Shannon Hoon Discography

Hoon was born and raised in Lafayette, Indiana with his half-sister Anna and half-brother Tim. Hoon reportedly began using his middle name, Shannon, to avoid confusion with his father, who was also named Richard. In high school, Hoon was a promising athlete in football, wrestling and pole vaulting. However, he also gained local notoriety with the Lafayette police, following several arrests for misbehavior. Hoon graduated from McCutcheon High School in 1985. After graduation, Hoon joined a local band named Styff Kytten, which also featured guitarist Michael Kelsey. Hoon took on the role of frontman and lead singer for the band. It was around this time that Hoon wrote his first song, "Change". Shannon was also a member of the Lafayette band mank RAGE along with David Lank and Darren Mickler (briefly) during this time.

Forming the Band
Hoon left Indiana for Los Angeles in hopes of making it in the music industry. After arriving there Hoon met musicians Brad Smith, and Rogers Stevens at a party. Smith and Stevens saw Hoon perform his song Change acoustically and invited Hoon to play with them. Christopher Thorn and Glen Graham were then brought into the fold and soon the five musicians decided to form Blind Melon. In 1991, the new bandmates produced a four song demo tape and subsequently signed a $500,000 recording contract with Capitol Records.


[edit] Connecting with Guns N`Roses
In Los Angeles, Hoon befriended his sister Anna`s high school friend, Axl Rose. Rose invited Hoon to join him in the studio, where his band Guns N` Roses were recording their albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II. Hoon sang backing vocals on several of the tracks, including "The Garden" and "Don`t Cry". Rose also invited Hoon to appear in the video for "Don`t Cry", giving Hoon his first real taste of stardom.

Fatherhood and Death
In 1995, Hoon and his longtime girlfriend Lisa Crouse had a daughter they named Nico Blue, named partly after Nico and because it was his favorite flower. After the birth of his daughter, Hoon entered rehab again. Blind Melon needed to tour to support their album Soup with heavy pressure from the record company, so Hoon negotiated an early release from his drug rehab program with the stipulation that his drug counselor would accompany him on the road. The counselor, however, was unable to keep Hoon from falling back into his pattern of drug use and was dismissed from the tour less than a month into it. Without the counselor to rein him in, Hoon`s use of drugs escalated tremendously.

After a particularly disastrous performance in Houston, Hoon launched into an all-night cocaine binge. The next day, on October 21, 1995, Blind Melon was scheduled to play a show in New Orleans at Tipitina`s. When one of the band`s roadies went to the tour bus to wake Hoon up for a sound check, he was unable to wake him. An ambulance was summoned and Hoon was pronounced dead on the scene near Bourbon Street, New Orleans, at the age of 28,[1] one month into Blind Melon`s 1995 tour, mere blocks from where he had recorded Soup. The cause of death was attributed to an accidental cocaine overdose.[2] Hoon dodged membership in the 27 Club by a mere few weeks, something he`d joked about before his death.

Hoon was buried in Dayton, Indiana; his grave is inscribed with the words to the first song he wrote, Change:

“ I know we can`t all stay here forever
So I want to write my words on the face of t

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