Early years After high school, Lane joined the band Cyren, featuring vocalist Skip Hammonds, guitarist John Weakland, bassist Don Hoover (and later Rusty Fohner) with Lane on drums and vocals. Many of Cyren's shows opened for a popular local band called Risqué. When Risqué's bassist, Al Collins, noticed Lane's vocal talents, he convinced Lane to form a new band they eventually called Dorian Gray. The new band also included Steven Chamberlin on drums and Dave Chamberlin on lead guitar. Dorian Gray was designed to have Lane as the lead vocalist and to perform original material, but Lane wasn't ready to be the lead singer and quickly returned to the drum kit. Billy Denmead was hired as lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist. After only a few shows, Collins left the band, vowing to put a band together when Lane was ready to be a lead vocalist. Lane moved to Florida in 1983 with Dorian Gray. Eventually deciding to assume a lead vocalist role, he formed
Plain Jane with Collins and Chamberlin, adopting the stage name "Jani Lane" (Chamberlin would also soon rechristen himself Steven Sweet). He took the name "Jani" from his German grandparents, who spelled his name "Jani" and pronounced it "Yay-nee." Lane began vocal training with vocal coach/trainer Ron Feldmann, who introduced him to
Creative Engineering, Inc. in Orlando. Lane worked there as a programmer of the animatronic character Dook LaRue, the drummer for
The Rock-afire Explosion. His vocal debut was at The Station in
Fern Park, Florida. Lane, Collins, and Chamberlin were now going by the band name Plain Jane, and recorded their first four-track demos at their rented house in Winter Park, Florida. Although reluctant to leave Florida, they rented a trailer in the spring of 1984 and moved to California with hopes of landing a record deal. They were broke by the time they landed at the Hollywood Bowl Motel and resorted to making sandwiches with mustard packets while taking turns calling their parents for cash. Struggling to make ends meet as a musician, Lane resorted to working in a
pornographic video warehouse. The band, along with a new road crew and a few girlfriends, pooled their wages and lived in a two-bedroom condominium rented by new Plain Jane guitarist Paul Noble. At one time, there were 13 people living in the crowded space. By 1985, Plain Jane had become a regular feature on the Los Angeles club circuit and opened many shows for a band called Warrant. Plain Jane's bassist and guitarist both left the band on the same day Warrant's singer and drummer quit. Erik Turner, who had founded
Warrant in July 1984, was impressed by Plain Jane's songwriting and vocal performance and invited Lane and Sweet to jam with his band at Hollywood's db Sound in September 1986.
Warrant After generating notoriety on the club circuit, Warrant began to attract the attention of record labels. Following an abortive deal with A&M Records over a contribution to the soundtrack for the motion picture ''
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure,'' the band signed with Columbia Records. The Columbia deal came via the partnering of Warrant and manager Tom Hulett, known for working with
The Beach Boys,
Elvis Presley,
The Moody Blues and others. Hulett became Lane's mentor and friend until Hulett's death from cancer in 1993. As lead vocalist with Warrant, Lane wrote all of the material for the band's 1989 debut double platinum album,
Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich, including four Top 40 hit singles: "
Down Boys", "
Sometimes She Cries", "
Big Talk" and the No. 2
Billboard Hot 100 hit "
Heaven." The album peaked at no. 10 on
The Billboard 200. Lane also wrote four Top 40 hit singles ("
Cherry Pie," "
I Saw Red," "
Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "
Blind Faith") for the second album, the 1990 double platinum
Cherry Pie, which peaked at no. 7 on the Billboard 200. Lane also co-wrote and performed with Warrant the song "The Power" in the 1992 movie
Gladiator. In 1992, Warrant released
Dog Eat Dog, their gold third album, which peaked at no. 25 on the Billboard 200. Lane left Warrant in March 1993 to pursue a solo career. He returned six months later, helping the band secure a new record with Tom Lipsky of
CMC International. Warrant recorded
Ultraphobic in 1995,
Belly to Belly in 1996,
Greatest & Latest in 1999 and a cover album,
Under the Influence, in 2001. Due to personal and business disagreements, Lane left Warrant again in 2004. In January 2008, the band's agent, The
William Morris Agency, issued a new photograph of the band with Lane prominently featured, confirming his return to the band. It was the first time that all original members had been in the band since 1993. The band's first show with all original members was in May 2008 in Nashville, Tennessee. Warrant performed a series of shows during the summer of 2008, but by September, the band and Lane agreed to move forward separately due to "too much water under the bridge." Warrant and Lane both continued to perform Lane's compositions live and Lane continued to write for himself and other artists.
Solo career Lane became involved in acting in the early 1990s. He made a brief appearance in
Caged Fear and appeared in
High Strung in 1991. In 1993, Lane started working on his first solo project. Titled "Jabberwocky," the album represented a significant musical departure from previous work. Between 1997 and 2000, demos of Lane's solo material began surfacing on the Internet, with some bids on
eBay reaching an estimated $100 per copy. In 2002, Lane decided to postpone the "Jabberwocky" project and released a new project as his debut solo album. The "Jabberwocky" project remained unreleased. Lane's official debut solo album,
Back Down to One, was released on June 17, 2003, through
Z Records and in the U.S. in 2006 on Immortal/Sidewinder Records. It carried a "power pop" sound more closely aligned with the sound of Warrant than "Jabberwocky." Shortly after the album's release, Lane was admitted to a rehabilitation center for alcohol and drug-related exhaustion. In August 2004, Lane withdrew from the
Bad Boys of Metal tour after only eight shows. In the fall of 2004, Lane contributed lead vocals for the first ever theme song to a novel, Billy McCarthy's "The Devil of Shakespeare," along with James Young from
Styx, Ron Flynt of 20/20 and Chip Z'Nuff of
Enuff Z'Nuff. Lane contributed vocals on the track "Bastille Day" and "2112 Overture/Temples of Syrinx" for the Magna Carta 2005
Rush tribute album "Subdivisions." Lane had success with the "
VH1 Classic Metal Mania: Stripped" discs, where the acoustic version of "I Saw Red" was included on disc 1, a new acoustic swinging version of "Cherry Pie" featured on disc 2, and a new acoustic version of "Heaven" featured on disc 3. In 2005, Lane became a fan favorite on the popular VH1 series
Celebrity Fit Club 2. His problems with alcohol were highlighted and many viewers supported his efforts at recovery. With the reissue and U.S. release of "Back Down to One" in 2006, Lane attempted to restart his version of Warrant. Although "Back Down to One" was credited as a solo release, Lane assembled a new touring band called "Jani Lane's Warrant." The band's first shows in Michigan were stopped by legal action from former bandmates objecting to his use of the Warrant logo on his posters. Lane subsequently continued touring without the Warrant name and logo. Lane lent his vocals to numerous tribute CDs during the 2000s. In 2007, he released a solo cover album titled "Photograph," featuring a collection of his tribute contributions.
Keri Kelli and Lane wrote a song for
Alice Cooper titled "The One That Got Away." It was recorded by Cooper on his 2008 record
Along Came a Spider. Lane also finished work on a side project,
Saints of the Underground, which included Kelli and
Bobby Blotzer and
Robbie Crane, (both from
Ratt). Their album,
Love the Sin, Hate the Sinner, was released on April 22, 2008, by Warrior Records, and was mixed by producer/
engineer Andy Johns, who'd worked with
The Rolling Stones and
Led Zeppelin. The album featured additional bass work by
Chuck Wright (
Quiet Riot,
House of Lords). The band was originally called "Angel City Outlaws" when they posted their first two promo singles, "Bruised" and "Exit." In summer 2010, Lane toured with
Great White, filling in for singer Jack Russell, who was recuperating from surgery after suffering internal complications. == Personal life ==