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Richard Shannon Hoon (September 26, 1967 – October 21, 1995) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He was the lead singer of the band Blind Melon from 1990 until his death in 1995.
In high school, he played football, wrestled, and was a . Shannon's musical influences included the Grateful Dead, The Beatles, John Lennon, and Bob Dylan. After graduating from McCutcheon High School in 1985, Hoon joined a local glam metal band named Styff Kytten, which also featured guitarist Michael Kelsey, bassist Brian Bundy and drummer Barry Koch. He took on the role of frontman and lead singer of the band. It was around this time that he wrote his first song and called it "Change".
In Los Angeles, Hoon befriended his sister Anna's high school friend Axl Rose, also a native of Lafayette, IN. 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 (both released in 1991). Hoon sang backing vocals on several tracks, including "The Garden" and "Don't Cry". Rose also invited Hoon to appear in the video for "Don't Cry".
In 1992, Blind Melon released their self-titled debut album produced by Pearl Jam producer Rick Parashar. Blind Melon began touring to promote the album, supporting and opening for acts like BAD II, PIL, Ozzy Osbourne, Guns N' Roses, and Soundgarden over the course of 1992–1993. In the summer of 1993, the video for the album track "No Rain" was released as a single and featured a young girl, played by Heather DeLoach, in a bee costume, tap-dancing to unappreciative audiences. Blind Melon went multi-platinum.
Hoon and Blind Melon spent the next two years touring. In 1993, Hoon was arrested for indecent exposure after he undressed onstage and urinated on a fan at a show in Vancouver.
In 1994, Blind Melon appeared at Woodstock '94, where Hoon, allegedly high on LSD, went onstage wearing his girlfriend's white dress.
After taking a hiatus from touring, Blind Melon returned to the studio to record the album Soup in New Orleans. Soup was released in 1995.
In August, Blind Melon planned a tour to support their album Soup. A counselor was hired to accompany Hoon on the tour, but was let go after the first week.
After a performance at Numbers club in Houston on October 20, Hoon undertook an all-night drug binge. The next day, Blind Melon was scheduled to play a show in New Orleans at Tipitina's. The band's sound engineer, Lyle Eaves, went to the tour bus to awaken Hoon for a sound check, but Hoon was unresponsive. An ambulance arrived, and Hoon was pronounced dead at the scene at the age of 28. His death was attributed to a cocaine overdose.
Hoon is buried at Dayton Cemetery in Dayton, Indiana. His grave is inscribed with a line from Blind Melon's song "Change", the first song he wrote:
Blind Melon remained active for the next four years following Hoon's death. The remaining members had planned to continue the band in memory of him and held auditions for a singer; however, they never managed to find a permanent replacement, and Blind Melon officially disbanded in 1999. After years of refusing to perform together out of respect for Hoon, the surviving members reformed Blind Melon in 2006, with Travis Warren taking his place.
On September 17, 2008, the book A Devil on One Shoulder and an Angel on the Other: The Story of Shannon Hoon and Blind Melon by Greg Prato was published.
On September 15, 2018, photos of Hoon's final performance with Blind Melon at the Numbers club in Houston on October 20, 1995, the day before he died, were released for the first time by fan Zak Joshua Rose, who took the pictures and claimed that he hung out with the band members except Hoon (who had disappeared) after the show.
A documentary about Hoon titled All I Can Say (composed mostly of footage he shot on a handheld camera from 1990 to 1995) premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 26, 2019, and was released on June 26, 2020, on online streaming platforms. Also, it was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 24, 2020. Hoon was co-credited as a "director" of the film.
On November 1, 2021, author Greg Prato issued a follow-up book to A Devil on One Shoulder and an Angel on the Other, simply titled Shannon, and featured all-new interviews with either people who knew Shannon or were admirers of his music.
Since Hoon's death, various musical artists have mentioned him in song lyrics, including Dream Theater ("Just Let Me Breathe"), Sun Kil Moon ("Track Number 8"), and the Avett Brothers ("Smoke in Our Lights"), while others have written songs inspired by him, including Zakk Wylde ("Throwin' it All Away"), The Used ("Poetic Tragedy"), and Econoline Crush ("Sparkle and Shine"). A Scottish group, active from around 1998–2002, named themselves "The Sempiternal Hoon" in tribute to Shannon Hoon's influence on their sound.
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