The start of the fall semester is always a time of mixed feelings. On the one hand, the open days filled with traveling, figuring out your future, or anything in…
![On October 21, 1995, Shannon Hoon (second from left) died of a cocaine overdose. He was 28.](http://wrvu.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/blind-melon.jpg)
On this day nineteen years ago, four of Blind Melon’s five members woke up expecting to play a show that night at Tipitina’s in New Orleans. The fifth, lead vocalist and chief songwriter Shannon Hoon, never awoke. He had died of a cocaine overdose at age 28. Today, to honor Hoon’s memory, I’d like to take a look at Blind Melon, a terribly under-appreciated member of the grunge pantheon.