Blind Melon and Live touring together?, A conversation with Christopher Thorn Options

[icewaterike]

Hey all,

Got some quasi-news last night at the Blind Melon show in Toldeo, OH.

It was an amazing show, by the way. If you get a chance to go see Blind Melon on this tour, they are in fine form and Travis the new singer is humble, gracious and really good for the band. He's not Shannon... but he's doing great and is, according to the band, the reason they got back together. It's really something to see... we caught them in a club of about 300 capacity last night in Toldeo.

Anyway, after the show I caught up with Christopher Thorn outside of the venue, and had a chance to talk about his work with +Live+ on the TDTH record. I asked him if he and the boys from Live still talk, and he said they do and still get along great. I also asked him if he would ever consider doing work with the band again down the road. He responded that he now has a "full time gig" with Blind Melon again, but he would love to tour with Live or guest on some recordings again. He said perhaps playing a bit of lap steel with them might be cool.

So, what do you guys think of a possible tour with Live and Blind Melon? I personally loved the work Chris did on TDTH and would love to see him on upcoming projects. I would also love to see Blind Melon and Live do a theatre tour together, collaborate on stage, etc.

Thoughts?

[icewaterike]

In Blind Melon's case, though, I am dubious- Shannons vocals were very distinctive and from memory he was a big part of the songwriting process too?

From what I understand, Shannon was as much a part of the process as the rest of them. All their albums credit the whole band as being part of the writing process. "All songs written by Blind Melon as One"

I was skeptical about replacing lead singers in bands too, until I saw Alice in Chains do it last year. I think if it's done in a respectful and dignified way, replacing a band member is something that can be done. In the case of AIC and Blind Melon, they picked a "nobody" to replace the high-powered frontmen that died, and are out there cutting their teeth with the new guys on the road in clubs first. They didn't sign up to do a rockstar INXS sort of thing, where it became a public spectacle and publicity stunt to get back together and get out on the road. AIC especially could have taken this road, but chose not to. I think both of these bands are doing the respectful thing by remembering and respecting their roots, but not giving up on something that they believe has artistic merit. Most bands reunite for the money (see the Police tour from last summer for an example of that!) but the 300 capacity club shows that Blind Melon are currently doing, with a $10 ticket price kind of disproves that in this case. This tour is for the fans, which was clear by the amount of good energy and excitement in the room last friday.

I guess what I'm saying is that I totally understand the inital knee-jerk reaction to say that if a singer leaves a band, the band is done. There is something distinctive about every singer. I would even argue that in most cases, the singer is the most noticeable and obvious part of a band's sound. However, I think if you gave these bands who are out there trying to do it the right and most respectful way they can a chance, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

This post has been edited by icewaterike: Oct 21 2007, 6:59 pm