Brad Smith

Brad Smith first gained widespread notice playing bass for the 1990s rock outfit Blind Melon. Once the group disbanded in 1995 he launched a solo career that revealed skills extending well past ordinary backup duties.

Born in West Point, MS, on September 29, 1968, Smith encountered music by performing baritone sax and snare drum in his junior-high ensemble. He later taught himself guitar and began jamming with another local player, Rogers Stevens, exploring both 1980s heavy metal and classic rock. After finishing high school and deciding against college, the pair moved to Los Angeles, CA, hoping to start a band. They linked up with singer Shannon Hoon, second guitarist Christopher Thorn, and drummer Glenn Graham, forming Blind Melon in 1990.

Although glam and pop metal dominated the Sunset Strip, the band favored 1970s Southern and classic rock influences and adopted a natural retro appearance instead of spandex and heavily styled hair. Their self-titled debut arrived in 1992; it climbed the charts almost a year later thanks to relentless touring and the breakthrough video and single “No Rain,” a track Smith had written years earlier about a former girlfriend struggling with depression. The album eventually earned multi-platinum certification.

Further progress halted when tragedy struck. After the 1995 release of the woefully underrated Soup, Hoon died midtour from a drug overdose, ending the band. The surviving members issued the odds-and-ends compilation Nico the following year, then explored continuing with a new singer, an effort that ultimately failed and sent each musician in a separate direction.

Smith appeared on friend Joe Tullos’ 1997 solo debut, Scoundrel’s Waltz, and began preparing his own first album. A Rolling Stone website article had announced an early-1999 release date, yet the project was postponed when Smith reunited with Thorn to form Unified Theory. The new band issued its critically acclaimed self-titled album for Universal in 2000, produced by Smith and Thorn themselves. The next year brought the long-delayed solo debut, Mercy, credited to the alias Abandon Jalopy.