Nine years and 2.5-million records after they began playing smoky, beer-sloshed
clubs in their hometown of Tempe, Ariz., the Gin Blossoms have done what very
few bands ever do -- they made it.

With their quickly expanding platinum song book including their smash hits "Hey
Jealousy," "Found Out About You," "Until I Fall Away," "Allison Road," "Till I
Hear It From You," and the latest edition, "Follow You Down," the Gin Blossoms'
journey to the top has been nothing short of the wildest roller coaster ride on
Earth.

"I don't think it's probably as exciting as it used to be, like the first
couple times you see the country. It's a little different," said Gin Blossoms'
bassist Bill Leen. "We're veterans at this now."

Veterans of the road and of the recording studio, the Gin Blossoms' second
full-length album, "Congratulations I'm Sorry," hit shelves last month. With
another potent batch of the Blossoms' lovable pop tunes, the album proved the
band is much more than your typical '90s one-hit-wonder.

On the road again, Gin Blossom Leen had a chance to chat last week about the
band, the new album and how the tour has been going. "It's different now," he
said in a telephone interview. "Now we're popular. There's a certain excitement
of being the underdog, the unknown, the opener on a bill when nobody knows who
you are, and there's the possibility of maybe topping the headliner. I'm
probably not as excited about it as I was. I'll tell you it was a great feeling
though to get this new record out."

Made up of Leen, Robin Wilson (vocals), Jesse Valenzuela (guitar), Scott
Johnson (guitar) and Philip Rhodes (drums), the Gin Blossoms' sweet songs of
lost love and other depressing topics make their music and lyrics accessible
and nothing short of loved by fans of all ages and musical tastes.

Despite all the sad songs, are the Gin Blossoms really such a sad bunch of
people? "I guess," Leen responded. "I guess if you were hanging around us you
would probably just break down after a while. As far as subject matter goes for
the song lyrics, that's where we find inspiration. I think it would be really
hard for me personally to sit down here and try to write something about how
everything is so wonderful. Maybe it's because we like to just keep our asses
covered; maybe a little superstitious or something."

From the trademarked jangly guitar sound of the Blossoms' new single, "Follow
You Down," to "As Long As It Matters" and "Virginia," Leen said
"Congratulations I'm Sorry" was difficult to make, but well worth the effort.

"This time it was real open to any sort of suggestions or contributions from
everybody in the group, and it was never like that before," he said. "The first
one was basically our greatest hits from a few years of being a bar band back
home. All these songs were created specifically for a record that was due out
on a certain date, so it was a lot different."

Leen said the rather peculiar title of the record has to do with the
circumstances that surrounded the band after they hit big with their
double-platinum debut, "New Miserable Experience."

The Gin Blossoms' original guitarist, Doug Hopkins, who wrote the group's first
two hits, "Hey Jealousy" and "Found Out About You," was fired from the band at
the end of recording the first album because of an alcohol addiction. When the
record began sweeping the charts in late-1993, the alcoholism and depression
overcame Hopkins, and he committed suicide in December of that year.

"Our first record was successful, and a lot of people -- friends, fans of the
group -- congratulated us on it. And everything that went down with Doug ...
people would come up and say: `Congratulations,' and then right afterwards,
almost as a disclaimer, say: `I'm Sorry.' It was literally how people would
greet us. I guess now it's back to `Congratulations,' which is nice," Leen
said.

"What happened with Doug is much more serious than any sort of success you
could have," he continued. "Personally, I took it really hard, and it
definitely wasn't a party. He was fired pretty much the last day we were in
Memphis, right after we had completed the album. He really just couldn't go on
with it. ... It was just a terrible situation. ... We try to just distance
ourselves from that. We have a lot to prove. There's a lot of people who
seriously doubted we could pull anything off without him.

But the Gin Blossoms proved they could continue without Hopkins when they
returned to Memphis in August 1995 to record "Congratulations I'm Sorry" with
producer John Hampton, who also produced "New Miserable Experience."