Blind Melon Book Details Shannon Hoon, Axl Rose Friendship

In a new book chronicling the story of Blind Melon (well, more specifically, the late Shannon Hoon), titled 'A Devil on One Shoulder and an Angel on the Other,' author Greg Prato spends an entire chapter detailing the friendship between Hood and Guns N' Roses dictator Axl Rose.

According to accounts by friends and members of both bands, Rose took Hoon under his wing, jumpstarting Blind Melon's career and, in the process, forming a meaningful friendship. Both frontmen originally hailed from the same small town in Indiana before, separately, migrating to Los Angeles in search of fortune and fame.

"We don't sit around talking about the music business or publicity stunts because that kind of talk doesn't matter much to either of us," Hoon is quoted as saying in the book. "We always seem to find much more interesting things to talk about."

Hmm. Music biz and publicity stunts aside, one has to wonder if, in their worldly discussions, the subject of Chinese democracy came up. We're guessing that it did not.