An Interview with Jerry Dixon (Warrant)

by Vinnie Apicella

They thrived in the eighties, struggled in the nineties, and are having another go at it today.  They were the Glam-Metal darlings of a burgeoning MTV era and made a lucrative career out of cross-dressing fashions and show tunes.  But change sets in and only those few lucky enough to earn the “timeless” label stick around long enough to weather the valleys when the sun sets on the peaks of superstardom.  Warrant made a big splash back in the day, with their camera ready looks and flowing locks.  They were latecomers at the forefront of the Hair Metal sensation set forth by the Motley Crue’s and Poison’s before them.  They sent the little girls’ hearts aflutter and gave the guys a reason to gawk with their “sexploitative” music vids.  When themselves and others of their class were called on it with the arrival of Alternative and Grunge, they were overmatched and dismissed as yesterday’s joke by a new breed of bands that put a frown upon the fun. 

But in recent years the playing field appears to be leveling to where Party Rockers can again make some noize.  Yesterday’s million sellers are returning back to their darkened roots, playing the clubs and hitting the streets, trying to capitalize on the prime of their past rather than miss an already sailed Nu-Metal ship.  So what do you do when touring for thousands at a time dilutes to less than half that number on your own?  You pool together a bunch of your pretty boy brethren, call it what it is, and unite the starving masses for a half day’s worth of fun, fireworks, and forty-something flamboyance.  The original “Glam Slam Metal Jam” of a couple years ago first reunited these underserved allies, headed up by the still popular Poison, and the results were a resounding success.  For this go round, billed as simply, “Rock Fest 2002,” sponsored by Metal Edge and coming to an amphitheatre near you, it should prove to be one of the biggest concert events of the summer. 

Warrant guitarist Jerry Dixon lays the low down on his band’s entry into the latest return trip to glory sweepstakes.  “Basically, we’ve been doing some touring the last the last couple years.  We did the Poison tour last year.  In the off time Jani just did a solo record, which will come out this summer.  So we’re gonna do this tour and basically get back to the studio and make a new Warrant record for next summer.  But people always seem to ask us where we’ve been.  So I asked my manager about how many shows we do a year, and he pulled up the last six years and we average, sometimes a lot more, but like 70 shows a year.  So that’s pretty good—like an NBA season or something.  So there’s definitely a market out there for us, but it’s just sometimes it’s smaller places, then other years it’s big arenas.”

Arranging an event like this is the natural way to go to regain that exposure that’s been so limited by mainstream media, until of course the phone call arrives from the “Behind The Music” producers, but what about during that down time—that other part of the “season” where you’re not playing, people must wonder if anything’s happening.  “I think more and more in the last couple of years we’ve gotten a lot of exposure again.  Every interview we get we go, ‘Hey, we’re still around.  Go to the web site and check us out.’ So because, yeah, people just think outta sight, outta mind and oh, they’re not on MTV, they’ve broken up, they don’t play anymore, and it’s so not like that.  But there are so many more ways now to keep in touch with your fans, but you know you do have to look a little harder and dig a little deeper sometimes.” 

Rather than humbling themselves with delusions of a repeat performance of 1988, Dixon and the band remain grounded in their approach, take it for what it’s worth, and live for the moment: “Exactly, and even if we don’t hit that big again, it’s still… it’s kinda like Vegas.  We’re just putting one quarter down instead of three, you know, we’re still hitting it; the payout’s not as big but it’s still paying off.”  Check out Warrant on tour throughout the summer on the Rock Fest 2002 tour, also featuring Ratt, Dokken, L.A. Guns, Firehouse, and Judas Priest on select dates.  More information can be obtained by going to the Rock Fest web site at www.metaledge-rockfest.com.