Hair metal makeover
By Grant Britt

In the ’80s, metal was a different creature. It wore lipstick, mascara and couldn’t go onstage unless its hair was reinforced by a few bottles of AquaNet. Poison and Motley Crue led the cadre of big-haired arena strutters, but bands like RATT, LA Guns and Warrant ruled the second tier of hair metal gods, who did more head shaking than banging. The music leaned more towards more pop than the brutal rhythms and moody, intense music of today’s metal.
Warrant cranked up in ’84, but their debut album, Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich didn’t come out until four years later. The title proved prophetic, spawning the hits “Heaven,” “Down Boys,” and “Sometimes She Cries.”

But their greatest success came the following the year with the release of Cherry Pie. The hit single of the same name was soft-core porn, and the video left little to the imagination. That’s a winning combination in rock, and the fans ate it up. The band racked up album sales that approached the ten million mark.

Cherry Pie proved to be the band’s last big hit. Dog Eat Dog, released in ’92, utilized the same formulas, but the landscape had changed. Grunge had come in, and flannel shirts and jeans replaced the spandex and hair spray.

The band kept trying, but nobody was paying attention. 1995’s Ultraphobic , supposedly a comeback album, couldn’t find an audience. The pop hooks that had sustained the band suddenly seemed dated with the coming of the stripped down, rawer music of grunge. The band refused to give up, and kept recording, putting out Rocking Tall in ’96 and a Best of… release the same year and stayed on tour with different personnel, but nothing much happened.

Then VH1 came calling. As a result of the “Bands Reunited” show, in which the channel tracks down the original members of ’80s bands and entices them to play, the original band, guitarist Erik Turner, bassist Jerry Dixon and lead guitarist Joey Allen with the exception of vocalist Jani Lane has reunited for this year’s tour schedule.

“It’s been a blast to play the music again,” Allen said. “I haven’t played these songs for eight or more years. I am totally comfortable being side-by-side with Jerry and Erik again. It feels like home.” Replacing Lane is Jeremy St. James, formerly of Black ‘N Blue.

The band is finding a new audience this time around. Drawn by the funny clothes, outrageous hairdos and over the top anthems the hair metal purveyors made their stock in trade, a new generation has started to show up at shows. Some of the fans are young enough to be the band’s offspring, and given the nature of the band’s backstage antics, could very well be.

At the height of their popularity, Warrant and bands of their ilk were criticized for their shallowness. Ironically, that same trait has contributed to their longevity. The band never really had a message, and their good time party music has proven to be timeless.

“Our approach to music is to just have a good time, and especially with everything that’s going on in the world, people don’t want to be bummed out anymore,” bassist Jerry Dixon explained. “We know the problems are there just like everyone else does, but when we’re onstage, Warrant’s about having a good time.”

From: http://www.espmagazine.com/2004/1637/warrant.html