Jani Lane, best known as the lead singer for the hair-metal band Warrant, was found dead in aLos Angeles motel room on Aug. 12. The cause of death is unknown.
"Lane and Warrant rose on the Sunset Stripcircuit in the mid-1980s alongside kindred spiritsGuns N' Roses, but, ironically, one of their early fans was funk singer Prince, who tried to sign the band to his Paisley Park imprint. The band ultimately signed with Columbia Records, and the label delivered.They rode a wave of success through the early '90s. Lane parted ways with the band in 1993; grunge had replaced metal on the rock charts, and the band's hits stopped coming. But he and Warrant reconciled a few times over the years for concerts."
Though Lane decisively left the band in 2004, it is likely that our memories will preserve the songs and images he produced in the Warrant era. For example, his hit single ‘Cherry Pie,’ which he wrote in less than an hour and at the request of his boss, is one of the most enduring glam-metal love songs of all time. Alongside titles like ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’ by Def Leppard it is a hallmark entry in the genre.
Calling ‘Cherry Pie’ one of his proudest achievements, Lane said in a July, 2007 interview with Sleaze Roxx, "It's a little catchy. It's a little tongue-in-cheek. It is probably not the most complicated song I have ever written but to write a song that is used as a measuring stick for a genre of music... It’s stood the test of time.”
Though Lane adopted a short, spiky hairstyle in his later career there is little question that, once again, the shiny cascading hair he sported in the Warrant era will define him. His was the hair-metal heyday, an inescapable period for the stars involved.
Lane leaves behind a daughter, Taylar.
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