Cherry Pie
An ode—and a recipe—to Jani Lane
Two years ago I earned a major knot in my back—“earned,” not in the congratulatory sense but the “you deserve it” kind. I decided to order 10 pounds of fresh cherries and pit them by hand, using a paperclip.
Oh, I could have easily ordered a pitter, but no, I found a cool “tip” online. A paperclip bent in a hook-like shape would do just fine. After some long, tedious hours of this tiny repetitive motion and a box that never seemed to empty, my dining room table looked like a murder scene, and I, the murderer or even the murdered.
And my reward was a knot in my back caused by a tiny, overworked muscle between my shoulder blade and my spine. Eight months later, it was still there. Then, thanks to a wonderful gift from my mom, it disappeared almost overnight after a kind man massaged the life out of it. He’s my hero.
All was not tragedy. I generated mini jars of cherry and cherry/almond jam, a tray of frozen berries for my smoothies and quarts of cherry pie filling.
Memory trigger
Ah, cherry pie. For us of a certain generation, you cannot say those words without conjuring up the hard-hitting yet catchy, absurd but sexy tune by Warrant. It brings home memories of middle school dances and a preteen, blushing realization of the song’s playground innuendo.
For us of a certain generation, you cannot say [cherry pie] without conjuring up the hard-hitting yet catchy, absurd but sexy tune by Warrant.
And of Jani Lane. The slanky, blond bombshell of a lead singer with wild, kind eyes and that voice. I read that “Cherry Pie” was a throw-in song at the end of recording the album. “Make me a single!” Well, Jani did, and we ate it up and begged for more.
Warrant’s “Cherry Pie” album dropped in 1990, 30 years ago, with “I Saw Red,” “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” “Blind Faith,” “Mr. Rainmaker” and “Cherry Pie.” It’s a classic during what I would consider the prime of that era of rock.
Living vicariously
Sadly, I would never get to hear those songs live with the words and voice of Jani. As many musicians do, he struggled with drug addiction and passed away Aug. 11, 2011, from an overdose.
The tabloids, surprise, were cruel to Jani. In the early 2000s, he showed up to MTV’s Celebrity Rehab a bloated version of himself, desperate for help. Looking back, I feel guilty watching a show that exploited people at their lowest. It was sad.
Years later, to the public’s eye, it seemed Jani was turning things around. In 2010, since replaced as the singer of Warrant, he filled in for Jack Russell on a Great White tour stop in Medina, Minnesota. Guess who went to that show. Angie. (I’ll be forever jealous.)
She says he looked good. Lean, untucked white shirt, jeans, a spiky mess of blond hair and a smile. Even better, he sounded good and looked happy.
Ironically, Warrant opened for Great White with a reincarnated Jani at the helm. At a key moment during the show, Jani, lone on stage, guitar in hand, sang a few Warrant favorites. It was bittersweet, nostalgic and beautiful.
It’s a moment where concert-goers were better off not knowing what would come next. We all had blind faith, and less than a year later, he was gone.
Jani could not overcome his demons—like nagging knots in his back—and he joins a slew of famous and not famous alike whose finale tragically came too soon.
His words remain, etched in our brains, and emerge with emotion when a song pops up on the radio or within my random playlist … or when making cherry pie.
Here’s a rockstar recipe that has Jani written all over it.
Baked Cherry Bourbon Pie
My husband Shawn loves smoking and grilling meats. I experiment with smoking nontraditional items like salsa and baked goods. I borrowed this recipe from Traeger Grills with minor variations, mainly an unfrozen pie crust I pre-baked and the cherry pie filling.
Get the original Traeger Grills recipe.
I used a quart of my canned cherry pie filling sans any thickening agent (yes, the same batch stemming from my pitting nightmare). In a medium saucepan, I added the cherries and juice, bourbon, orange juice and zest, and corn starch. I brought it to a boil and then turned the temperature to medium, letting the liquid reduce and thicken.
That’s it! The rest is as outlined in the Traeger recipe.
