Jani Lane 1964-2011

Jani Lane 1964-2011

Last night we got another story of rock n roll tragedy. Jani Lane was another star musician who lived a life in the tabloids as much as he did on stage and though he always seemed like a nice guy to fans he never seemed to be able to overcome his many demons. My feelings on Jani vary in many ways... I hated Warrant's first record but still saw them live 6 times because they opened for everyone in the late 80s, I thought the record was bland and very "paint by numbers" though it was a big hit, I became a fan after the 2nd single on the 2nd record "Uncle Tom's Cabin" which was followed up by the equally good "I Saw Red", Two songs that lyrically different and had a musical emotion that was rarely found in that day. Then I became angry at the industry because of this band as they put out 3 great records that no one heard because they weren't the cool band anymore and the industry can only push one style of music and at that time it was grunge. Then I lost some respect when Jani left Warrant to be a solo artist. Why? Because when you are the chief song writer then you have no need to leave... The band is your sound and a solo record will most likely be indistinguishable. Then he became another 80s reality show guy, that group of 80s stars that showed up on all the "I'm fat and on drugs" shows that VH1 got popular on recently and to many he became a punchline.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time on Warrant's early years. If you recognize the man then you know about the first two records. They put out singles that were very pop oriented and safe and sold millions and toured a lot. That's the story. More interesting is the next three records. The band put out some great music at that time and Jani was the reason.

Warrant's 3rd record was "Dog Eat Dog" The record went gold, it did OK. They had a hit with

"Machine Gun" but they went from arena's to theaters. I had seen them at the Fox in Detroit with some good friends and Jani had a rep of going into the crowd and singing, this time he grabbed my buddy Eric to do a verse of a cover of "We're An American Band" and Eric was star struck as one of his heroes was standing there with his arm around him goading him into singing a song with him! Here is a guy who sings in his own band and he can't say a word... Frozen... And still loving it! We still talk about that night and I doubt Eric will ever forget it. This was early on in the tour for "Dog Eat Dog" and later we would read (and see) how the record company just forgot this great record and they were not going to promote it at all. The record was heavier for Warrant and really stretched the band. They were dropped soon after the tour.

Eric and Jani

Their next release was "Ultraphobic". It was a dark record as far as lyrics were concerned, but it was another good record. Songs like "Undertow", Followed", "Family Picnic" and "Stronger Now"were certainly not the happy hair band type songs that made them big. Another tour, but now it's the club scene. But Jani didn't care. He still went out to the crowd and in Detroit he started breaking out his Barry Sanders story (his favorite running back he would say from the stage). We also saw the beginning of another tradition... Jani would sit down with a guitar on a stool with a cigarette in his moth and no lighter. From the stage he would ask the audience for a light and be pelted buy hundreds of them, lol. Years later it would seem a little cheesy, but looking back now it was all in good fun. I hope Jani wasn't too hurt, lol.

The 3rd record was "Belly To Belly" and it has my favorite song by Warrant "Letter To A Friend". It was an angry record lyrically but still very good. It had strong songs like "Indian Giver", "In The End" and "A.Y.M.". The band was still playing clubs and they still had good crowds coming out, and the crowd was into the newer songs as much as the hits. We got the Barry Sanders story, we got the lighter barrage, we got Jani in the crowd and we got a fun show. But there were some signs of tension as guitar techs were yelled at from stage and at times Jani did look angry. It was the beginning of the end.

After that you saw Jani on "Celebrity Fit Club" were he really seemed to make an impression on people as a sweet guy with problems, after that was all the rumors... He was too drunk to preform, too much a mess... I didn't see any of his solo shows, but I heard the stories and it was sad. I have heard he was going through a lot at the end.... The loss of his band, a divorce and a parent dying. He even lashed out (Regrettably) at one of his biggest hits saying he regretted being the Cherry Pie guy. He later retracted the statement but it obviously bothered him to some extent.

I know this look like a Warrant post more then a Jani Lane post, but Jani was Warrant, period. The saddest thing to me is that most of his best music still goes unheard because the band wasn't trendy enough so most people only know 3 or 4 songs of 2 records and it's not fair. Jani deserved better then to be a hair band, reality celeb punchline.

I'm going to add 2 songs that you should check out from their later work. two of my favorite under appreciated tunes