 In 2002, Lane featured as soloist with the Australian Art Orchestra, directed by Paul Grabowsky (with ten other jazz vocalists) at the Sydney Opera House in a concert for the Sydney Festival entitled "Testimony – An Examination of the Life and Music of Charlie Parker".Joe Lane spent his final years in a nursing home in Sydney's inner-west, following a stroke that left him unable to speak, although he was remarkably still able to sing, which he did whenever his many musician friends visited.He died there on 13 April 2007, aged 80.