Kevin Cadogan - Third Eye Blind

Third Eye Blind

Cadogan began learning the guitar at age 12 and began playing in bands shortly after. Like many other guitarists, Cadogan was a student of guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani. Cadogan was introduced to Stephan Jenkins, who would become his songwriting partner in Third Eye Blind, at a concert in San Francisco in 1993. The two began jamming together before starting to perform as Third Eye Blind in shows around the Bay Area. Cadogan won two CMA music awards for best songwriter along with bandmate Jenkins and was nominated three years in a row as best guitarist in California along with Kirk Hammett from Metallica and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine.

According to a NY Times interview with Kevin Cadogan, it was his understanding that Third Eye Blind was an equal partnership.

Having signed to Elektra Records in 1996, the band released their self-titled debut album the following year. Cadogan co-wrote ten of the 14 songs on the album. The album spawned a number of Billboard Top 10 singles, and the album has sold in excess of six million copies to date.

Cadogan co-wrote six of the 13 songs on Third Eye Blind's second album, Blue. Subsequently, Cadogan was awarded, along with Jenkins, the award for best songwriter at the 2000 California Music Awards.

In 2006 Third Eye Blind released A Collection on Rhino records. The collection included songs that were co-written by Cadogan from the first two albums. Cadogan was omitted from the band's history in the biography section of the liner notes, and credit for his work was falsely given to his replacement guitarist, Tony Fredianelli. The liner notes state: "As always the music profited between the interplay of guitarist Tony Fredianelli, Stephan Jenkins, Arion Salazar and Brad Hargreaves". Karen Ahmed from Rhino records served as the "project supervisor" for the album's release. Jude Gold from Guitar Player Magazine wrote in his review of the album that omitting Kevin Cadogan from the band's history: "Its like saying Guns N Roses music always profited from the interplay between Axl Rose and guitarist Buckethead".

In 2012 Enjoy Ride Records claimed they would be pressing Third Eye Blind's Self Titled album onto vinyl. Not only did label owner Ross Shotland not contact Kevin Cadogan about the release, but he didn't even get Stephan Jenkins' phone number from the label that originally released the record. Ross Shotland defends his innocence/ignorance by claiming "I took all the legal steps to go behind the band's back."