I am going to step out of my movie geek persona to address my other passion, music. I wish to address the recent death of former Warrant front man, Jani Lane. While I have never been fan of their music I have seen their Behind the Music episode saw the anger regarding his legacy.
Is it such a bad thing to have a legacy? Something of us to show we existed long after we left this earth.
On Thursday, August 11, 2011 Jani Lane, former singer of the hair metal band Warrant died. As of Sunday, August 14th, his autopsy was declared “inconclusive”. However, when they found his body at the Comfort Inn in Woodland Hills, CA vodka and prescription pills were found at the death scene. He was just 47 years old. It had been reported he was dealing with “addiction issues” for years. His legacy was the song and video for the Warrant hit song “Cherry Pie”.
One thing that comes to mind that Warrant while have other hit songs like Heaven and Down Boys they will be always be associated with the song or mostly video for “Cherry Pie”. Jani Lane quoted in a interview, “I hate that song,”. He wrote it because the record company wanted a hit single like Love in an Elevator by Aerosmith. He was quoted as saying “my legacy is Cherry Pie, everything about me is Cherry Pie, I’m the Cherry Pie Guy, I could shot myself in the f**kin head for writing that song” The album was originally called “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”; after he wrote and submitted the song the album was called Cherry Pie, as well as the hit single and he was doing Cherry Pie eating contests. He was a tortured soul. Question is would Jani still be alive if “Cherry Pie” never existed? Would Warrant be another pop heavy metal band like Motley Crue or Ratt? Could he have written another song that would bury the Cherry Pie legacy? The Beastie Boys had the “Fight for your Right To Party” frat boy song, and then followed up with the revolutionary rap album “Paul Boutique”. Most of us would love to have a legacy; Jani’s made want to end his life.
