WARRANT Bassist Is 'Proud' Of The Music His Band Created With JANI LANE

Jay Nanda of the San Antonio Metal Music Examiner late last month conducted an interview with WARRANT bassist Jerry Dixon. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: [Former WARRANT singer] Jani's [Lane] passing hit the metal community hard and stunned a lot of people. When was the last time you had communicated with him?

Dixon: 2008. We flew back to L.A., and he was out of his mind again. And we said, "That's it." That was that. We gave it the high school try and did about 10 shows. He just had a lot of demons. People watch "Celebrity Rehab" and see a Steven Adler-type person or some of those cats on there . . . It's just a really difficult thing to go through.

San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: What part of Jani do you miss the most? Do you have a fondest memory or story you'd like to share?

Dixon: I think overall I'm thankful to have had him in the band. I'm proud of the music we still have and the music we created back then. It's really easy to take a song like "Heaven" or "Cherry Pie" for granted. What we did back then was magical, and that part of it I'll always cherish.

San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: How do you think Jani should be remembered by those who only knew of his music?

Dixon: Ohhh . . . do you want the honest answer or the bullshit answer?

San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: I want the honest, whatever-you'd-like-to-say answer.

Dixon: Let's put it this way. It's not easy dealing with anyone in that state of mind. It's the closest thing to hell that I can imagine for his family, daughter, fans, and for himself. It's an utter living nightmare that that stuff brings to people. It's a shame, man. But I don't think it really kicked into him 'till about 12 years ago. He always held together before that. I guess we all mourn differently. I don't want to cloud anyone's memories whether they know him or don't know him. Being close to the situation, you get mad from canceling shows and making you lose your house, going bankrupt. But at the same time, you gotta step back and not take it personal. That's what sex, drugs and rock and roll is all about. It's not fun. Just the way it is.

San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: Do you feel you failed Jani as a friend?

Dixon: Absolutely not. If I failed, then his daughter failed, and all of his friends failed. I want people to know, too, that in 2008, we had a guy named Bob not Bob Forrest from the rehab show that worked with Dr. Drew, but a different Bob and we paid him and brought him on the road with us. You think back and say, "What else can you do?" But it's true that someone has to want it. We would remind ourselves, "Why do we have this guy (Bob) with us?" Lane would sneak out of his room in the middle of the night and go to a bar, and dudes were like (to Bob),"Go get him! What are you doing?" And he'd say, "I'm not going to get him. He has to want it." We thought he (Bob) was going to put him (Jani) in lockdown, but it doesn't work like that. So I would say, failing? No. Is there more we could have done? Probably. Did we try? Yes.

Read the entire interview from the San Antonio Metal Music Examiner.