Jani Lane – American musician

Jani Lane was an accomplished pianist, guitarist and drummer. He was a songwriter, frontman and leader of the American glam metal group Warrant. The band was popular in the late 80s and until the mid-90.
John Kennedy Oswald (his real name) was born on February 1, 1964 in Akron, Ohio. He was one of a huge family of talented musicians. By the age of 11 he was playing the clubs. After graduating from Field High School, Lane joined the Cyren group as a drummer. In 1983 he moved to Florida and founded the group Dorian Gray. In Dorian Gray, he played drums until the formation of the Plain Jane group with a future Warrant colleague Steven Sweet. It was at this time that Lane took the stage name Jani Lane.

The band Warrant consisted of Lane, Joey Allen (guitar), Erik Turner (guitar), Jerry Dixon (bass) and Steven Sweet (Steven Chamberlin, drums). In 1984 they signed with Columbia. The band were to undergo many personnel upheavals before tasting success. Warrant struck gold with the Beau Hillproduced debut Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich (1988).
The second Warrant album, Cherry Pie (1990), broke the band in Europe and Australia.
After a third album Dog Eat Dog (1992) sold only to the group’s diehard fanbase and failed to obtain Top Twenty status, the band were dropped by their label.
Lane made a half-hearted attempt at a solo career, however by the end of 1994 he returned to Warrant and remained until 2004, when business disagreements caused him to leave again.

Amazing Jani Lane

Lane continued working with other acts, including Saints of the Underground. He also wrote a song for his hero Alice Cooper (2008’s The One That Got Away).
During the shooting of Warrant’s Cherry Pie video, Lane met model Bobbie Brown, who starred in the video. They got married in July 1991 and divorced three years later in 1993. In 1992, their daughter Taylar was born.
Lane got married again in 1996 to actress Rowanne Brewer, a former Miss Maryland USA. The following year Rowanne gave birth to a daughter, Madison. They ended their marriage in 2005.
Lane was married a third time in 2010 to Kimberly Nash.
On August 11, 2011 Jani Lane was found deceased at a Comfort Inn hotel room in Woodland Hills, California. The cause of death was given as acute alcoholic poisoning. Lane had been arrested several times for drunk driving in the past.