GUITARIST GEORGE LYNCH ON A DOKKEN REUNION: “I WOULD LIKE TO SEE IT HAPPEN…BUT, I’M NOT HOLDING MY BREATH”
Rock Revolt spoke with guitarist George Lynch about his current project KXM, with with dUg Pinnick (Kings X) and Ray Luzier (Korn) and his former band, Dokken. Excerpts from the interview appear below.
Rock Revolt: Is there any chance KXM, [Lynch’s project ], will be doing any touring to support the album?
George Lynch: Yeah. We are touring, I think it s going to be in July and August (part of those two months.) The idea behind what we want to do is sort of do like an unannounced tour of specific dates all around the world which we then film and record, and put those out at a later date for people who were not able to go see the band live, to experience the band live in that context, because we are limited in the amount of time we can tour, at least for now. I like the idea of the secret, magical mystery tour I heard about Paul McCartney doing in the Wings days, when he would just show up in a van, show up at a college or a school or something and say , “Hey! I m Paul McCartney we just want to set up and play!” I think that’s beautiful. It’s not the way we’ll do it exactly, but something kind of mysterious. We create this mystique around the band where you kind of have to search and reach out and discover things about us, without having us shoved down your throat.
Rock Revolt: Is there any likelihood that there would ever be a Dokken reunion?
George Lynch: Well, it’s always a possibility. What it really comes down to is Don being agreeable to doing equal splits financially. That’s been a stumbling block all along. Despite all the other obstacles that we have for a reunion happening, that is actually the 800-pound gorilla problem. He feels he’s entitled to special financial treatment if we do that, which is ludicrous and was never the way the band was built. The band was always built as a shared band, and I think that’s one of the reasons it survived as long as it did and why it worked. The only person who ended up not liking that arrangement was Don and it is really heavily why the band broke up. We were up for re-negotiating our contract with Elektra in the late 80′s, which is a wonderful position to be in (that’s when you get paid and you’d kind of be set for life). But we all worked many, many years to get to that point, and Don decided, ”Well, you know what? I gotta take a chance here, and I want it all.” He wanted us to be hired guns, and he would get the multi-million dollar re-negotiated deal. That’s what it was all about. And that’s still what it’s about. So, unless he can come around and say, “Hey guys! We’re all important. We all worked equally hard. There’s enough money to go around – don’t need to be greedy here, just split it up equal, put that aside, put it in the file cabinet. Let s go to work and make a good record.” I have aspirations, but I don’t have any sense that it’s really going to ever happen. I wouldn’t be opposed; I would like to see it happen. But honestly, just to have some nice closure, make a nice bookend to our career, and make the fans happy and make a little bit-a-dough, it would be nice to see it work in a healthy way after all we ve been through, but I’m not holding my breath.
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source: rockrevoltmagazine.com
 and Ray Luzier (Korn) and his former band, Dokken. Excerpts from the interview appear ... )
If I was a singer, I’d sing like Mick Jagger. He’ll still be able to talk his way through the Stones songs on stage at 80. Just like the old blues guys. Hard rock and metal vocalists seem to struggle after 60. Except for Sammy Hagar. He must be superhuman.
Or my idol, the Metal God. He’s 62!
Dana from EddieTrunk 🙂
Yes!!! Halford still delivers the goods. Should be an interesting new album too.
I. I WISH I CAN SWIM. LIKE THE DOLPHINS. LIKE THE DOLPHINS CAN SWIM. You got that right. A few years back, I saw DEEP PURPLE and Ian Gillan’s lips were flapping but no sound was coming out of them and he’s one of the best ever. As Jason pointed out, even playing at a high level there is no market for DOKKEN. Don is a victim of his own arrogance. A bunch of older guys with fat guts throwing on too small DOKKEN t-shirts chanting DREAM WARRIORS while trying to pick up grandmothers rocking hair spray, Jean jackets and SHAPE-UPS is not happening. YOU. YOU CAN BE QUEEN……….
I was a big fan of Dokken in the 80’s, they were my favorite band for a while and I think they had much more depth and talent than the typical “hair bands” of the day. To me they were almost like the American Scorpions. I like much of the post George and Jeff stuff too. I saw them a few years ago on the “Lightning Strikes Again” tour, with Mick on drums. Don didn’t sound good (and no, I don’t expect him to sound like he did in ’87), and Mick yelled “Everybody scream!!!” in just about every song (it got old quickly). I don’t remember who played bass, and John Levin as expected was very good, but it really just felt like Don and his backup band. He came out saying they had a “long ass show in store for us”, and played just over an hour. Not a single “deep track” for fans that actually knew everything, pretty much just the “Best of Dokken” tracklist, and only 1 song from LSA. Even though I wasn’t all that thrilled with the show, they were talking about the reunion around that time. I was really hoping it would happen, just for one last album with the original band. Then of course it fell apart, and Lynch/Pilson/Brown and friends came out with T&N around the same time that “Dokken” released “Broken Bones”. Both are good, I like T&N better. Right then I decided I no longer cared about a Dokken reunion. I’d go see T&N tonight if they were in town. Jeff Pilson is a better singer than Don is today, and he sounds great on the old Dokken stuff. Sorry Don, no disrespect intended – I hope you and your band carry on as long as you want to, you’re still writing good music. Lynch and Pilson seem like they’re just meant to work together. If you can find it, check out the “Wicked Underground” album they did together some years back, it’s also very good.
“Bury the beast in the box.” Pilson does have a good voice.
Surprisingly, so does Mick Brown, it’s sort of gravely and gritty. I thought he did a pretty good job singing Tooth and Nail on the One Live Night DVD, which I highly reccommend. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qKEqYVknaQ.
Dana from EddieTrunk.com 🙂
They were brutal on the MOR tour. They blew it not getting the big Elektra re-sign like Motley Crue. Nowadays Lynch is just wandering all over like Rudy Sarzo. Ratt implodes because Pearcy wants the big percentage and he doesn’t own the name. Don is a moron being greedy. Foreigner catches huge money as the second bill all over with zero members from the 70’s or just Jones….Jeff knows he’d take the big cut playing Sturgis to fat 44 year old bikers or some Oklahoma corn field with Bret Michaels & Warrant.
Come on Don, let this happen for your old fans..We have been waiting patiently for years and I am sorry, but your new guitarist isn’t bad, but he’s no George Lynch and doesn’t have the ability to come up with anything near Lynch’s caliber!!! Get your head out of your ass and lets do this!!
I’m sure George wants do this for the fans but also for Dokken the band itself. It’s an important part of each member’s life that needs positive closure, singularly and as a band.
I respect Motley Crüe
Great band – beginning to end.