In a March 8th interview with original MTV VJ Mark Goodman aboard this year’s The 80s Cruise, Dokken leader Don Dokken commented on the recent trend of rock artists releasing new singles every few months as opposed to putting out an album every few years. Dokken said (as transcribed by blabbermouth.net):
”You and I come from the school of kicking back at home after a long day at work, getting a new album, put it on, flip it over and listen to side A and B. I wanna hear the whole record. And that was my disappointment when a lot of my peers were putting out records [in the 1980s], and I’m, like, ‘Okay, there’s the hit,’ usually track two or three on side A. I’m not going to name names, but then I listen to the rest of the record and I’m, like, ‘It’s not very good.’ They had the hits you could see that they bought from somebody. A lot of these musicians were buying from … a very famous song guy. And you go into a studio, and they’ll say, ‘Well, I got the choruses over here, I got a guitar riff over here.’ … We never did that. Why would I want to record a song that somebody else wrote pieces and I have to stick it together. Every song on Dokkens‘s albums was always written by us.”
Dokken continued, “I can throw a lot of people under the bus… So-and-so wrote… Look at the credits. This person wrote this song, this person wrote this song, this person wrote this song. So then we had a little bit of a tiff, because [on Dokken’s third album, 1985’s] Under Lock And Key, it just said [in the songwriting credits] Don Dokken, Don Dokken‘ Don Dokken, Don Dokken. And George [Lynch, then-Dokken guitarist] went ballistic. So, at the last minute, you can look at the back and it says, ‘All songs written by Dokken, and Dokken is George Lynch, Jeff Pilson…’ And I went, ‘Oh, that’s so petty.’ I mean, it didn’t matter who wrote the song ’cause I made a deal with the devil.”
He added, “I remember my son’s mother, when he was in high school, she was in the record business, [and she told me], ‘Whatever you do, keep your publishing.’ I ended up splitting the publishing four ways. I really didn’t know how much publishing generated. So basically what I did was I gave up 75 percent of every song. In My Dreams, It’s Not Love, Alone Again, The Hunter, Kiss Of Death, all those songs that I wrote, we split it four ways… Well, ’cause we were fighting all the time, me and George. And George was going this way, left, and he was listening to Monster Magnet. And I’m, like, ‘I like Monster Magnet. But I’m going In My Dreams. So we just said, ‘Okay, everything’s split four ways. Stop bitching.’ And that was it. That’s how it went down. But I never realized who would write the hits. Fortunately, I wrote a lot of the hits.”
In a February 2024 interview with Full In Bloom, former bassist Jeff Pilson was asked to respond to claims that the singer wrote “80 percent” of the Under Lock And Key album. Pilson retorted: “Bulls-t. That’s total bulls-t. He did not write all the records. No fricking way. He is a valuable contributor. And he wrote much of — like In My Dreams, he came in with the chorus, and that chorus is great. But he had nothing to do with It’s Not Love, nothing to do with Unchain The Night, pretty much nothing to do with Lightnin’ Strikes Again. He did not write the whole record. He had a lot to do with a lot of it, as he should, but to say he wrote the whole thing, that’s absolute bulls-t. And he knows it deep down inside.
It sounds like he’s been trying to stir up attention to himself because he’s got a new [Dokken] record [to promote],” Pilson continued. “Because it seems kind of desperate and weak. I just have to laugh. I mean, I don’t understand it. I think it’s kind of weird. I know he’s resentful of the fact that we split everything equally, but if you would have broken it down to what we did, I’m not sure — maybe he would get a little, yeah, he’d get more than a quarter if it was really broken up, but not enough more to make all the noise he’s making now 30 years later, 40 years later.”
When the interviewer pointed out that guitarist Lynch has said that he and Pilson even came up with a lot of the melodies and lyrics for Dokken‘s early hits, he said: “Yeah, we wrote all the melodies and lyrics for Unchain The Night and It’s Not Love. I will say the song Will The Sun Rise is a great example of when we do collaborate as a band, because George came up with the music and then Don came up with that amazing chorus; I think the chorus on Will The Sun Rise is amazing. I think the music that George came up with was amazing, but I thought Don‘s chorus was just amazing. And that’s when Dokken was working, when things like that happened. Into The Fire, George came up with the music to the chorus, and Don came up with the chorus. It’s great.”
5 Responses
So what, Don. You were an average singer at best and if it wasn’t for the musicians around you, you pretty much wouldn’t have had the career you did. Man I hate being critical but some people just need to keep quiet!
I have a headache after reading this article!
I would say he was a better than average singer. He wasn’t Dio or Jack Russell but better than most of his peers including Vince Neil and Stephen Pearcy. All that being said, I think his claim here is b.s.
Happy Birthday to Don today. One of my favorite releases after George is Hell to Pay! His solo release that came out years ago is great! He is suffering from some type of illness that could be making him a little crabby at 71. We all know it was a band effort to put out such great songs.The first song I ever heard was Breaking the Chains and was just blown away listening to it. I saw his version of Dokken 2024 and was amazed if how great his guitarist was! Amazing!! It was a short set. I was a little annoyed about that but I think it was due to some medical stuff going on with Don.
We all know that Don can be a bit cantankerous, especially at 71 years old. In his prime, he was undoubtedly a talented vocalist. However, it’s impossible to overlook the immense musical talent that surrounded him throughout his career. It’s a shame that he doesn’t always seem to acknowledge that. But I suppose when the band bears your name, you’re entitled to a certain level of pride—and perhaps criticism isn’t as easily welcomed.