Jani Lane,47,Former Lead Singer For Warrant,Found Dead In A Nice, But Low Budget California Motel… Near Empty Bottle Of Vodka And Prescription Drugs Found At The Scene

Jani Lane,the 47-year-old lead singer of 1980s glam rock hair band Warrant,was found dead Thursday evening in Woodland Hills.Lane’s body was found at the Comfort Inn at the 20100 block of Ventura Boulevard,in the San Fernando Valley in Southern California.(HuffPo)

Jani Lane,47,found dead in a low budget hotel in the valley

(JaniLane.net,the official site for Jani Lane fans)

A police spokesman had no immediate information on the cause or circumstances of his death, but did report that there were vodka and prescription medication found at the scene, and that Lane’s death is being treated as an accidental overdose  or a possible death from natural causes.(TMZ)

Hair band Warrant

Lane is best known as the singer for the band Warrant, a rock hair band that rose to fame in the late-1980′s and early 1990′s behind the Jani Lane penned song,Cherry Pie. which was a multi-platinum hit for them,shooting them to super rock status stardom, as well as making Lane the object of many teen adolescnt girl affection.(Jani Lane-Wiki)

As high and as quick as Warrant shot to fame, Warrant, along with several other bands of its genre, such as Poison and Slaughter, saw their star power quickly decline in the 1990s as grunge bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam moved into the mainstream.(USA Today)

They even became the object of disdain in a series of running jokes about how much they sucked,the popular 90’s MTV animated cartoon, Beavis and Butthead. All they had to say is that…“We like bands that are cool” and “We don’t like bands that suck”.

When they featured the video clip of Warrant’s hit ‘Cherry Pie‘ on their show, as THE epitome of a rock band that sucked,coming from the mouths of rock music’c most powerful critics at that time, essentially ruined their career.(Source)

Beavis and Butthead ruined the career of Warrant

Even though a side character on Beavis and Butthead , a dorky loser named Stewart, was depicted wearing a Warrant t-shirt, the inference about Warrant fans being like Stewart, were made fun of so much that they quit listening to Warrant or just stopped because Stewart made them all look like pathetic losers and posers.(Slate)

After that fall from grace, Warrant continued on performing in much smaller venues, in little towns,and with no record label support at all.They basically toured off of their past hits,to less than entusiastic, and sometimes geriatric crowds.

I had the opportunity to meet Lane backstage at such a show in a small auditorium in Huntington Beach in 1996, where a friend’s local garage band was the opening act for Warrant. Jani Lane was a cool, and gracious person to me, and when he did finally did hit the stage, he was slightly inebriated,but gave a rousing and professional performance,to the cheering crowd.

Jani Lane,47, has left the room (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc)

Lane eventually chose to quit the band in 1993, only to rejoin the following year. But he again resigned once more in 2004, and was missing in action for four years before eventually returning again. 

That reunion lasted less than a year, before Lane’s third and final departure from the band.

Lane was known to have a history of alcohol issues, including a number of drinking-and-driving charges.

He was ordered to serve 120 days in jail after he was  arrested for DUI in 2010,which was his second DUI in two years.

Lane had also was a contestant on the VH1 series “Celebrity Fit Club”.(Source)

Jani Lane (born John Kennedy Oswald, later changed to John Patrick Oswald) is survived by four children — Taylar, Brittany, Madison and Ryan — and his wife Kimberly, as well as his sisters Marcine, Michelle and Victoria. (Source)

An immediate outpouring and expressions of grief from his colleagues and peers poured out over the internet and social networking sites upon the release of this tragic news.(TMZ)

“We’d like to offer our deepest condolences to the family of Jani Lane regarding their loss,” Poison singer Bret Michaels wrote on Twitter.

“Just heard about Jani Lane. What a shame. RIP man,” Former Guns and Roses lead guitarist Slash Tweeted.

I send my condolences to his family,his children, and his friends….May he rest and ROCK ON!!!…in peace…