Blind Melon

After briefly attempting to continue, Blind Melon soon broke up and the various members went on to other projects. After this, the group was effectively disbanded, though there was a brief resurgence in popularity once the old albums came out on CD. With some unreleased vocals in the vaults, the remaining members released Nico in 1996 (see 1996 in music) with the profits going to a program that helps musicians with drug and alcohol addiction. Though this reestablished an audience, Columbia Records dropped the group. Hoon was found dead of an overdose on October 21, 1995. Personnel changes continued at a breakneck pace, culminating in the return of David Calyton-Thomas and the release of a successful comeback album called New City. Against the advice of Hoon's drug counselor, Blind Melon went on tour. No Sweat and Mirror Image followed and sold miserably.

In 1995, Blind Melon also contributed the song "Out on the Tiles" to the Encomium tribute album to Led Zeppelin. Jim Fielder and Steve Katz quit as the group moved more towards jazz. While Hoon checked into rehab, the album, Soup, was released in 1995 (see 1995 in music), but sold poorly. The new group released New Blood but this album did not reestablish an audience. Hoon would later admit that he had no memory of the recording session. Amidst the personnel changes, a Greatest Hits album was released. Hoon and the rest of the band began recording their sophomore album in New Orleans with producer Andy Wallace. Dick Halligan was replaced by Larry Willis while George Wadenius joined as a second guitarist.

After opening for Neil Young and Lenny Kravitz, Blind Melon's own tour was cut short due to Hoon's escalating drug abuse. Fred Lipsius quit and was replaced by Joe Henderson, then Lou Marini Jr. Subsequently, Blind Melon went platinum four times. He was replaced by Bob Doyle, then Jerry Fisher. Their debut album, Blind Melon, produced by Rick Parashar (Pearl Jam) sold poorly until the single and music video for "No Rain" hit the airwaves and became a smash success, along with the popular video which featured the equally popular Bee Girl. Personality difficulties had split the group in rock and jazz factions with Clayton-Thomas in the middle; he chose to quit to pursue a solo career. Hoon and old friend Axl Rose re-met, and Hoon sang back-up on several Guns n' Roses tracks, including "Don't Cry". Their fourth album sold poorly too and Jerry Hyman was replaced by Dave Bargeron.

Blind Melon signed to Capitol Records in 1991 (see 1991 in music) and recorded an unreleased demo. Compounding the image problems was a decision to play at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada, a notoriously unhip place in an unhip city. Also 'Blind Melon Chitlin' was the name of a fictional bluesman appearing in a routine on the self titled Cheech and Chong LP. After returning Stateside, the group released Blood, Sweat & Tears 3; it was a critical and popular failure compared to the prior two albums. The name Blind Melon describes some hippies from Mississippi, as used (or coined) by Brad Smith's father. In retrospect, it is now known that the State Department subtly requested the tour in exchange for more amicability on the issue of Clayton-Thomas' visa. Blind Melon was an American rock and roll band from the 1990s, composed of Shannon Hoon, Brad Smith, Glen Graham, Rogers Stevens and Christopher Thorn. Any voluntary association with the government was extremely unpopular at the time, and the band was ridiculed for it.

Glen Graham - drums. This was compounded by a United States Department of State-sponsored tour of Eastern Europe. Brad Smith - bass. Because of the presence of horns and the lack of Al Kooper, Blood, Sweat & Tears had trouble holding onto any sort of countercultural hipness at a time when this was very important. Rogers Stevens - guitar. The album was much more pop-oriented and soon hit the top of the charts and won Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards. Christopher Thorn - guitar. Blood, Sweat & Tears, the group's second, self-titled album, was released in 1969.

Shannon Hoon - vocals. Chuck Winfield, Lew Soloff and Jerry Hyman joined soon after to bring the band up to nine total members. Colomby and Katz started recruiting singers, considering the still unknown Stephen Stills and Laura Nyro before settling on David Clayton-Thomas, a Canadian singer. Randy Brecker and Jerry Weiss also quit, joining Horace Silver's band and Ambergris, respectively. With the debut album slowly achieving critical mass, Kooper left the group to become a record producer for Columbia.

Colomby and Katz wanted to move Kooper to the organ exclusively and hire a vocalist for the group. While sales slowly picked up, personality conflicts started tearing apart the band. Without any pop-oriented hit singles, though, the album's sales were sluggish. After signing to Columbia Records, the group released one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the 1960s, Child is Father to the Man.

The group debuted at Cafe Au Go Go in New York City in 1967, opening for Moby Grape; the band was a hit with the audience, who liked the innovative fusion of jazz with psychedelic rock and roll. Blood, Sweat & Tears was an American rock and roll group formed in New York City in 1967. Al Kooper, Jim Fielder, Fred Lipsius, Randy Brecker, Jerry Weiss, Dick Halligan, Steve Katz, and Bobby Colomby formed the original incarnation of the band, which was named after a 1963 album by Johnny Cash. Kooper was bandleader, having insisted on that position based on his experiences with Blues Project, his previous band, which had been organized as an egalitarian collective and fallen apart.