“So, that is what kind of brought the end of Dokken, because… I always would say, if I was into cocaine, we would have probably all got along. But the 3 of them, would go off into a hotel room, and sit in the back of the bus and do coke for days and I would just be in my bunk reading a book.”
— Don Dokken on his original Dokken band-mates George Lynch, Jeff Pilson and Mick Brown

Metal Sludge — In a brand new episode of The Glam Metal Cast, Don Dokken talks in-depth about the band’s history.

Dokken, 70, doesn’t mince words and tells some great and crazy stories about the bands recordings (13 in total) and a mix of subjects that includes the band’s endless internal struggles, AIDS and Cocaine.

Dokken tells listeners that the song “Kiss of Death” was written about AIDS.

Dokken also says that he warned drummer Mick Brown about AIDS and that he should wear a condom when having sex, but Brown said; “I’ll never get AIDS, I only sleep with good looking women.”

“Unfortunately that is why the band broke up” says Dokken as he recalls the death of The Doors singer Jim Morrison.

“Jeff (Pilson) and Mick (Brown) and George (Lynch) had gone down the rabbit hole and they were coked up out of their minds man. So, yeah… it’s hard to keep a band together.”

Don then recalls the Monsters of Rock Tour from 1988 and says; “George would go into the solo, and the cameras would swing over, and there is no George on stage… I am looking around, where the hell is George? I mean, I hear him playing, but he’s not on stage. Because he would walk behind his Marshall’s (amplifier cabinets) and his roadie was giving him lines of coke. That drove me crazy.”

“I said; ‘Guys, can you not do coke for an hour and a half?’, it drove me crazy, you know, it just made me crazy, they were coked up out of their minds!” added Dokken about his frustration.

“So, that is what kind of brought the end of Dokken, because… I always would say, if I was into cocaine, we would have probably all got along. But the 3 of them, would go off into a hotel room, and sit in the back of the bus and do coke for days and I would just be in my bunk reading a book.”

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More from The Glam Metal Cast

On the new album “When Heaven Comes Down”

“It’s an amazing record. I know every band says that. It’s been over 10 years since ‘Broken Bones’, it’s been a long time since we’ve done a new record. It took a long time to write. I think every song is killer. The proof is in the pudding. We put out our first video for ‘Fugitive’ and it already has 1/2 a million hits! It’s always been a habit of mine to name albums after songs I’ve written. ‘Breaking The Chains’, ‘Tooth & Nail’, ‘Lightning Strikes Again’. The reason I chose ‘When Heaven Comes Down’ is because we are watching the world go to hell in a hand basket. Murder, fentanyl, taking AR-15’s and killing children in schools. That shit didn’t happen in the 80’s.”

On his relationship with George Lynch

“George is George. We talked about it. He had been opening for us with Lynch Mob, and then would come on with us for a couple songs. George and I have said we are too old to argue anymore. We can’t take the stress. George is very eccentric. I am very eccentric. It’s no secret we didn’t get along from day one. It ran its course. We aren’t BFF’s. We don’t hang out. George is George and I am me. Jon Levin is my guitar player. He has been in the band longer than George. Jongrew up listening to Dokken and his favorite guitarist is George. George went to the press and said ‘Jon Levin does me better than me!’”

About their label forcing ballads and the glam image

“MTV wanted ballads. We delivered ‘Tooth and Nail’ to the label without a ballad. The Vice President of the record company said where’s the ballad. I told him I didn’t write one for this record. He told me to get the hell out of his office and go write one. I was like ok. I had to go home and dig through my cassettes. I found this cassette that said ‘Alone Again’. I played it and it sounded pretty good. So Jeff and I went in the studio and revamped it. We put it on the record at the last minute and it turned out to be an anthem. We started with jeans and leather jackets. Then we did the cover of “Under Lock and Key” in those stupid outfits. We spent $10k on those outfits and we wore them once on stage. I was like I can’t perform in this, it sucks. We just abandoned it, but album cover picture kinda stuck to us. We looked kinda glam with the aqua net, but it wasn’t us. We were trying to be current, but it was a mistake!”

On the song “Dream Warriors”

“They approached us. It was probably the only song where someone told me what the chorus had to say. They told me the movie is called ‘Dream Warriors’. I told them I didn’t know what means. They sent me a rough edit of the movie and the script. I just watched it and came up with lyrics that were about the movie. George wrote like four riffs. I told him it was a monster movie. He wrote that dark guitar riff.”

About the end of Dokken and the lawsuit over the name

“The band split up after the last show of the ‘Monsters Of Rock’ tour. Then we ended up in a lawsuit for like a year and a half. The band didn’t want me to use the name Dokken. That was my last name, I had the right. They sued me and they won. I couldn’t use the name Dokken. I was really pissed. The judge was like 80 years old and didn’t know shit. I can’t use my own name? It’s not made up, like Nikki Sixx or Mick Mars. The band had it in their head that they wanted to go on as Dokken. The three of them with a new singer. I fought them ‘Tooth and Nail’. There is no way. I started Dokken five years before I even met those guys. I was upset. I wasn’t a lawyer. I didn’t think I needed to trademark the name Dokken to protect myself. I signed my deal with Geffen and I was like, I am going to put a super group together. Peter Baltes from Accept, John Norum from Europe, Mickey Dee from King Diamond. Then I found this guitarist Billy White. I didn’t want to call the album Don Dokken, I wanted to call it Dokken. David Geffen wasn’t happy either. When you put your sir name on a record, they think it’s a solo album. It wasn’t a solo album, it was a Dokken album. But I couldn’t use the name because of the lawsuit. The judge split the baby. The three of them couldn’t use Dokken and I couldn’t use Dokken.”

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Listen to the full interview below courtesy of The Glam Metal Cast.

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