For Blind Melon, it ends just the way it began... with the music. For guitarist Rogers Stevens and bassist Brad Smith, who moved from their native West Point, Mississippi to L.A. in early 1989, where they hooked up with Indiana-born Shannon Hoon, Pennsylvania native Christopher Thorn and fellow southerner Glen Graham to form the band, their new and final album, Nico , is a way of closing the chapter and looking to the future.

In between, there was a dream. And there was spontaneity. There were great songs and creativity in all aspects of their musicality that led to them becoming a household mane. Bound together by their music and thirst for adventure, Blind Melon had that refreshing vitality that allowed them to grow their fan base the old fashioned way with incessant grass roots touring. Then came the smash hit "No Rain," and many more chart-topping singles like "Tones of Home," "Change," and "Galaxie," massive MTV exposure, a triple-platinum debut album, the cover of Rolling Stone, Grammy and American Music Award nominations, appearances on Letterman and Saturday Night Live, a prime slot at Woodstock '94, around the world stints with the likes of The Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Soundgarden, Lenny Kravitz and Pearl Jam, a much-anticipated follow-up record in Soup, more touring and suddenly, Hoon's tragic death in New Orleans (October '95) from an accidental cocaine overdose.

Nico is a gift to Shannon Hoon's daughter Nico Blue, who was all of 13 and a half weeks old when he passed away. It is the band's best, most consistent work, capturing their many varied sides, unified by the dark-laced, forbidding lyrics and plaintive, yearning vocals of their departed mate

After Shannon's death, the group split up physically, with Rogers moving to New York, Brad and Christopher to Seattle and Glen staying in New Orleans, where the band had recorded Soup. After two or three months, they began contemplating organizing the remaining tapes they had of Shannon and the band into an album. Luckily, thanks to Thorn's portable ADAT eight-track digital recording unit and the 16-17 songs they finished for Soup which didn't make the record, there was quite a bit of material to choose from.

"There are a lot more chapters that should have been written as Blind Melon, but that's not going to be. This is it. This is all the music we have to put out with Shannon. We're moving forward because this is all we know how to do. None of us has gone to college. It's not like we can go out and get jobs. Being a musician is something you can't kick. We have a few good years left in us in terms of songs an inspiration, but as far as Blind Melon goes, I wish there would've been more. I think Shannon would have gone on to write more amazing things."

The band has announced they will donate a percentage of the sales from Nico to the Musician's Assistance Program (MAP), which offers drug treatment for musicians who can't afford it. They are hoping Shannon's death will be a wake-up call for others as it has been for them.

Biografia Cortesia de Capitol Records