We hit it off and I liked some of stuff he was doing. He approached me at a club and asked if I wanted to jam and get to work. Kevin Cadogan: I was playing with a mutual acquaintance in a band and Stephan had heard me and some of my songs and guitar playing. Then I went on to try to get bands together. There was no overnight success. Third Eye Blind started as a songwriting effort of mine and then some guys who were engineers and keyboard players in studios. He thought it was rambling, and it was - it was too different. Randy Jackson heard it and really liked it, and took it to Donnie Ienner, who was then President of CBS Records. I didn’t have a band or any musicians, just these songs in my head. When I first recorded it and played it it was pretty much done. She sang me a song called “ What’s Going On” and I sang her this song called “Semi-Charmed Life.” I remember sitting in a room with this other songwriter who worked down the street - she was a waitress - and she came up and sat on the bed and we played each other some songs and I realized years later that the songs we played each other had sold 17 million records… it was Linda Perry. The drum loops on the final record are the ones that I originally recorded.

Stephan Jenkins: I wrote “Semi-Charmed” before I met Arion or any of the people in that make-up.

“I didn’t have a band, just these songs in my head.” ( Editor’s note: The accounts of how some songs and portions of the album came together do not always totally agree.) Here, in their own words, is the story behind Third Eye Blind. Third Eye Blind Explains Trolling Republicans at Charity Gigįor the album’s 20 anniversary, Billboard spoke to Jenkins, 52, former bandmates guitarist Kevin Cadogan and bassist Arion Salazar, Elektra Records Chairman and CEO Sylvia Rhone, who signed the band, as well as “Semi-Charmed Life” video director Jamie Morgan and album co-producer/engineer Eric Valentine.

Third eye blind the background