Blind Melon’s biggest single of their career would be the
song ‘no rain’ from their self titled debut record which came out in 1992.
The songs video received a lot of air play on mtv and perhaps the most memorable part of the video
is the bee girl. But whatever happened to her and did the video open up future
opportunities for her in show business? That’s what we’re going to discuss in today’s video.
Released as the second single from the group’s debut album, No Rain would peak at number 20
on the hot 100 charts and top the mainstream rock charts in America. The success of the
single would help push their debut album to peak at number 3 on the album charts
resulting in the album selling over 4 million copies.
The music video would be directed by Samuel Bayer who had a pretty impressive resume
directing Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit video. He would later go on to direct The Cranberries
video for Zombie about a year later. The video would star a tap dancing bee girl who would
be played by a 10 year old girl named Heather DeLoach who hailed from Lake Forrest, California.
The concept for the "No Rain’s’ video would be inspired by a 1975 photo of Blind Melon drummer
Glenn Graham's younger sister, who appeared on the album's cover and served as the inspiration
for DeLoach's getup. DeLoach by this point was already starring in commercials as young as 5
and claimed she was the first person to try out for the video.According to her
director Samuel Bayer thought she looked so much like Graham’s sister
that no other actresses were brought into audition. She would tell MTV "They told me Sam
didn't look at any other tapes, "I went in with my hair in braids and wearing those chunky glasses,
because they said to look nerdy. My mom said we had to find some glasses before we went in,
so we ran to a local mall right before the audition and bought them,
and Sam liked them so much they're the same ones I used in the video" she'd say.
The beginning of the video sees the the 10-year-old tap-dances around in a bee costume
to the cackles of an unseen audience. Feeling bad, the Bee Girl runs off and meets
people on the streets of Los Angeles in search of a more receptive audience before finding other
people wearing the bee suit in a rolling field. DeLoach said the appearance became the definition
of an "overnight" success telling MTV "I woke up the next morning, and it was a
hit," she said. "At times, I wish I had been older, because it was the time of my life,
like playing Halloween every day. In fact the costume became pretty popular
for halloween that year. Her mother Susan, would would tell the LA Times that shortly
after the video blew up on mtv her daughter would still flip out seeing herself on Television.
A few reports after her appearance int he music video claimed she was a little too
confident though. Blind Melon frontman Shannon Hoon would tell Rolling Stone in 1993 “She’s
also been packing a serious ‘tude — flitting around with an entourage, signing autographs and
hobnobbing with the heavy hitters. (“I heard she was hanging out with Madonna at the MTV Awards,”
So what did Deloach think of alternative rock music? She would tell Entertainment Weekly in
1995 “I hate to say this, but I’m not an alternative fan,. ”I like Soul for Real,
Salt ‘N’ Pepa, TLC — omigosh! my favorite, TLC!” Following her appearance in the video she wouldn’t
hear from the members of Blind Melon, but she did land some high profile spots appearing at the 1993
MTV video music awards reprising her role as the bee girl to close out the show. She would
also make a cameo in Weirld Al’s video for Bedrock Anthem and appear in feature films including I’ll
Do Anything, Camp Nowhere and A Little Princess. DeLoach's school mates gave her trouble over her
appearance in the video telling entertainment weekly ”I got teased at school for the video
for a little while,” ”but then everybody grew out of that. By 1995 she was now in the seventh
grade and told entertainment weekly at the time that while she loved acting
she wanted to become a marine biologist. In the subsequent years she would land roles in the fran
dresher movie the beautician and the beast, as well as the TV shows including Reno 911 and ER.
In 2008 she would catch up with MTV and at the time she was still an aspiring actress telling
the network "When people see my résumé, they're like, 'Really?' " DeLoach said. " 'You've grown
to be such a beautiful woman!' Sometimes I don't always want to be known as the nerdy Bee Girl,
but it changed my life, and I'm willing to be called that forever,
until I'm old and gray. The Bee Girl is such a part of me ... I could never let it go."
According to an exclusive interview given to People Magazine in 2017, DeLoach who was now 38,
she was a cal state graduate in communications and revealed she was no longer pursuing a career in
acting. By 2017 she was now married to a financial adverser who was one year older than her. The pair
also had a younger daughter. Her wedding howeer would have a few nods to the bee girl costume.
.These days it appears DeLoach has mostly given up her dream of being in show business representing
a fertility doctor in orange county. & Almost thirty years later DeLoach said
she still gets recognized as the Bee Girl saying "I'm not one to boast, but my boyfriend, friends,
sister and mother, whenever we're in a conversation with a stranger, by the end
they'll bring it up and people will recognize me," "People come up to me all the time with stories
about how I changed their childhood and got them through a tough time of not being accepted."
SHe would make her most recent public appearance in october of 2020 on the fox game show i can see
your voice. That does it for today's video guys thanks for watching. Be sure to hit
the like button and subscribe and we'll see you again on rock n' roll true stories. Take care.