Warrant’s 1989 debut album, Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich, lived up to its title by generating substantial revenue for the band’s label with a well-crafted blend of radio-friendly rockers and ballads. When it came time to record the follow-up, the group wanted to explore new creative avenues — but initially, the record company didn’t hear a single.

That feedback arrived so late in the recording process that the band members believed the album was complete. Planning to title it Uncle Tom’s Cabin, after a song they intended as the lead single, they began to take some pre-release time off when singer and chief songwriter Jani Lane was asked to return to the studio.

Although it was a disappointing request, it likely wasn’t entirely unexpected. As Lane later explained, they made a conscious effort not to simply replicate their previous success — including avoiding anything that could be seen as a sequel to Stinking‘s biggest hit single, the power ballad “Heaven.”

“A lot of people, I think, were expecting us to release an album full of ‘Heavens’ because that song did so well for us,” he told the Rapid City Journal. “So really, that’s what I tried not to do.”

To his credit, when Lane set out to write the hit Columbia was seeking, he didn’t compose a power ballad at all; instead, he delivered an upbeat series of hyper-sexual double entendres titled “Cherry Pie.” Proudly silly and extremely catchy, the song was everything the label desired.

“When Columbia heard it, they exploded,” Lane told the Chicago Tribune. “They said, ‘That’s it: That’s the song, the album, the video.’

Watch Warrant Perform 'Cherry Pie'

The hastily renamed Cherry Pie LP hit stores on September 11, 1990 — by which time the title track, shipped to radio in late August, was already climbing the charts. As label executives predicted in their assessment of the song, the “Cherry Pie” video certainly boosted its reception; centered largely on blonde model Bobbie Brown in a series of highly suggestive poses, it provided immediate evidence that Warrant weren’t going to succumb to a sophomore slump.

Behind the scenes, the clip also served as a love connection between Lane and Brown, who married the following year. As he recounted, it all came down to a chance meeting.

“I met her in a place in California called Jerry’s Deli. She lived down the street from my house,” Lane told the Kansas City Star. “I was eating lunch and recognized her as a spokesmodel from Star Search, and I just basically asked her if she’d like to be in the video, and she said sure.”

If much of Cherry Pie‘s story seems charmed, it’s also important to note that both the song and album faced backlash almost immediately. Critics quickly pointed out that “Cherry Pie” bore a striking resemblance to several other songs, particularly “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.” They were also critical of the simplistic lyrics, which reinforced detractors’ claims that Warrant was merely another hair metal band with little substance beyond basic arena rock.

Read More: Was Warrant’s “Cherry Pie” Video as Sexist as It Seemed?

“It’s nothing amazingly new,” Lane shrugged when asked about criticism of the song on a musical level by the Kansas City Star. “But as long as people think it’s fun and they rock to it and it puts them in a good mood and puts a smile on their face, I’ve definitely accomplished something.”

However, regarding their treatment of women, he responded more assertively. Although he offered a weak defense of the Cherry Pie album cover by saying “It’s hilarious. A piece of cherry pie falls in a girl’s lap,” his Chicago Tribune interview suggested he had taken some criticism seriously.

“My purpose in life goes beyond sex and money. My purpose is to write, be creative, to take my god-given talent and do something positive with it,” he insisted. “People can call us chauvinist pigs. We expect it. But there are two definitions of chauvinism. One is an unfounded loyalty to one’s own sex. We don’t have that. The other definition is having a fanatical patriotism toward women. And we do. So go ahead and say we’re chauvinists.”

The song and album both peaked inside the Top 10, leading to a series of singles that included the No. 10 ballad “I Saw Red” and Mainstream Rock hits “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and “Blind Faith.” The band toured with FireHouse and Trixter, remaining active on stage — and on airwaves — well into the following year. However, even as they celebrated what would become their second double-platinum album, they acknowledged that maintaining momentum was just as challenging as achieving it.

How Warrant Learned Fame Isn’t Just One Big Party

“I would have thought that suddenly your life became this big Hollywood party. It’s just the opposite. You’re forced into responsibility, and suddenly you have many bills and some assets and some pressure. The only reason I’m in love with success is because it makes you more accessible to more ears,” Lane told the Rapid City Journal. “And that’s my thing. I want to be heard by as many people as possible.”

Rhythm guitarist Erik Turner was even more brutally honest. “We worked so hard to get where we are that we just want to enjoy this. In the music business, you can’t predict anything,” he told the Sioux City Journal. “We could be here 20 years from now or we could be gone in two.”

Unfortunately for Warrant members, their commercial relevance expired on the shorter end of Turner’s prediction range. Although they quickly returned to the studio for their next LP, by fall 1992 when they released Dog Eat Dog, the landscape had shifted dramatically. Lane later famously recalled seeing a framed poster of their band hanging in their label’s lobby one week only to return shortly thereafter and find they’d been replaced by Alice in Chains. Just like that, the party was over.

Of course, nothing happens that suddenly — Dog Eat Dog peaked inside the Top 40 and sold half a million copies — but comparatively few listeners experienced Warrant’s darker, more experimental side showcased on that third album; as grunge rose in popularity, many remembered them solely as lightweight power balladeers and goofy entertainers. Lane briefly left the band but returned; meanwhile, his marriage to Brown ended in 1993. While touring to stay afloat financially, they sued Columbia Records convinced that their label had lost all interest in promoting their work.

While Warrant remained active throughout the ’90s, this period was marked by instability with enough lineup changes to fill another article entirely. Lane left again in 2004 but reunited for a brief stint in 2008; however by then his struggles with substance abuse were well known and often interfered with his ability to work consistently; shortly thereafter they moved on without him permanently. Decades after “Cherry Pie” achieved success, he developed a complicated relationship with that song stating bitterly at one point “I could shoot myself in the fucking head” for writing it.

In fairness, it’s important to highlight that Lane’s feelings about “Cherry Pie” weren’t always negative; he often expressed pride in being part of something that reached such a large audience. Nevertheless, it’s undeniable how much it haunted both him personally and his efforts at establishing himself as a solo artist long after its popularity waned. His death from alcohol poisoning in 2011 marked a tragic end to a career that often seemed tantalizingly close to taking different paths.

Kiss frontman Paul Stanley—who himself faced criticism for simplistic rock songs often accused of misogyny—might have provided one of the best perspectives on Lane’s post-Cherry Pie career when he reflected after Lane’s death: “Jani was a terrific writer and singer who seemed to see his successes as a cross to bear. He fought his enemy within and lost.”