Thomas Stanley Orwat Jr. from RockMusicStar.com spoke with WARRANT's Erik Turner recently about a number of topics including the band's Warrant Red brand of wine and the passing of former singer Jani Lane. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

RockMusicStar.com: So do you anticipate that you fans will purchase this wine and just chug it immediately, or do you think that most of them will save it for a special occasion or even just keep it unopened, as a souvenir? Because wine does taste better in time.

Turner: "Yes, it sure does! But ours already tastes fantastic. But we have already sent some bottles as gifts to people that we work with. And I’ll ask them what they think and a few have already told me that they weren’t going to open it, they wanted to save it. (Laughs) And I’m like, drink it, and I’ll get you another bottle. So, I would think it’s going to be a bit of both. I would recommend that you buy one to drink and another to save. But, the 2007 vintage that we did, is already sold-out. So we are now looking at a 2008 vintage. The 2007 vintage had a much thicker bottle. It was real heavy and expensive; the street cost was $37.00 a bottle. But this year, we made some changes to the bottle and we were able to get the street price down to $25.00 a bottle. But, it’s the same exact vineyard wine, just a different harvest. But, yeah we are very excited about this."

RockMusicStar.com: I would like to take a few minutes and discuss the recent passing of your former lead singer Jani Lane. I know about all the issues that the band had when he returned in 2008, for a short period of time. But were you shocked when you heard the news or did you kind of expect that it was just a matter of time?

Turner: "For those of us that had known Jani….I’ve known since 1986, when he joined the band. We had a lot of good times and a lot of bad times. In 2004, he was no longer in the band; we had to make a change. And then we tried it again with Jani in 2008, but his old demons popped up again, and it made it impossible for us to function as a band. It was a huge disappointment because we were all very excited about the reunion."

RockMusicStar.com: Everyone was very excited about that.

Turner: "Yeah, I know. But we had no choice and we had to get a new lead singer, which we got Robert Mason, who was in LYNCH MOB. He’s done a beautiful job filling in for Jani. But it was frustrating during that reunion time with Jani. We tried to be supportive; we would visit him in rehab as much as possible. The band paid for a sober coach to come on the road and try to keep Jani sober. We took all of the alcohol off of the tour rider. None of us were drinking. But he would just sneak off and disappear, and show up intoxicated later, or sometimes, he wouldn’t even show up. And he would have a hard time performing in his state. It was very stressful and disappointing for the band. But that’s all I can really say about his passing. It’s very sad and disappointing. Anytime that someone has all of that talent, and everything to live for, and for whatever reason, I just don’t know, he just couldn’t stop. It’s awful. It’s horrible for his kids and his family. I hadn’t spoken with him since 2008, we weren’t close anymore. But, it was still very hurtful to hear."

Read the entire interview here.