Jani Lane of Warrant: 1964-2011

Jani Lane, former lead singer of Warrant and reluctant poster boy for the '80s hair metal movement, passed away on August 11, 2011. His body was found in a Los Angeles area motel room at approximately 5:30 PM local time. It was a sad end to the career and life of a vocalist who personified the success, and the excesses, of the late 1980s L.A. rock scene.

Lane was born John Kennedy Oswald in Akron, Ohio on February 1, 1964. His true name was an ironic choice, considering that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald only three months prior to his birth. He demonstrated musical skills early in his life, becoming a drummer in a local band at the age of 11. He continued drumming in various bands throughout his teenage years, but maintained an urge to move "up front" and become a vocalist/songwriter. He accomplished this with a 1983 move to Florida, where he adopted his stage name and formed the local hard rock act Plain Jane with his future Warrant bandmate Steven Sweet. Plain Jane relocated to Los Angeles in the mid '80s to take advantage of the exploding hard rock scene in the area. There they caught the attention of guitarist Erik Turner, whose own band, Warrant, was just getting off the ground. Turner invited Lane and Sweet to join Warrant and the new lineup quickly conquered the Los Angeles club circuit.

Warrant signed a deal with Columbia Records and their debut album, 1989's "Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinkin' Rich," became an instant hit. The album hit the top 10 on Billboard, sold two million copies and generated the hit singles "Heaven," "Sometimes She Cries" and "Down Boys," all written by Lane. Warrant's songs were slick enough to appeal to mainstream radio and MTV listeners yet maintained a hard-rock crunch that appealed to the headbanger crowd.

Warrant's follow up, "Cherry Pie," was an even bigger success, achieving a Billboard chart position of #7 and selling over 2 million copies. The title track became Warrant's biggest smash and their signature song, much to the dismay of Lane, who wrote the track at the last minute under pressure from the record company to provide a "hit" single. Over the years "Cherry Pie" would become infamous for its hugely successful video, which many feel encapsulates the rampant misogyny of the hair-metal genre. Lane always felt that the track overshadowed his songwriting on the rest of the album, but it didn't stop him from marrying the video's mega-babe, Bobbie Brown.

By 1992 the hair metal scene was fading due to the newly-popular "grunge" revolution and Warrant's third album, "Dog Eat Dog," sold far less than its predecessors, despite it being arguably their heaviest, most mature and accomplished musical work. Lane announced that he was leaving the band to pursue a solo career in 1993.

Lane's exit from Warrant didn't last long and he re-convened with the band (now sporting some replacement members) for 1995's "Ultraphobic" album, a decidedly "90s" sounding album that garnered decent reviews and a small cult following but was still a far cry from their success of just a few years prior. 1996's "Belly To Belly" fared even worse than "Ultraphobic" and after releasing a live album, several greatest hits compilations and a disc of cover songs, Lane left the band again -- seemingly for good -- in 2004. Warrant released a new album in 2006 with former Black N Blue vocalist Jamie St. James taking Lane's place, and though Lane attempted to restart his stalled solo career, by the mid '00s he was becoming more famous for his stints in rehab for alcohol and drug problems, several D.U.I. arrests (one of which resulted in a 120 day jail term) and his appearance on the VH1 reality show "Celebrity Fit Club" than for his musical endeavors. A 2008 attempt at reuniting the classic Warrant lineup lasted for only a short concert tour and the band has since carried on without him, releasing a new album in 2011 with new vocalist Robert Mason. Lane was last seen on stage in 2010 as a fill-in vocalist for the '80s band Great White while their frontman Jack Russell recovered from a surgical procedure. At the time of Lane's death, he had been continuing to work on solo material and had just taped an appearance on VH1 Classic's "That Metal Show" in July of 2011 to promote it. Lane leaves behind a wife and two children from previous marriages. As of this writing, the Los Angeles County authorities are planning to perform an autopsy to determine the exact cause of his death.

I have to confess that I was a latecomer to the Warrant cause. Like a lot of so-called "true" metal heads, I barely gave them the time of day during their late '80s heyday, dismissing them as just another fluff-rock act. Years later when such juvenile musical prejudices became less important I came across a used copy of "Cherry Pie" in a CD store and thought to myself, "Y'know something? That song 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' was pretty bad-ass," and bought it on a whim. It turned out to be a much better album than I'd expected, and I have since acquired several of their other releases (including the mostly-hated "Ultraphobic" and "Dog Eat Dog") and have been impressed by them all. Lane was a better songwriter than most gave him credit for, myself included, and it's a shame that he'll mainly be remembered by the masses as "the Cherry Pie Guy." Take a listen to "Uncle Tom's Cabin" or "Mr. Rainmaker" off of "Cherry Pie" or "Andy Warhol Was Right" off of "Dog Eat Dog" and you'll see that he had much more to offer. He'll be missed.