totally contemporary. "  To me, it's an eclectic blend of modern rock and folky rhythms, and acquired tastes that tend to progressively grow on you.  "It's mood music," answered Hoon.  "I don't know what it is with a lot of people, whether it's laziness of what?  There's a lot more albums, not just ours, that take a few listens to get into.  Ours is definitely one of them.  This day and age it seems that a lot of the populations just wants to 'get it' right off the bat.  Being able to grasp it after a few listens makes you like a little bit more."

        Mood music often gets tossed into an ambiguous category where fans and critics alike try, but are unable, to describe what they're hearing.  Most of these bands find themselves in an intriguingly 'label less' predicament far away from so many others riding in the bandwagon.  "I've read people who are tripping over themselves trying to pin down what we sound like" began Hoon.  "Very few people can pin us down because it's hard to do.  Some people get it, and some get it way wrong, and some spend too much of their time trying to find a common bond between us and the Seattle scene, or us and GN'R.  All the elements that surround our band aren't necessarily part of our music.  A critic can take the music and spend half their time trying to find something that's not even there, and therefore mislead whoever is reading their article."

        In all due respect, the dynamics of a 'moody' band can most wholly be appreciated when experienced live.  Especially in a venue large enough so the ambiance isn't cramped , and close enough so the atmosphere isn't lost.  "We do enjoy playing the smaller clubs for that reason,"  Hoon admitted. "I don't' like it when I can't just walk out and talk to the people after the show.  Or that it takes about 25 passes just to make it to the backstage.  I've just learned to be constructive with being placed in different environments.  And as far as our music live - just bigger mood music."

        During their tour, there have been snags, and Toronto was once one of them.  "I know we've had a few problems playing in Toronto, but it's nothing personal," states Hoon.  "It takes the money from this gig to get us to the next gig.  It takes everyone to make the next show happen.  When Gilby (from GN'R) broke his hand, they canceled a few shows, and those shows were the money we needed to get to wherever the next show was and it happened to be Toronto.  We did finally get to Toronto and we had a good time playing a hot sweaty packed club.  We really remember Toronto because one of our manager's wives had kid when we were there."

        The sudden success of "No Rain" has finally rewarded Blind Melon with the recognition they have worked so hard to attain.  But the bands main concern is still music, and not all the other facets of the industry that comes with being a rock phenomena.  "Business isn't high on my priority list," states Hoon.  "Neither is spending time making videos.  Just as long as I can therapeutically bleed myself with my music, that's good enough.  I know I never wrote a song to think what kind of video I could make for it.  It's all in the music.  It's also so cliché to say that I'm not in it for the money, but a lot of people are lying when they say that.  I was living off my $20 per diem for a long while, but meeting a million dollars worth of people and having multi- million dollar conversations.  Now my defenses are up now that things are doing well.  I've just gotten used to not being accepted since I was 17, and now I'm 25.  So all of a sudden things change and some chart somewhere says, "Hey you're an alright guy!" And you just go, 'Hey, wait a minute...?!' You know it can all go as quickly as it came, so you don't let it really affect you and what really matters.  It's all really superficial - you've just got to keep it an arms length away.  As long as you can separate the two and realize what's going on, you'll do okay.  There's nothing wrong with being real, and there's no real way anything can explain as the right way to live your life."