Jani Lane: Alcohol poisoning killed former Warrant singer

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Jani Lane -- lead singer of the band Warrant during its heyday -- died of alcohol poisoning, according to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

Lane died of ‘acute ethanol intoxication,’ which is when a person drinks alcohol to a level where he is poisoned, Assistant Chief Ed Winter of the L.A. County coroner’s office told L.A. Now on Wednesday.

Obituary: Jani Lane, lead singer for metal band Warrant, dies at 47

The rocker, born John Kennedy Oswald, was found dead in Room 118 of the Woodland Hills Comfort Inn on Aug. 11. A recording of the 911 call after his body was discovered by housekeeping -- obtained by TMZ -- revealed nobody willing to go into the room to check for a pulse.

Alcohol and prescription medications were found in the hotel room where he died, though police officials said at the time that there was no indication that the father of two girls had intentionally taken his own life.

Lane, whose lead-singer relationship with Warrant was on-again, off-again, wrote hits for the band including ‘Heaven,’ ‘Cherry Pie’ and ‘Down Boys.’ Warrant’s first two albums -- ‘Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich’ in 1989 and ‘Cherry Pie’ in 1990 -- both went double-platinum.

Jerry Dixon, Warrant’s bassist, said in an interview with the San Antonio Examiner that the band’s most recent communication with Lane was in 2008, when he and the band hooked up for a series of shows that summer.

‘We flew back to L.A., and he was out of his mind again. And we said, ‘That’s it.’ That was that,’ Dixon said. ‘We gave it the high school try and did about 10 shows. He just had a lot of demons.’

A private funeral service for Lane was held Aug. 20 in Doylestown, Ohio. With about 100 friends and family members in attendance, the singer’s older brother Eric Oswald performed the Beatles’ ‘In My Life’ toward the end of the memorial, according to the Royalton Post.

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— Christie D’Zurilla
Twitter.com/dzurillaville