[2][3] Shannon played both clarinet and guitar by the age of fifteen, due to being inspired by his father's collection of blues records.

In the early 1990s, he formed a group called Mem Shannon and the Membership, who won a spot playing at the 1991 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

[3] In April 1996, Shannon announced that he was giving up driving his cab in order to make playing music his full-time job.

Other celebrities included Tom Savini, Jim O'Rear, Brinke Stevens, Ken Foree, Stephen Susco, Debbie Rochon, James Gunn and Joe Bob Briggs.

[8][9][10][11][12] Shannon's name and persona appear coincidentally in two horror novels: Fat White Vampire Blues by Andrew Fox and the aforementioned Bad Moon Rising.