Unable to save Shannon Hoon from himself while he was alive, the remaining members of Blind Melon have done perhaps the next best thing. Instead of allowing the general public to view Hoon as just another tragic side note to the ever-increasing list of self-destructed rock stars, they brought his formidable musical talent to light in a tasteful goodbye on “Nico,” the band’s last release.

During a telephone interview from Seattle, Blind Melon’s guitarist, Christopher Thorn, said, “I feel the media overlooked Shannon’s death. I’m not asking people to wear shirts with his face on them, but I feel it was totally overlooked that he was a great songwriter. The media mainly wanted to focus on his death like ‘Oh, yeah, typical rock star,’ but I know our fans felt it when he died.”

“Nico” was released in November as a gift to both the fans and to the album’s namesake, Hoon’s daughter, who was 13 months old when her father died of a drug overdose in October 1995. The band wanted to give Nico a chance to get close to her father via this album when she is ready for it.

Not only is the album something by which Nico Blue can remember her father, but the making of it also acted as therapy for the band.

“We made it a few months after Shannon’s death. It was a way for us to be together and deal with it,” Thorn said. “There were definite moments of somberness in the studio as well as a lot of good moments as we reminisced about a lot of the crazy-ass s