Post by chip on Nov 12, 2006 22:43:34 GMT -5
You asked for it
Let's start at the beginning. I was a student at Ohio State University writing for the college paper, The Lantern. Soundgarden was coming to Columbus to play at the Newport Music Hall and a good friend of mine was a HUGE Soundgarden fan (I loved them as well, but not as much as my friend). I promised my friend that I'd get us tickets to the show and the chance to meet the band.
Being the big shot journalist that I was (ha ha), I called up Soundgarden's publicist to request an interview. I was told that the band was only talking to the BIG newspapers in each town and that the only way they'd consider the college paper was if they had guaranteed front page coverage. No way was that going to happen so I had to figure out a plan B.
Plan B was to interview one of the opening bands, either Sister Double Happiness or Blind Melon. I wasn't familiar with either band but I knew that I had seen Blind Melon's name in some magazine because the singer had been in the "Don't Cry" video (Guns N' Roses was one of my favorite bands of the late '80s, early '90s and I, of course, knew that video). I got Capitol Record's contact info and called the publicist. She was like, "How do you know about this band?" so I told her I had seen the "Don't Cry" video and had read that the mysterious dude singing back up vocals in the video was the singer for Blind Melon. She sent me a dubbed 5-song cassette that week ("Tones of Home" "Dear Old Dad" "Seed to a Tree" "Mother" and "Soul One") so that I'd have something to talk to them about in the phone interview she was setting up.
I listened to that tape non-stop for weeks on end, not because I needed to be ready for the interview but because I absolutely loved what I was hearing.
I think some of you have heard the interview I did with Shannon.* (If anybody has it as an MP3 and can upload it somewhere like YouSendIt or SendSpace or Megaupload or something, please, please, please do so ... I'm not even sure that I still have a copy and I'd love to have it).
So, show day rolls around and my friend drives down from Cleveland to go with me. I lived on the same street as the club so every 10 minutes or so I'd leave my apartment and run down to the club to see if Blind Melon had arrived yet. Finally, one of the times I went down there, I saw a van with a bunch of long-haired hippies hoping out
If you've heard the interview I did with Shannon, you heard us discussing serial killers. So, for my first ever meeting with Shannon, I wore a Charles Manson t-shirt figuring as soon as he saw me, Shannon would be like "You're the dude I talked to last week". But, as I approached Shannon, I could see that he didn't make the connection and he probably thought I was a freak, wearing a Charles Manson shirt and all. I introduced myself and Shannon gave me a hug and said that he was glad to meet me. We talked for a few minutes before the band had to go inside and soundcheck.
I don't honestly remember a lot from the show other than when Blind Melon went on there wasn't a ton of people in the club. I was mesmorized by their performance, however. It was everything I had hoped for (all too often I find a band's live performance doesn't live up to their recorded output).
After the show I went around to the back of the club where the band was hauling their stuff back out to their van. My roommates were having a keg party that night and I had promised them that I would do what I could to bring "the rock band" to the party. Of course, nobody had a clue as to who Blind Melon was since this was still a year before the debut CD came out. But they still thought it was cool that a rock band might be coming to the party ("Think they'll play a few tunes in our living room?" my roommates asked. I was hoping they might but didn't want to ask).
So Brad and Lyle (tour manager) come up to me and ask if they can use the phone at my apartment (I can't remember if anybody else in the band came along with them to our place - I don't think so, but I know for sure Brad and Lyle did). Seems as if their tour van won't start up and they are really worried about getting to the Cleveland gig the next night. We tell them that if worse comes to worse, we can drive them up as we're planning on going to the show anyway (my family is from Cleveland so it was a regular trip for me during that time).
As we walk into my apartment everybody stares at the these long-haired guys coming in and people do a lot of whispering. My roommates (who have been listening to the 5-song cassette with me all week) come over and introduce themselves and offer Brad and Lyle a beer. We go to my room to use the phone followed by a few people in awe of this rock star who has come to the party. They call around and eventually find a garage that will come out and tow the van and try to have it fixed by the next morning.
Brad and Lyle need to get back to the club to wait for the tow truck so the rock star appearance at the party is short lived. Brad says hi to everybody, shakes a few hands, and we're off. On the way back (it was no more than 100 yards between my place and the club) Brad tells me abot this idea he has. Instead of selling t-shirts like every other band, he says he wants to sell flannel shirts with a Blind Melon patch sewed into the back. Each shirt unique. I tell him I'll be his first customer but I don't think the band ever got around to doing that.
We go back into the club which is now really filling up (the place holds something like 1800 and it's sold out). As I'm hanging out at the merch table, I'm talking to Shannon. At that same time, who should walk by but guitarist Joey Allen of Warrant. Now, I'm sure I'll get made of for this (hey, I'm used to it!) but in 1989/1990, Warrant was hand's down my favorite band and hair metal was my favorite genre of music. So, here I am, watching my past and my present come to a near collision in the lobby of this venue. Shannon looks at me and says, "I hate that dude. We see those guys around L.A. all the time. What a joke." I didn't have the heart to tell him that before Blind Melon entered my life, I had dedicated my soul to Warrant (I interviewed Joey Allen earlier this year - the first time I've ever had the chance to interview somebody from Warrant - and relayed this story to him. He laughed. He said he was in town for a guitar show - he was signing autographs at some booth - and ran into Chris Cornell's wife (I think) who he knew from L.A. She gave him tickets to the show so he decided to come check it out).
After the show we all meet up behind the venue again and the band decides that rather come to the part at our place, the best thing to do is to go to the hotel since they'll have to get up early to determine what to do about the van. We say our goodbyes and then my friends and I promise to meet back up with them in Cleveland the next night.
And that, my friends, will be the next story.
* The interview that many of you have heard ... I'm amazed that it ever even got distributed. Here's what happened. The night that Shannon died, I was all over the AOL Blind Melon message boards trying to find out what happened. Not much info was out there but I did found out that Shannon was indeed dead. Somebody started a chat with me and I told her all of my Melon stories. She said something like "I've only heard their music. I've never even heard Shannon's speaking voice." I told her I'd send her a copy of the interview but I only had it on microcassette. I took the microcassette player, held it up next to a regular cassette player, put it in my closet so that it wouldn't pick up any background noise, and dubbed a regular-size cassette copy of the interview which I sent to this person the next day. That's the last I heard of it until a few years ago I saw somewhere that people had the interview. Crazy! It's amazing to me that the interview made it out there into the "real" world and even AROUND the world as every once in a while somebody will email me out of the blue and be like "I heard the interview you did with Shannon". Like I said, if anybody has an MP3 of that interview, please let me know. I'd love to get a copy and I don't mind if you post the link to it for everybody to hear.
Let's start at the beginning. I was a student at Ohio State University writing for the college paper, The Lantern. Soundgarden was coming to Columbus to play at the Newport Music Hall and a good friend of mine was a HUGE Soundgarden fan (I loved them as well, but not as much as my friend). I promised my friend that I'd get us tickets to the show and the chance to meet the band.
Being the big shot journalist that I was (ha ha), I called up Soundgarden's publicist to request an interview. I was told that the band was only talking to the BIG newspapers in each town and that the only way they'd consider the college paper was if they had guaranteed front page coverage. No way was that going to happen so I had to figure out a plan B.
Plan B was to interview one of the opening bands, either Sister Double Happiness or Blind Melon. I wasn't familiar with either band but I knew that I had seen Blind Melon's name in some magazine because the singer had been in the "Don't Cry" video (Guns N' Roses was one of my favorite bands of the late '80s, early '90s and I, of course, knew that video). I got Capitol Record's contact info and called the publicist. She was like, "How do you know about this band?" so I told her I had seen the "Don't Cry" video and had read that the mysterious dude singing back up vocals in the video was the singer for Blind Melon. She sent me a dubbed 5-song cassette that week ("Tones of Home" "Dear Old Dad" "Seed to a Tree" "Mother" and "Soul One") so that I'd have something to talk to them about in the phone interview she was setting up.
I listened to that tape non-stop for weeks on end, not because I needed to be ready for the interview but because I absolutely loved what I was hearing.
I think some of you have heard the interview I did with Shannon.* (If anybody has it as an MP3 and can upload it somewhere like YouSendIt or SendSpace or Megaupload or something, please, please, please do so ... I'm not even sure that I still have a copy and I'd love to have it).
So, show day rolls around and my friend drives down from Cleveland to go with me. I lived on the same street as the club so every 10 minutes or so I'd leave my apartment and run down to the club to see if Blind Melon had arrived yet. Finally, one of the times I went down there, I saw a van with a bunch of long-haired hippies hoping out
If you've heard the interview I did with Shannon, you heard us discussing serial killers. So, for my first ever meeting with Shannon, I wore a Charles Manson t-shirt figuring as soon as he saw me, Shannon would be like "You're the dude I talked to last week". But, as I approached Shannon, I could see that he didn't make the connection and he probably thought I was a freak, wearing a Charles Manson shirt and all. I introduced myself and Shannon gave me a hug and said that he was glad to meet me. We talked for a few minutes before the band had to go inside and soundcheck.
I don't honestly remember a lot from the show other than when Blind Melon went on there wasn't a ton of people in the club. I was mesmorized by their performance, however. It was everything I had hoped for (all too often I find a band's live performance doesn't live up to their recorded output).
After the show I went around to the back of the club where the band was hauling their stuff back out to their van. My roommates were having a keg party that night and I had promised them that I would do what I could to bring "the rock band" to the party. Of course, nobody had a clue as to who Blind Melon was since this was still a year before the debut CD came out. But they still thought it was cool that a rock band might be coming to the party ("Think they'll play a few tunes in our living room?" my roommates asked. I was hoping they might but didn't want to ask).
So Brad and Lyle (tour manager) come up to me and ask if they can use the phone at my apartment (I can't remember if anybody else in the band came along with them to our place - I don't think so, but I know for sure Brad and Lyle did). Seems as if their tour van won't start up and they are really worried about getting to the Cleveland gig the next night. We tell them that if worse comes to worse, we can drive them up as we're planning on going to the show anyway (my family is from Cleveland so it was a regular trip for me during that time).
As we walk into my apartment everybody stares at the these long-haired guys coming in and people do a lot of whispering. My roommates (who have been listening to the 5-song cassette with me all week) come over and introduce themselves and offer Brad and Lyle a beer. We go to my room to use the phone followed by a few people in awe of this rock star who has come to the party. They call around and eventually find a garage that will come out and tow the van and try to have it fixed by the next morning.
Brad and Lyle need to get back to the club to wait for the tow truck so the rock star appearance at the party is short lived. Brad says hi to everybody, shakes a few hands, and we're off. On the way back (it was no more than 100 yards between my place and the club) Brad tells me abot this idea he has. Instead of selling t-shirts like every other band, he says he wants to sell flannel shirts with a Blind Melon patch sewed into the back. Each shirt unique. I tell him I'll be his first customer but I don't think the band ever got around to doing that.
We go back into the club which is now really filling up (the place holds something like 1800 and it's sold out). As I'm hanging out at the merch table, I'm talking to Shannon. At that same time, who should walk by but guitarist Joey Allen of Warrant. Now, I'm sure I'll get made of for this (hey, I'm used to it!) but in 1989/1990, Warrant was hand's down my favorite band and hair metal was my favorite genre of music. So, here I am, watching my past and my present come to a near collision in the lobby of this venue. Shannon looks at me and says, "I hate that dude. We see those guys around L.A. all the time. What a joke." I didn't have the heart to tell him that before Blind Melon entered my life, I had dedicated my soul to Warrant (I interviewed Joey Allen earlier this year - the first time I've ever had the chance to interview somebody from Warrant - and relayed this story to him. He laughed. He said he was in town for a guitar show - he was signing autographs at some booth - and ran into Chris Cornell's wife (I think) who he knew from L.A. She gave him tickets to the show so he decided to come check it out).
After the show we all meet up behind the venue again and the band decides that rather come to the part at our place, the best thing to do is to go to the hotel since they'll have to get up early to determine what to do about the van. We say our goodbyes and then my friends and I promise to meet back up with them in Cleveland the next night.
And that, my friends, will be the next story.
* The interview that many of you have heard ... I'm amazed that it ever even got distributed. Here's what happened. The night that Shannon died, I was all over the AOL Blind Melon message boards trying to find out what happened. Not much info was out there but I did found out that Shannon was indeed dead. Somebody started a chat with me and I told her all of my Melon stories. She said something like "I've only heard their music. I've never even heard Shannon's speaking voice." I told her I'd send her a copy of the interview but I only had it on microcassette. I took the microcassette player, held it up next to a regular cassette player, put it in my closet so that it wouldn't pick up any background noise, and dubbed a regular-size cassette copy of the interview which I sent to this person the next day. That's the last I heard of it until a few years ago I saw somewhere that people had the interview. Crazy! It's amazing to me that the interview made it out there into the "real" world and even AROUND the world as every once in a while somebody will email me out of the blue and be like "I heard the interview you did with Shannon". Like I said, if anybody has an MP3 of that interview, please let me know. I'd love to get a copy and I don't mind if you post the link to it for everybody to hear.