Warrant Singer Jani Lane Arrested for DUI
Blabbermouth.net reports that former WARRANT singer Jani Lane was arrested last Wednesday, June 17th in Los Angeles for a misdemeanor DUI traffic accident.
Lane was involved in a small fender bender in the Woodland Hills area at around 9:30 PM, according to the site. Lane allegedly hit a parked car and when cops arrived at the scene, he showed signs of intoxication.
The 45-year-old singer was arrested and taken to LAPD’s Van Nuys division where he was booked for a misdemeanor and is being held on $30,000 bail.
When asked in a May 18, 2009 interview with “The Johnny Dare Morning Show” how he managed to “get straight,” Jani replied, “It’s just a matter of deciding you’re done, in my opinion. I mean, that probably oversimplifies it, but really, really and truly you have to go, ‘You know what? I’m done with this. I don’t like feeling like this, I don’t like living like this.’ And it’s also nice to get the creativity back, which is impossible to flow when you’re unconscious.”
Lane originally left WARRANT in 2002 to pursue a solo career. He released a solo album, “Back Down to One”, in 2003, but shortly after was admitted to a rehab center for alcohol and drug-related exhaustion. He also appeared on VH1’s reality series “Celebrity Fit Club”.
WARRANT announced in September 2008 that it was splitting with Jani Lane six months after the band first reunited with the troubled vocalist. “From the beginning of our reunion talks to the last note of our last show together in Houston [on August 31 at the Rock The Bayou festival], we have had nothing but good intentions of bringing a quality original WARRANT show to our fans and friends,” the group explained in a statement. He has since been replaced by Robert Mason.
To be honest, I’m really not a fan, but this is still sad. I saw Jani Lane a while back in an interview on VH1 talking about Warrant’s biggest hit, “Cherry Pie”, and he looked like a tired, beaten down old man as he complained about how the success of that one novelty record has turned him, in his own view, into “that Cherry Pie guy”. He just looked sad and beaten, and I have heard the rumblings about his drunken performances at some of the Warrant reunion shows that ultimately resulted in him being replaced. Here’s a brutally honest review of one of those shows http://www.sleazeroxx.com/concert/0705war.shtml.
Like I said, I’m not particularly a fan, but I respect that this is a guy who was focused enough, once upon a time, to build a huge career for himself and earn a fan base, and he was a talented singer of a certain style, even if that style isn’t my particular taste. I hate to see people do this to themselves. We can only hope that this incident might provide the catalyst for Jani Lane to decide to truly turn his life around before it really is too late.
