John Kennedy Oswald, better known to music fans as Jani Lane, was best known for two songs: Cherry Pie and Heaven, both of which he wrote but only one of which he actually liked.
The lead singer and primary songwriter for 1980s arena metal band Warrant was found dead at age 47 in a Comfort Inn in Woodland Hills, Calif., Thursday evening. The cause of death has not been released.
Lane, a native of Akron and a graduate of Field High School in Brimfield Township, became a rock star during the late ’80s hair- and glam-metal era, which dovetailed perfectly with the rise of videos and MTV. Warrant scored a hit with the power ballad Heaven from its debut, Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich. But it was sophomore album Cherry Pie and its double- entendre-driven title track that managed to both elevate the band to arena-level stardom and reduce it to a novelty act in the eyes and ears of many music fans.
Lane grew up in Brimfield listening to WMMS (100.7-FM) and at age 6 got a drum set from his older brother, Eric, that he played relentlessly. Eric, who played in local bands, including the Red Buckles and Touchstone, also gave his younger brother his first guitar.
Soon young John was playing drums in bars as Mitch Dynamite, and by the time he graduated in 1982, he had started a band called Cyren playing at places such as Filthy McNasty’s in Kent.
He left Northeast Ohio to seek his fortunes in Florida and then California, where he adopted the name Jani Lane and in 1986 joined a group called Warrant. The band, which included drummer Steven Sweet of Wadsworth, released Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich in 1989, selling 2 million copies.
When Warrant recorded its follow-up album, executives at the band’s label, Columbia, didn’t hear a single and demanded Lane write one quickly.
“I wanted the title of that record to be Uncle Tom’s Cabin [featuring brother Eric playing the song’s acoustic guitar intro], which was a song I was really proud of at the time. But the label told me they needed me to write a song like Aerosmith’s Love in an Elevator, which did not interest me at all,” Lane told former Beacon Journal writer Chuck Klosterman in 2001.
“But I did what they asked. I went home and wrote the song Cherry Pie in one night. And somehow that became the title of the album, the first single and the entire image of the band.
“Now, granted — they were right. We sold a million records in a month. But when the backlash eventually came, it wasn’t against the guys at Columbia who were making those decisions. It was against Warrant.”
The 1990 song reached No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the album’s second single, I Saw Red also made the top 10. But Cherry Pie became Lane’s musical albatross, his signature song for better and for worse.
In the early 1990s, hair- and glam-metal’s popularity dropped precipitously as Nirvana’s Nevermind and the wave of grunge bands that followed brought indie and punk rock to the mainstream, sucking most of the fun and credibility out of hard rock.
Warrant released Dog Eat Dog in 1993, featuring a harder-edged sound. The album was critically well received, peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200, and is considered the band’s best by many fans.
Lane left the group shortly after that release, returned to record three more albums, then left for good in 2002 because of business and personal problems.
During that time, Lane often performed around Akron and Northeast Ohio and released a solo album, Back Down to One, in 2003.
Lane struggled with alcohol and drug addiction throughout his adult life and appeared on Celebrity Fit Club 2 in 2005. Last summer, Lane toured with Great White, replacing singer Jack Russell.
Members of Warrant released a statement: “We are deeply saddened to hear the news of Jani’s passing. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.
“Jani was a very important part of our lives for a long time. We will always be incredibly proud of the music we created together.”
Lane was married three times, first to model Bobbie Brown, who was featured in the Cherry Pie video. According to his website, Lane’s third wife is named Kimberly, and he leaves behind four children: Taylar, Brittany, Madison and Ryan.
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758. Read his blog, Sound Check Online, at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/soundcheck. Billboard.com contributed to this report.