Banana_juice Wrote:the guy from the gin blossoms are not dead. they actually just re united..

It’s official!

Yep, it’s true... the Gin Blossoms have reunited! (Four out of five of them, anyway.) They’ve been touring and working on new material with plans to record a new album. Drummer Phillip Rhodes is not touring with the band for personal reasons, and has been replaced by Scott Kusmirek.

Quote:The recording of NME also started a new era for the Blossoms—without Doug Hopkins. Doug had battled problems with alcohol and depression long before the Gin Blossoms, but things got even worse during the NME recording sessions, and Doug was fired from the band after the album was finished. NME was released in August of 1992 with Doug listed in the liner notes as playing on the record, but no longer as a member of the band.

The Blossoms went back out on the road ...
While no one was looking, "Hey Jealousy" was slowly catching on, ...

Unfortunately, Doug’s tale doesn’t have the same storybook ending. The split with the GBs was very public and very painful, and drew a lot of attention back in Arizona. Doug, Lawrence Zubia and Mark Zubia started another band, The Chimeras, but Doug was still fighting his alcoholism and depression. In December of 1993, he committed suicide. His death was mourned deeply in the Tempe music community, where he was well-known and well-respected.

There was a lot of speculation about whether or not the Blossoms would be as successful without Doug, who wrote about half the songs on NME, including "Hey Jealousy" and "Found Out About You." The band quelled those doubts, at least somewhat, with the release of their sophomore effort, "Congratulations I’m Sorry." All five band members shared songwriting duties on the album.