20 Questions With Mick Brown, 2/5/02

Dokken Drummer “Wild” Mick Brown

We’ve done quite a few 20 Questions on audio, but we don’t think anybody has laughed as much or enjoyed themselves more than “Wild” Mick Brown. He pretty much laughs his way through this entire interview, but he didn’t hold back and answered things right off the cuff, for the most part.

Sludgeaholic Wendell Neeley from the Classic Metal Radio Show in Akron, Ohio, (home of the Metal Sludge Song Of The Week), conducted this interview for us. You can see Wendell on your right interviewing Mick! It was done in Cincinnati, Ohio, on January 20th, 2002, in Mick’s room at the Marriott. Enjoy!

1. What are you up to now? This is your only opportunity to plug your projects, tours, websites, etc.
All right. I’m not gonna bullshit nobody. I got nothing going on but Dokken, that’s all I’m interested in. I’m lazy! (laughs)
Wendell: How about your website?
I have a website, but so fucking what? Just a bunch of pictures, and if people want to buy pictures from me, that’s great.
Wendell: Ok
But that would be www.wildmick.com

2. Where did you get the nickname “Wild” Mick Brown?
The actual true story is…I used to make up funny lyrics to songs, like Weird Al Yankovic. And my friends on the road, the crew, would go….they’d laugh when I make up lyrics. And they’d say, “Oh, Wild Mick Brownovich.” (laughs) Weird Al Yankovic. (laughs) So it became Wild Mick Brown after that. And then, actually, uh, the rest sort of fits in with the personality. (laughs)

3. To go along with the nickname “Wild” you had to have had your fare share of “Wild” times. Cutting to the chase, how much blow would you do on an average week during a tour and when was the last time you did blow?
(laughs) Well I did some the other night but just a small amount. But in the 80s I spent $200,000 in one year doin’ it. (laughs) And I had a sore nose forever man. (laughs) I think it’s still running now, I can’t stop it. (laughs hard)

4. What hard rock/heavy metal band should give it up and call it a day?
Dokken!! (laughs hard) No, um, well besides us, um…..our manager used to tell us that. And that’s why we changed management. He used to say, “Why don’t you guys just fucking knock it off.” Um, listen, you know…….there’s nobody that should give it up, man. It’s just music. If you dig it, fine. If Foghat still wants to be Foghat, fuck it, let it go! If they’re diggin playin, cool. People don’t have to like it. I mean, if no one came, shit, I’d probably still be in a band, what the hell?
(Wendell has some photos taken of him interviewing Mick)
We’re very close on the bed. (laughs)
Wendell: Yeah we’re so close.
Wendell with all his leather on, yeah! (laughs)
Wendell: I feel like Rob Halford.

5. Rate the following drummers on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 being somebody who can’t keep time with a watch and 10 being a drum God!
Tommy Lee = Oh he’s a definite 10, man, get up there. He’s a hot one!
Bobby Blotzer = Oh he’s up there too, he’s uh, he’s uh….I give him an 8.
Rikki Rockett = Uh…listen, he’s a 1 with the time thing, but I never saw a guy…..definitely a 1 but he’s a 10 on a scale of fun and a pussy magnet. (Chick in background laughs) I mean they don’t call him Rockett for nothing, I guess.
Steve Riley = Steve Riley, very good, solid drummer. Fits in really well with that band, I’m gonna give him an 8 too.
Lars Ulrich = Oh Lars, definitely a classic style of drummer. I’m…I’m a…I’m a go 8 there though as well. I think Tommy’s got the really good….the later Motley Crue records and some of the solo things, he plays like a motherfucker.
Wendell: But we’re talking about Lars.
I know, but I’m trying to scale that curve there. (laughs) Lars, who’s he? (laughs hard) Who the fuck is Lars, man? (laughs) Personality wise I hate that motherfucker. (everybody laughs)
Alex Van Halen = He’s a 10.
Mike Fasano = Don’t even know who the FUCKING guy is but he probably makes a great spaghetti
Frankie Banali = We have a 10 on Frankie.
Randy Castillo = Another 10 there.
Blas Elias = Blas Elias. Now listen, I’ve heard that Blas didn’t play on a lot of their earlier records, so I’m going to have to go….my original bet at 8….and I’m gonna come down to a 7. But what he lacks in drum playing he makes up in girls that are young that sleep with him in the daytime. (laughs)

6. Who’s even in Dokken right now? Do you have any idea?
Yeah, well, there is this old guy in front of me, uh, then there is this young guy to the right that’s really spectacular and some guy that speaks Swinglish, that’s part English and part Sweden, Swedish. John Norum, Barry Sparks, Don Dokken, and Wild Mick Brown. Don and I being the oldest bones in the band.

7. You shared label space on Elektra with Metallica and Motley Crue. Of course Motley being the heavy weight champ from the eighties and Metallica being the big shot from the nineties. Dokken was musically much better group than both but never had nearly the success they did. So give us your opinion why Dokken got lost in the cracks at Elektra?
Cause if you are any good, you’re fucked! I swear you will get….I mean, if you’re shitty and you have a look, you can do it all. But if you don’t have an image and we lacked in image and uh, that’s why, you know. How can you compete with Motley Crue’s image in the 80s? Uh, we gave up that slot to Metallica because we broke up. Our management said, “You guys are the dumbest guys on the planet Earth.” We took the brass ring and shoved it down a toilet. And we split up before we could come what we were suppose to become. So, now we um….kind of pass that on. And I really got to know that when we were nominated for a Grammy in 1989 and I went to the awards ceremony and someone said, “You don’t have a change cause you broke up and Metallica’s gonna win, you’re against them.” And they won! Huh! So second place at the Grammys, wow, that’s like having a shitty bowling score. (laughs)

8. What was the biggest musical related check you’ve ever received and what did you buy with it?
Ahh, I remember the…..well the one I can remember seeing in one check form that came to my house was $125,000. And I remember opening it up, and a friend, an old girlfriend called and I said, “I’m rich, I’m rich” and she was like, “I’m going to come down and see you!” (laughs) I bought like a…I bought a house, and then drugs…(laughs)…and then dinner for hanger ons for 10 years, as it piled up. But I mean it used to come in quite frequently and I remember my father looking at me and seeing like every 3 weeks $33,000 would come in these little checks and all sorts of different figures. And he looked at me and said, “God, I’ve been working for 30 years and this is the most I’ve ever made in one year and you’re getting them every 3 weeks!” (laughs) That really kind of blew his mind.

9. Did Don give you any input on the new Dokken record?
He gives you input every second…on how you can breathe air! He always gives me input in fact I think sometimes, “Don you’re squashing me sometimes.” But I tell you what, it’s been real nice that I can…I’m proud of myself that I can open up my mind to his ideas because he has great musical ideas and…even as a drum player, he doesn’t play the drums but he can hear and understand how drums should be played and he’ll give me any idea and I’ll take what I can use from it and uh, normally he’s really pretty good at it. So I feel good that I’m not uh…I can open my style up enough to let someone else describe how to play, you know. I mean, that’s a tricky thing I think for a lot of musicians. Some people cannot do that.

10. Rate the following chicks on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 being a mess and 10 being a hottie.
Jenna Jameson = 10
Heather Locklear = 10
Kendra Jade = I don’t know who she is.
Anna Kornikova = That’s the tennis star, right? Um….6.
Bobbie Brown = 4 (laughs)
Pamela Anderson = 4
Tawney Kitaen = 1
Carmen Electra = 1
Lisa Pilson = (laughs) 1 through 11. (laughs hard) I knew that one was coming! (laughs hard) Listen, she’s a mess but she deserves a 10.
Sylvia Rhone = Don’t know her

11. Of all the bands Dokken toured with, which bands were there coolest and which bands were the biggest dicks to Dokken?
Aerosmith was the coolest. Judas Priest were very tough on us. Judas Priest hated the fact that…K.K. Downing guy man, he hated seeing us walk away with any girls that were in the building. If they were blonde, it was like, “Tell Dokken to leave the blondes alone.” And Aerosmith, Steven Tyler thought I was the funniest thing on the planet Earth, and I thought, my god, he was. And I have the greatest Aerosmith story that I want to tell. I walked into the dressing room one time and Joe Perry was standing there by himself. And he had a row of a couple pedals in front of him. And there was this one wooden looking pedal, that I thought was a pedal. And I said, “what is that?” He goes, “This is a boot jack.” And I said, “What’s a boot jack?” He goes, “You have those brand new cowboy boots there, let me show ya.” And he showed me how to work a boot jack. It’s an object that takes your boots off very easily. You step on it, you put your heel of the boot in the front of this thing, and it pulls your boot off. So Steven Tyler walked into the dressing room. So it’s Steven, myself, and Joe Perry. And Joe Perry with the Boston accent says, “Hey Steven, look at this, Wild Mick doesn’t know how to work a boot jack. What a dick!” (laughs) And Steven goes, “Yeah, you’re a dick” and we walked out the door and Steven goes, “I don’t know how to work a boot jack either.” (laughs so hard we can’t make out a few words he says. Something that ends with “cracked up on Joe thinks you’re a dick.”) And I thought that was the greatest. They were very very nice.

12. What’s Don Dokken’s problem with Metal Sludge? Lately he’s been talking shit about us even though we?ve always basically backed Dokken. What’s his story?
Wow, um, that’s a tough questions, I didn’t know…Uh, I think the fact that you’re ana…How do you say?
Wendell: Anonymous.
Well anonymity, ananimonity? (laughs) Let me get the dictionary out and I’ll get back to ya on this one! (laughs)
Because of them being anonymous and maybe that there is some truth to some of these things. Maybe that’s a threat because, you know, people with egos need to be on that level that want to be on. And anything that is a threat to that, you know, anonymity and uh…….that’s a truth that people don’t want to be known or is frightening to people. I can admit a lot of my faults, you know.

13. Speaking of Don, when was the last time you saw Don without that synthetic hat he calls hair?
Only once, and I swear to God I don’t ever want to see it again. (laughs)

14. Speaking of synthetic, it was clear that George was doing some heavy muscle building in recent years. Was George a “natural” body builder or was he using some type of steroids. Synthetic or otherwise?
He told us, no, he was never using steroids and his daughter and him use to come over to swim in my pool in the mornings. Well I’d be up on a bender for a couple days, and I’d hear him splashing outside. And we were out in the pool and his daughter came running out of the garage, “Daddy, you left one of you needles in the garage.” (laughs) So I figure steroids. (laughs)

15. Has Mick Brown ever…
Tasted a girl’s pee = (pause) Well if you hit them in the stomach hard enough they’ll pee a little bit, won’t they? (laughs) Yes I’ve tasted girls pee.
Had a nosebleed = while I’m tasting girls pee? Probably!
Wendell: Not necessarily.
Well I’ve done that too.
Considered suicide = yes
Screwed an underage girl = (pause) yes
Barfed during a show = no
Jacked off in traffic = (pause) ooooh…no. Wow, I’ll have to try that one though!
Had sex with Don Dokken?s or George Lynch?s wives = (laughs) Well Don’s never been married. So no.
Snorted more than $1,000 worth of coke in one night = yes…..with friends.
Washed with Jerry Dixon soap = What the fuck is that? (chick laughs in the background)
Wendell: He’s got a line of soap now.
I think just “what the fuck is that” is good enough. Jerry Dixon…you don’t ever put the word dick in something that has soap on it, ok? (laughs)
Been choked out by George Lynch = uh, almost but I had to pull apart a couple of chokes between him and Don. And I’ve gotten hit a couple of times from being in the middle of it, you know.

16. What rock star deserves a smack in the mouth?
Lars Ulrich! (everybody laughs)

17. Has Don has suggested dissolving the partnership so you guys don’t have to pay-off past members?
(laughs) No, but if we keep up at this rate that could be an issue! (laughs)

18. Do you think Don will try to reform Dokken with you as a hired gun?
I will never let that happen.

19. What exactly made you think, ?Hey, I?m going to fuck my bass players wife in the back of the bus.? What were you on and how do you feel about that situation?
I feel terrible because Jeff feels real badly, or felt real badly about that. But um…I was lied to and I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong because I thought they were done. Apparently I was wrong but um….I feel bad about it for Jeff. I don’t have any regrets for being with her. I was in love with her.

20. Time for Metal Sludge’s Word Association. We mention a name and you give us your thoughts.
C.C. DeVille = friend
Jeff Pilson = friend
George Lynch = old friend
Juan Croucier = uh…..you know, I just don’t feel very close to Juan anymore. We never….actually, he’s….he…yeah, he’s very friendly too. I mean, these are all friends, you know.
John Norum = Um, I think….I consider him a friend but I think he’s very afraid of me. (laughs) I scare him. Boy, he just doesn’t know what to think about me.
Vince Neil = I don’t really know Vince at all. But I’m suppose to do a Word Association.
Wendell: Well, whatever your thoughts are.
Um, sex god! (laughs)
David Lee Roth = another sex god
Jani Lane = has been sex god. (laughs)
Reb Beach = ahhhh…wow. Creative pervert. (laughs)
Dana Strum = ahhh…(pause) ooh….creatively crazed.
Don Dokken = (said very fast like a pro wrestler) maniacally, sadistically, completely, out of his fucking mind, biggest, oldest, wildest, most underrated, unde…..you can’t even put words on how to describe the guy. No one knows who he is. I’ve known him forever and I’m still trying to figure him out but he’s been a very good friend.

Lets recap!

He’s done coke during this Dokken tour and once spent up to $200,000 a year on it.
He’s not a fan of Rikki Rockett’s timing.
Judas Priest were dicks.
He didn’t know how to use a boot jack! What a dick!
He has seen Don without his rug.
He says George Lynch was on steroids.
Mick admits that he has tasted a girl’s urine. He might be the only person in 20 Questions history to admit that, though we’re too lazy to verify that.
Lars Ulrich deserves a smack in the mouth.
He doesn’t regret fucking Jeff Pilson’s wife.

And finally, he gave us a really good answer as to why Don Dokken might have a problem with us. This is probably the reason a few others also can’t hang with us. Mick said, “Because of them being anonymous and maybe that there is some truth to some of these things. Maybe that’s a threat because, you know, people with egos need to be on that level that want to be on. And anything that is a threat to that, you know, anonymity and uh…….that’s a truth that people don’t want to be known or is frightening to people. I can admit a lot of my faults, you know.”

Well put Mick! Basically, the truth hurts.

For more info on “Wild” Mick, you can go to his website at www.wildmick.com. Last we checked the site wasn’t up, but what do we know.

And of course you can also go to www.dokken.net