PUBLISHED IN THE KITCHENER WATERLOO RECORD, Thursday, April 23, 1998
By Nick Krewen
One listen to WARRANT's new album, Belly To Belly Volume One, and you realize it ain't no Cherry Pie.
As one of the many Los Angeles-based bad boy glam metal acts that dominated the turn of the decade with hits like"Heaven", "Cherry Pie" and "I Saw Red", Warrant literally had the rug pulled out from under them as they fell victim to the onslaught of the Seattle grunge movement.
After selling over 5 million copies of their first two albums, Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich and Cherry Pie, Columbia waited until the band's third album Dog Eat Dog attained gold before discarding JANI LANE and the boys like an old pair of shoes.
A disheartened Lane even left the band for a couple of years. He returned in 1994 to record Ultraphobic, their first album for CMC International, a New Jersey based label still convinced that groups such as Warrant, SLAUGHTER and DEEP PURPLE retain much of their core audience.
Now five albums deep thanks to the recent release of Belly To Belly Volume One, 32-year-old guitarist RICK STEIER says the band has shorn the hell-raising sexism of its early years for a more serious musical approach.
"It's no longer about chicks and getting laid, " said Steier Monday in Toronto, where the band is in the midst of a Canadian club tour that hits Lulu's tomorrow (Friday) night.
"We actually changed our style with Dog Eat Dog, which was a tougher, more serious album."
Steier, who joined Warrant during the Dog Eat Dog days after earning his stripes with LED ZEPPELIN poseurs KINGDOM COME, admits he's yearning for the old days of stretch limousines, loud pyrotechnics and, in his own words, "good catering."
"We'd like to be big again," admits Steier, who will be joined onstage by original band members Jani Lane on vocals, guitarist ERIK TURNER, bassist JERRY DIXON and new drumming recruit BOBBY BORG.
"Going from playing arenas to playing clubs was a bit of a shocker. But we've stayed together and we're playing clubs and filling them. Jani's still an entertaining front man."
"We toured Dog Eat Dog, and I remember the mayhem involved," he continues. "But there were so many bands who emulated the POISON, WHITESNAKE sound that it was overkill. You realized in the late '80s that it wasn't going to last forever."
Belly To Belly Volume One is a concept album that follows a rags-to-riches-to-rags storyline concerning fame, fortune and the examination of one's value system once the spotlight fades. But Steier denies that Warrant's new approach is an attempt to jump on the alternative rock bandwagon.
"I don't think there was any desire on our part to write a hit," he states. "It's just as you get older you grow. The music that comes out of you is going to change. There's been a constant transition from Cherry Pie to Dog Eat Dog to Ultraphobic to Belly To Belly."
Although the days of long-haired leather and spandex sweat bands are gone, Steier says the tide is changing.
"We can feel it," he says. "When we recently played with VINCE NEIL, the kids were not only singing along to `Cherry Pie' but also to the words of the newer music."
Steier says he's keeping his eye on some of the veterans who have major releases due in the near future, claiming that a philosophy of "never say never" is the safest route.
"There'll be some sort of turn of events," he predicts. "Look at AEROSMITH. Those guys hung in there and returned bigger and better than ever with Permanent Vacation. By the same token, there are a lot of people who don't want a revival to happen."
However, he's convinced that a few defenders of the faith are the same ones who are buying respectable quantities of Belly To Belly Volume One, despite the fact that Warrant is receiving virtually no music or video airplay.
"I'm not sure how exactly they're getting the word out," he admits. "But we keep putting them in the stores. That's all we can hope for."
Still, some of the old habits remain the same. After mentioning that Warrant has a live album in the can for a Fall release, Steier extends an invitation to his interviewer.
"If you're coming to the show, come on backstage and we'll have a shot of Cuervo," he says.
One final warning: an explicit lyric advisory has been issued for the show by Lulu's, who for some reason are singling out Warrant for potentially uttering some of those seven words you're not allowed to say on television.
DISCOGRAPHY
1989 -- Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich -- Columbia
1990 -- Cherry Pie
1992 -- Dog Eat Dog
1994 -- Ultraphobic -- CMC
1997 -- Belly To Belly Volume One
1997 -- Warrant Live '86 - '97
1999 -- Greatest And Latest
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©1998, 1999 Nick Krewen, Octopus Media Ink