When Blind Melon lead singer Shannon Hoon died at age 28 reputedly of a drug overdose in October 1995, many may have thought that that was the end of the road for his band Blind Melon. Hoon had a serious drug problem that multiple entries into drug rehab centers and arrests by the police due to his strange behavior onstage and offstage seemed unable to curtail. Inevitably, Hoon did die due to his addiction to drugs which is why the proceeds from the last album on which he worked on with the other Blind Melon musicians before his death were intended to be used for his daughter Nico, and to help other musicians addicted to illegal drugs.
But time moves on for all and now Blind Melon has gotten a new lease on life with the introduction of new lead singer Travis Warren. Travis was formerly of another band called Rain Fur Rent. By November 2006, the new Blind Melon group was able to release three new songs entitled Harmful Belly, For My Friends, and Make a Difference. Then, in August 2007, a fourth song was released entitled Wishing Well. The song called Sometimes only had a short life before it was supplanted by the other songs Hypnotized; and Right Set of Eyes.
The first concert of this new Blind Melon was conducted on October 7, 2007 in a Providence, Rhode Island location. This was the first time the group had performed after 12 years of being silenced due to the death of Hoon. Right now, the five Blind Melon members are: Glen Graham (on percussion and drums); Brad Smith (for flute, bass and background vocals); Rogers Stevens (for piano and guitar); Christopher Thorn (for mandolin, steel guitar, guitar and harmonica); and of course, the newest member Travis Warren (for acoustic guitar and lead vocals.)
If you are planning to buy a ticket for the new concerts of Blind Melon, you will be gratified to hear they are planning to use the old songs they had created with the late Hoon along with the new songs they co-created with Travis. Thus, a ticket for the new Blind Melon performances may seem like a way of having one foot in the past and another foot in the future. It remains to be seen though if this version of Blind Melon will be as commercially successful as the first iteration.
Fans of Blind Melon who have not heard the new songs should really try to get a ticket for these new performances (or at least try to buy their CDs.) One ticket to one performance and you might see that Travis has some similarities to the late Hoon with regards to voice quality. But Travis brings his own contribution to the group, so if you do manage to get a prized ticket to a Blind Melon concert, you might be pleasantly surprised to find how cool Blind Melon has managed to stay despite the changes.
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