Remembering Jani Lane 1964- 2011
Sadly on August 11th we lost ex-Warrant singer Jani Lane. While he had his share of problems, he deserved a better fate. Jani left us all something we will be able to enjoy the rest of our lives, his fantastic music. While everyone knows the classics “Heaven”, “I Saw Red” and “Cherry Pie”, I want to recognize some of his other great tunes. If I was to advise anyone as to which songs to recommend:
Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich
Big Talk
Sometimes She Cries
Down Boys
Cherry Pie
Sure Feels Good To Me
Love In Stereo
Bed Of Roses
Dog Eat Dog
Hollywood (So Far, So Good)
Sad Theresa
The Bitter Pill
I would like to share two of my Jani Lane stories. I’ll start out with the first time I ever met Jani. It was at a venue known then as the Tweeter Center at the time located in Mansfield, MA in 2001. I was on the Warrant street team and was awarded 2 free tickets for the show. So me and Craig headed to the show and found out we were also able to do a meet and greet with the band after their show, right before headliner Poison. The thing that I found so cool was Jani took it upon himself to walk around and say hello to each person. Most artists wouldn’t have taken the time or effort to do that.
Fast forward to the last time I was able to talk to Jani. It was in 2007 and Jani was playing a solo show opening for Great White in Youngstown, OH. The next day he was supposed to play another solo show in Buffalo at Rock N Roll Heaven. Through some friends I heard the show was cancelled after making a few calls but was unaware as to why. So I saw Jani before the show and asked him why the Buffalo show was cancelled and he seemed perplexed as he was unaware of the situation. So he said he’ll find out and said he’ll talk to Obi his manager. Later on after his show he came up to me and my friend and thanked me for letting him know as he had confirmed it with Obi. He was just a down to earth guy who had a talent for writing some damn fine songs and he will be missed. RIP Jani.
