Shannon was the lead singer of the band Blind Melon. He passed away due to a cocaine overdose while on tour in October of 1995. He is survived by his grandmother Vernie, Mother Nel, his daughter Nico and her mother Lisa Crouse. He is buried in his hometown of Dayton, IN
I recently attended the annual Vigil. It is a gathering of "melonheads" (blind melon fans) that occurs on the saturday closest to Hoon's birthday each year. Those attending included his mother Nel, her sister, and Hoon's 89 year old grandmother Vernie.
There were probably somewhere around 300 people there. Nel and Vernie also shared some stories and Vernie also played harmonica for a time. many came bearing gifts of artwork. Nel also handed out lots of souveneirs such as necklaces, glow in the dark stars, guitar pics with shannon's name on them, etc.
The majority of people arrived at about 5 that day (30 minutes or so after myself) and many remained until well beyond 3am, with some even camping out for the night. There was jamming everywhere the majority of the time, and at one point we had a group of about 100 singing, with seven guitars going at once. It was amazing.
It was pretty good, clean fun in Shannon's memory. I did get a chance to speak with Nel. She seemed like a pretty fun-loving woman and really enjoyed the company of fans. this was the Vigil's 11th year. People came from as close as dayton and as far as Canada and New York.
The Vigil
Blindmelon.org
Wikipedia