ROBERT MASON Says WARRANT Has 'Grown And Gained Momentum' In 16 Years Since He Joined The Band
November 27, 2024Robert Mason says that WARRANT has "grown and gained momentum" in the 16 years since he joined the band.
Original WARRANT singer Jani Lane recorded several albums with the band in late 1980s and early 1990s but left the group several times. The band's seventh studio LP, "Born Again", was released in 2006 and featured Jaime St. James as the lead singer. In 2008, Lane returned to WARRANT temporarily and toured with the group. In September that year, WARRANT announced that Jani had left again. The band replaced him with Mason and released its eighth studio album, "Rockaholic", in 2011.
In a new interview with 97 Underground's Michael Spedden, Mason stated about performing the songs originally written and recorded by Lane (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The nostalgia aspect is a huge component of what we do. Yes, we're still up there and we're playing songs, and I've done two records with the band, so there are songs that are newer, but by and large, your garden variety WARRANT fan remembers those first three really big records, if they're of that certain age. That meant something to them… By and large, WARRANT fans are there to have a good time, and if we provide that — they hear the songs, they get the live performance where we don't just stare at our shoes, my intent is to metaphorically get out there and really reach the audience and have them reach back and have everybody kind of bond on that energetic level.
"On one hand, I think [WARRANT guitarist] Joey Allen said at one time, he said, 'If my singer didn't have a really thick skin, he wouldn't be able to do this.'
"I've been in this band over 16 years," he continued. "It was at a time when they really needed somebody to be the hood ornament, the horn in front of the car, the headlights, and they had fans and promoters and shows booked and people willing to come see the band, and they just couldn't manage it with all five guys. Jani, bless him, was not in a good place nor fit to go do that. I met them at a festival show, kind of reconnected with them, and it was just a very organic natural thing. Now my band had opened for WARRANT in arenas in '92. So, we were friends for all that time, albeit casual, distant acquaintances and friends. We got to be friends on that tour, and Jani and I got to be friends, pretty good friends throughout those months on the road in '92. So, we were all in a similar place. We're all of a similar age. It was a very organic fit for me to come in and first fill in some shows. And I know I've said this before as well, but really quickly, if I would have filled in half a dozen shows, a half a year, a year, whatever, and Jani got himself healthy and wanted to come back — 'here you go. It's your band.' That was not the case. And we all had to make peace with that. There was a certain element of — it's still, in some ways, a job and a career and a passion. It's like you mix ego, art and commerce, and they don't always flow together perfectly well forever and for amen. But we had four out of five guys, a booking agent, promoters and fans willing to keep the wheels rolling and keep the band going. So we just did it. And it's honestly grown and gained momentum throughout the years, to the point where now we're still doing, I think it's just short of 60 shows this year, fly dates, and we still love doing it. Everybody gets along, and the testament is that it's still going after 16 and a half some odd years. I've said as long as we keep going and fans still wanna come out and we're still doing good shows and everybody's happy, then we'll keep doing it."
In an April 2021 interview with Waste Some Time With Jason Green, Mason stated about how Lane's last split from WARRANT came about: "They told Jani he was better off probably staying off the road, because they were having a hard time keeping him sober. They hired a very expensive per-day sober coach that couldn't do it.
"It's a horrible thing," he continued. "He succumbed to all of that… He was in a very, very dark place, and the worst place for him was to be on the road. And my guys were deathly afraid of finding him not making lobby call one day and expired in a hotel on the road, and how that would look and how that would feel for them.
"So, yes, they told, 'No more WARRANT for you. Please go home and make yourself better. And maybe we'll talk about it someday. But make yourself better.'
"[After I joined WARRANT] Jani was alive and did Jani Lane solo shows for a little bit. He put a band together with a lot of the usual suspects, guys he would use, and really great players. But he was just not the same guy and not in the same place."
Lane died in August 2011 at age 47. Paramedics found his body in a Comfort Inn motel room in Woodland Hills, California, which is near Los Angeles. Lane had battled alcohol abuse for years.
Reflecting on how he found out about Jani's death, Robert said: "I think it was us and the SLAUGHTER guys, we were all having dinner at a steak joint somewhere in the middle of the country doing a gig, and everybody's phone just buzzed — it seemed [like it happened] all at once. It was kind of rare for us — all band and crew; everybody — after flying in, we were all sitting around the table, with appetizers, waiting for entrees to show up, and all of sudden, everybody's phones just blew up. And it was that horrible look. I remember somebody looking and going [opens his eyes wide]. And I know they thought to themselves, 'This is what this is,' and they were dead right. We all picked up the phone, and we were, like, 'Did you just hear…?' 'Yeah, I just got a text from so-and-so.' 'I just missed a phone call from six people.'"
According to Mason, Lani's passing didn't come completely unexpectedly to him and the rest of WARRANT. "Clearly, it's not anything that anybody wanted to happen, but it was less of a surprise, I think," he said. "It wasn't as huge a shock. And that's a terrible thing to admit."
WARRANT's latest album, "Louder Harder Faster", was released in 2017 via Frontiers Music Srl. The disc was recorded with producer Jeff Pilson — a veteran bassist who has played with DIO, FOREIGNER and DOKKEN, among others — and was mixed by Pat Regan, except for the song "I Think I'll Just Stay Here And Drink", which was mixed by Chris "The Wizard" Collier (FLOTSAM AND JETSAM, PRONG, LAST IN LINE).
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