What Happened to ‘Cherry Pie’ Vixen Bobbie Brown? Regrets, Fame & Life Beyond the ’90s Spotlight
The '90s bombshell has been candid about her wild past and newfound sobriety
Back in 1990, Warrant’s “Cherry Pie” was inescapable. With its comically risqué lyrics (spoiler alert: The song is not actually about baked goods!) and over-the-top music video starring model Bobbie Brown gamely dancing in a red bra top paired with barely-there denim cut-offs and red cowboy boots, the catchy hair-metal anthem made it to Billboard’s Top 10 and became the band’s signature song.
While the blonde beauty will always be known as the “Cherry Pie” girl, Brown was also in a number of other music videos, and when it comes to her experience as an early ’90s sex symbol, she’s an open book. Read on to learn about how the model landed her most famous gig and what she’s been up to since then.
From Southern beauty queen to MTV staple
Bobbie Brown got her start as a beauty queen, and was crowned Miss Louisiana Teen USA in 1987. She then won the spokesmodel competition on Star Search 13 times, becoming the most featured model on the show. She also appeared as a model for brands like Budweiser, and in 1988, when glam metal was at its height, she made her music video debut in Hurricane’s “I’m on to You.”
More music videos followed, and she appeared in Times Two’s “Cecilia” (1988), Great White’s “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” and “House of Broken Love” (both 1989) and Louie Louie’s “Sittin’ in the Lap of Luxury” (1990) in quick succession, but it was “Cherry Pie” that made her a star.
Warrant’s frontman, singer Jani Lane, personally requested that Brown appear in the “Cherry Pie” video after seeing her on Star Search, and soon enough the model and the rocker were an item. They married in 1991 and had a daughter, Taylar, the next year.
In a personal essay published in the New York Post, Brown wrote that while she and Lane were, “a match made in hair-band heaven,” the good times didn’t last. They divorced in 1993, and as she recalled, “We were married for about three years. I loved Jani, but he drank a lot and he could be mean when he was drinking. When I found out he was cheating on me, I couldn’t forgive that. And I left him.”
Despite their difficult relationship, Brown still had some fond memories of her time as Lane’s music video muse, writing, “I’ve gone from the restless girl in Baton Rouge, La., stuffing her bra with her mom’s socks, swooning over posters of rock stars plastered all over my bedroom wall, to a grown-up 22-year-old making those same rock stars’ heads turn.”
The video received heavy airplay on MTV, leading Brown to be regularly recognized on the street and putting her on the path of rock-star excess. As she put it, “I was never one to set goals or really think about the future at all, so when the fame from the music video for Warrant’s ‘Cherry Pie’ hit—I never could have imagined what was in store for me. It was just the beginning of a decade-long dance with rock stars, partying and drugs.”
Life after ‘Cherry Pie’
After “Cherry Pie,” Brown appeared in three episodes of Married . . . With Children in 1991 and had bit parts in movies like Cool as Ice (1991), Double Trouble (1992) and Last Action Hero (1993). She could also be seen in episodes of Baywatch Nights (1995) and NewsRadio (1997).
Following her divorce from Lane, Brown started seeing Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, who had been her teenage crush. After six months of sex, drugs and rock and roll, they got engaged, but it didn’t last, as he left her for none other than Pamela Anderson—and married the Baywatch babe four days after their 1995 breakup. Years later, Brown recalled, “At the moment, it seemed like the most tragic bulls–t to ever happen to somebody. But when I look back at it today, just like with a lot of my experiences, I have to laugh at it.”
Throughout the ’90s, Brown continued to have a tumultuous love life, dating everyone from Leonardo DiCaprio to Sugar Ray frontman Mark McGrath to Jane’s Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro.
Sadly, Brown spent many years in the throes of drug addiction, and didn’t become sober until 2005, writing, “I have a lot of regrets about my heyday as a video vixen. I lost so much time to drugs and gave up so many opportunities while my priority was the men in my life.”
What Bobbie Brown is up to today
Brown has revisited the “Cherry Pie” era frequently since the ’00s. In 2013, she was featured on the reality show Ex-Wives of Rock, and she published a juicy memoir, Dirty Rocker Boys: Love and Lust On the Sunset Strip, that same year. In 2019, she wrote a second memoir, Cherry on Top, and she’s recently spoken candidly about becoming religious.
In recent years, Brown has dabbled in podcasting and stand-up comedy, and she’s said that she hopes to turn Dirty Rocker Boys into a movie one day. When asked how she felt about being known for “Cherry Pie” in 2020, she admitted that while she used to get frustrated with it, “the older I got, the more I embraced it. The reality is that this is how most people know me . . . And it was never a negative experience in my life so there’s no need to have negative feelings towards it.”
Clearly, Brown takes full ownership of her video vixen status, and we love that she has a hard-won sense of humor about her days in the spotlight.
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