Third Eye Blind's Stephan Jenkins Accepts The Kindness of Strangers

Third Eye Blind popped into Toast Studios in San Francisco last Friday, which was still warm (and redecorated) from R.E.M.'s recent three-month stint there recording their yet-untitled opus that's due out on October 27. Although TEB's management insist the band wasn't undertaking anything as ambitious as recording the follow-up to last year's self-titled double platinum debut, we do understand that that little old control freak, Stephan Jenkins, has been penning some new songs in his spare time -- which as you know is very limited these days. In fact, the band was in San Francisco because they're supposed to be taking a month off before diving back into the touring wars on May 30, when they'll perform at two radio fests on the very same day: one in Boston and one in New York. But in the meantime, they're supposedly regaining their equilibrium after being on the road for the past year.

One of the things TEB have to remedy is the growing unrest between Jenkins and their Billy Idol-esque guitarist, Kevin Cadogan. The two had a colossal blow-up during the last leg of Third Eye Blind's tour, and those in the know say that this clash of the titans may result in Cadogan being asked to leave if they don't work out some of the stickier issues, like the guitarist's reported abuse of prescription drugs. And then there's the rather minor issue of all the adoration that Catogan gets from their female fan base: although we're not sure what Jenkins has to beef about, since he is still keeping company with this year's gamine, Charlize Therone. In fact, the singer jetted down to Los Angeles to see his gal pal this past weekend, after he attempted to get into Slim's nightclub without a ticket to see Luna last Friday night. You might remember that this is the very same place that turned R.E.M.'s Mike Mills away when he didn't have a ticket for the Whiskeytown show and wasn't on the guest list. When Jenkins arrived, he told the fetching ticket seller that he was on Luna's list -- knowing full well that he wasn't.

But unlike the Mills case, this time lady luck smiled on the singer. According to Tracey Buck, someone had just turned in two tickets to the box office and said to "give them to someone who's desperate." Although we're sure that Jenkins would prefer to think he got in because of his winning smile and "Semi-Charmed Life," it was really due to the kindness of strangers (Buck did add that he was "pretty cute," but at Slim's that still doesn't cut it). Jenkins is due to a return to San Francisco's Toast Studios today, where he is overseeing the remixes for "Losing A Whole Year."

-Jaan Uhelszki