It's been exactly 11 years since the death of singer Shannon Hoon effectively put an end to Blind Melon. But now, the group's surviving members -- guitarists Christopher Thorn and Rogers Stevens, bassist Brad Smith and drummer Glen Graham -- are back together again under the Blind Melon banner, with a new singer, 25-year-old Amarillo, Texas, native Travis Warren.

"His voice is in that sort of higher register that Shannon's voice was in, but he doesn't sound like him," Stevens promises. "There are certain similarities, just because he's in that range, but on the stuff that we're doing, his phrasing and whatnot is different than Shannon's. On the old songs, he can sing them really well. They are different, but he definitely was influenced by Shannon."

The group plans to have a new record finished early next year and hit the road afterward. Currently, a label is not in place. "I don't know what's going to happen -- we don't have anything right now," Stevens says. "We haven't talked to anybody about it. People are calling, but we don't know what's going to happen. These days, it's wide open."

Despite such a long layoff (their last all-new studio recording was 1995's "Soup"), Stevens says that the group is picking up right where it left off musically. "I feel like I'm back where I belong with these guys," he enthuses.

Source Bilboard