'No Rain' by Blind Melon, Lafayette's Shannon Hoon, released 30 years ago this week

LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Thirty years ago this week, Lafayette-born Shannon Hoon and the band Blind Melon told the world how they feel about the rain.

"All I can say is that my life is pretty plainI like watching the puddles gather rain"

The self-titled album featuring "No Rain was recorded in London Bridge Studios in Seattle and the single released Sept. 14, 1992, just a short three years before Hoon, born in Lafayette in 1967, died in New Orleans while on tour. A cocaine overdose was deemed the cause of death. The November 1993 Rolling Stone cover story featuring Blind Melon detailed Hoon's attempts at rehabilitation.

The Journal & Courier reported his death on Oct. 22, 1995:

"Hoon died on his tour bus. His band members apparently couldn't wake him and called the police, according to New Orleans police Sgt. Marlon DeFillo, who would not give further details of his death.

Remembering Shannon Hoon: Annual Vigil for former Blind Melon singer ends in 2016

"Hoon, a McCutcheon High School graduate, died about 1:30 p.m., DeFillo said. The tour bus was parked in a parking lot near where the group recorded its second album in the city's Warehouse District."

"No Rain" reached No. 3 on the Billboard charts in 1993, the J&C reported, but the single and thus the band took off when MTV began playing the "No Rain" video regularly.

20 years after his death: Lafayette mourns Shannon Hoon

In 1985, Hoon embarked for Los Angeles where, legend has it, he met up with family friend and fellow Lafayette native, Axl Rose, from the band Guns N' Roses. Hoon can be heard in the background vocals of the 1991 album, "Use Your Illusion I."

Original members of Blind Melon, including Rogers Stevens and Christopher Thorn, returned to Lafayette in late 2015 and 2016, 20 years after Hoon's death, to perform in his hometown.

In the days after his death, the J&C reported how music fans in the Lafayette area were mourning his loss.

"I didn't even know he was from Lafayette until I came to school last year," Nathan Garrett, a Purdue University sophomore at the time, said in the Oct. 23, 1995, article. "I saw him walking around one day and a friend who knew him had to point him out. I said, 'You mean the guy from that "No Rain" video?' I went back to my room and called all my friends to tell them.

"Now, I'm on the phone talking about him dying. This is so bad."

Garrett was wearing a worn Blind Melon "bee girl" tour T-shirt. The bee was a nod to actress Heather DeLoach, the 9-year-old seen tap-dancing in the "No Rain" video while wearing a bee costume.

Trivia about "No Rain," the single, according IMBD.com:

• The song appeared in episodes of "The OC"

• The trailer for the film "Sideways" featured "No Rain"

• "No Rain" is Blind Melon's highest-charting song, hitting number 20 on the US Billboard Hot 100

• DeLoach later reprised her role as the "bee girl" in a Weird Al Yankovic music video

The album, "Blind Melon," recorded in the same studio where Pearl Jam frequented, eventually reached platinum sales in October 1993, 13 months after its release.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: 'No Rain' by Blind Melon, Lafayette's Shannon Hoon turns 30-years-old