Jani Lane Memorialized By Family And Friends At Funeral Service

Jani Lane Memorialized By Family And Friends At Funeral Service

August 23, 2011

In the 1970s Bad Company classic “Shooting Star,” the protagonist met his demise in his bed, “a bottle of whiskey and sleeping tablets by his head.”

Jani Lane could have been the shooting star. From being a schoolboy when he heard his first Beatles song, all the way to his premature death earlier this month, Lane’s life mimicked the song’s lyrics according to The Royalton Post’s Todd Stumph.

On August 11the, Lane, 47, was found in bed at a Comfort Inn, in Woodland Hills, California, north of Los Angeles. The whiskey and sleeping tablets were replaced, according to reports, by a half-empty vodka bottle and an unidentified prescription medication.

Best known for his work as lead singer of the late-80s/early-90s hair metal band Warrant, Lane was remembered last Saturday in an 85-minute service at Crossroads Community Church in Doylestown. The locale was chosen because Lane’s first cousin, Adam Gable, is a member of the church.

The service was attended by 100 or so family and friends. The event was closed to the public, but no public showed up. A sole limo sat outside the church throughout the ceremony, before leaving with only its driver.

“We had hundreds of requests,” Gable said. “We wanted to keep it very intimate, for family and close friends.”

Fans seemed to honor that wish. Nobody lingered either inside or outside the church. If there were any curious onlookers, they were gone before the service started. Though a Doylestown police officer was on hand, he wasn’t needed.

Inside, friends and family remembered a local kid who made it big, then succumbed to what seems to fell many of his peers.

“He had a demon, which was alcohol,” said Gable, who said he last saw Lane in 2010. “I think the drinking just got the best of him.”

Lane’s sister, Marcine Williams of Uniontown, said “Heaven” was written in part for their father, after he had a stroke in the late 1980s. The chorus of “Heaven isn’t too far away” was penned with the elder Oswald in mind.

“My father was Jani Lane’s biggest fan ever,” Williams said. “He communicated with metal magazines and writers and was at his concerts. My parents could always separate Jani from John. They were never embarrassed by him. Heroes are remembered and legends never die,” she said, echoing a famous quote first uttered by Babe Ruth. “And that’s true. He always enjoyed being the star and being the frontman. He would enjoy this.”

Read the entire report at thepostnewspapers.com/royalton/areanews/jani-lane-memorial-NW-8-27–stumpf-.

Courtesy of www.sleazeroxx.com