WARRANT's ROBERT MASON Is 'Lucky' To Be Able To Sing JANI LANE's Hit Songs

In a new interview with Kiki Classic Rock, WARRANT singer Robert Mason was asked what it's like to sing "Heaven" and other songs penned by the band's original frontman Jani Lane. He responded (hear audio below): "It's a beautiful song. It's really well written. [Jani] had a window of time where he had a lot going on, a great batch of songs — like, several records' worth. He was such a good songwriter. And producers, I'm sure, had their way with it a little bit, and the arrangers in the band obviously played it, and that's what made it WARRANT; it wasn't just a solo thing for him. But those songs stick with so many people. You see that. You generally get an actual sense, and I definitely wanna maximize that, and I get 'em all — cell phones, lighters, hands up in the air; whatever they need to do — singing along and the whole thing. It's one of the songs I get to play on too, so I play guitar. And I'm not as much running around as I am standing in front of a microphone, because both my hands are busy. It's almost like a 'settle down' for me, because I'm not sprinting around, running from side to side and jumping off on a P.A. and trying to literally get out in the audience a few times and all that kind of stuff. So this is me behind a mic stand and a guitar playing."

He added: "'Heaven''s great; 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' is great — I love singing that song. 'Cherry Pie' is 'Cherry Pie'. Those big, big songs… 'I Saw Red'. They're really well-crafted songs, and I'm lucky to be able to be that guy doing it."

Lane recorded several albums with WARRANT 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.

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.

WARRANT's latest album, "Louder Harder Faster", was released in May 2017. The disc was recorded with producer Jeff Pilson — a veteran bassist who has played with DIO, FOREIGNER, DOKKEN and T&N, 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).