Erik Turner was 8 years old when his parents bought him his first guitar. He hated it.
It was an acoustic—not horrible, but definitely the kind you get a kid when he’s learning to play. Young Erik took lessons, but he couldn’t bring himself to practice and, like so many hobbies gone awry, lost interest and stopped picking up the guitar entirely.
“Fast forward… I’m 13 years old and I saw the movie, ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,’” said Turner, now 61. “I was already an Alice Cooper and Aerosmith fan. I saw Aerosmith’s performance, and when I left that theater, I was like, ‘I gotta get in a band.’ But I was too shy to sing and didn’t even know if I could sing. I tried playing drums. My dad’s girlfriend had her son’s drum set at our house, so I tried playing that, but quickly realized I couldn’t play drums, either. [So I thought] maybe I can be a guitar player.
“I asked my mom, and she said, ‘We did that. You didn’t like it; you had lessons and didn’t want to practice.’ But that didn’t stop me.”
As luck would have it, there were several garage bands in the neighborhood, so Turner honed his craft by playing other kids’ guitars for a few years until his mom finally bought him another guitar for his 15th birthday. This time, it was a Hondo II Les Paul body style.
“It was also a piece of crap guitar, but I wish I still had it for sentimental reasons,” he said with a laugh.
To say Turner, an Argyle resident since 2018 with his wife of 29 years, Kirsten, and grown son, Noah, got his hands on much better guitars in the years that followed would be an understatement. And it’s no secret that he rocked them all like a man born to riff.
After all, we’re talking about a founding member of Warrant, one of the last hard rock bands to make it big before the grunge wave of the early 1990s. Turner moved to Los Angeles when he was 19 and formed the band in 1984 with original bandmates Adam Shore (lead vocals), Josh Lewis (lead guitar), Chris Vincent (bass), and Max Asher (drums). Jerry Dixon quickly replaced Vincent on bass, and that wasn’t the only change the band experienced as the years went by. In fact, Warrant has had at least 16 members since its formation 41 years ago, including Steven Sweet, Joey Allen and the late Jani Lane.
But that didn’t stop them from becoming a household name. Warrant signed a contract with Columbia Records in 1988 and has gone on to release nine studio albums and one iconic hit after the next. That includes “Down Boys,” “Cherry Pie,” “Heaven,” “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” “Mr. Rainmaker,” and countless more classics. Two of the band’s albums—“Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich” (1989) and “Cherry Pie” (1990) went double-platinum. “Cherry Pie” sold over 3 million copies worldwide.
And here’s the best part: Turner and Warrant still put on 50 shows a year with four out of the five original members.
The band’s “Let the Good Times Rock Tour” rolls into North Texas on October 10 and 11 in Arlington and Cedar Park.
“It’s up to God when we stop. We made it big and were on top of the world, then went through some dark times between 1993 and 2003 when Nirvana got rolling. But we kept touring and never stopped playing,” Turner said. Their ninth album, “Louder Harder Faster,” was released in 2017. “It’s pretty cool. We’ve managed to keep the dream alive for all these years.”
The good news for Warrant fans is that Turner insists he’s not interested in slowing down anytime soon—even after decades of being embroiled in a wild and crazy touring life that had them jet-setting the globe. For instance, many people might not realize that when they started touring in 1989, they did 262 shows to support “Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich” and even shared the stage with Eddie Money and Mötley Crüe. “Cherry Pie” came next, and they immediately ramped up with 200 more shows.
And that was just the beginning of a celebrated on-stage career. Off stage, keeping Warrant barreling forward with a full head of steam after all these years has been nothing short of a full-time job.
“Even now, people ask when I come home from touring, ‘What do you do with yourself all day?’ There’s a lot, actually,” Turner said. “Jerry and I manage the band; we play in the band, travel, handle booking, do all the accounting, payroll, merchandising, and keep up with different trademarks. My son also helps out with all sorts of stuff. It’s a business, and it keeps us pretty busy.”
Thankfully, being in Texas has offered Turner his own thin slice of heaven to relax and enjoy a slower pace of life with his wife and son. That includes weekend RV trips, local music, taking in sporting events, and just enjoying time at the house.
“I’m more of a homebody than people might think, especially with being on the road so much,” he said. “There’s just something special about being in Texas. The first time I came to Dallas in 1988, I fell in love with it. We played a free show and were expecting around 5,000 people. Over 20,000 showed up. It was out of control, but they were all really great people. There’s a certain kindness that you experience here that you don’t always have elsewhere. I told Kirsten in 2018 that I wanted to move to Texas, and here we are.”
At least until the next show, which he’ll attack with the same vigor and thirst for playing the guitar as he did back in the 1980s.
“We take it one day at a time and one show at a time,” Turner said. “It’s fun keeping the dream alive.”
To learn more about what’s coming up next for Warrant, including their current tour dates, how to connect with the band on social media, and all the latest and greatest merchandise, please visit warrantrocks.com.
