WARRANT Guitarist On JANI LANE: 'When He Was At The Top Of His Game, It Was Amazing'

Clint Switzer of the "Music Mania" podcast recently conducted an interview with WARRANT guitarist Joey Allen. You can listen to the entire chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On celebrating the 30th anniversary of WARRANT's "Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich" debut:

Joey: "It's a little strange to think that everything that we've done to our bodies, most of us are still here breathing. It's unbelievable that we're still out doing it. Actually, the band at this point in our juncture, we're sounding better than we ever had. That's what is really strange — you think while you were at your peak when you were younger and it was a lot easier to move around, and now it's just the way we sound, it's amazing to me, from my perspective, because I've got in-ears and I can hear it almost exact every night. It's a lot of fun."

On vocalist Robert Mason, who joined WARRANT in 2008 as the replacement for now-deceased frontman Jani Lane:

Joey: "He's been with us 11 years, so, I mean, I've been in the band longer with him than I was in the band with Jani. Jani, I mean, arguably, some huge shoes to fill. When he was at the top of his game, it was amazing. It's really tragic that he's not with us anymore, but it is what it is and we've got to march on and when I ran into Robert at a gig right around the time we were doing the reunion tour with Lane and having some struggles, it was just meant to be. We had a quick conversation. He came down the next morning to meet with everybody else, and everybody said the same thing I had said the day before: 'Okay, this is the guy.' We didn't know how the reunion was going to turn [out], so he's really a pivotal point in this band. Very important for us to move forward the way we did because he is so good. He's a consummate professional."

On their 2017 "Louder Harder Faster" studio album and whether WARRANT has any new material in the works:

Joey: "It was a great record to make. Making the record for us is always a bit contentious because that's where you really see people want their part of the pie as far as songwriting goes and who gets what and what goes where and who plays what, and being a two-guitar band, it gets a little bit contentious in the studio, but when it all shakes out, as long as the band still gathers at the end of the day when you record a record, that's a good thing. That's what we were able to do with 'Louder Harder Faster'. We had a great time making it. Jeff Pilson, who produced it, is amazing. Everybody knows him from DOKKEN. He's also the MD for FOREIGNER; he plays bass in FOREIGNER. I'm proud of it. I'm just as proud of it as any other record I've made with WARRANT. We just continue to march on. We started creeping around talking around doing another one, but it's always a slow turn. It's like turning a big liner in the ocean. It's nothing that happens overnight. Hopefully we can get to it. Maybe in the next 12 months, we'll see what happens. We're starting to talk about it so that's a good thing."

"Louder Harder Faster" was released in 2017 via Frontiers Music Srl. The disc was recorded with Pilson 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).