“I saw a line of people wrapped way down the block. I thought maybe Bill Clinton was in town, but it was for our show”: How a young Blind Melon made it big with No Rain

Rogers Stevens.

When Rogers Stevens recorded the guitars for Blind Melon’s 1992 hit No Rain he was 19 going on 20, and hardly prepared for what was to come. “I’d been playing seriously for about four years,” he tells Guitar World. “I was just starting to listen to other players in a way that was meaningful.”

No Rain originated before Blind Melon formed, when original bassist Brad Smith wrote and sang it while busking in Venice Beach with his girlfriend. When he brought it to his bandmates, the song became something bigger and better – but Stevens can’t single out what makes it technically great. “I don’t know anything about music theory,” he admits. “I don't know the names of chords, necessarily.”