If the group Dokken ever heard the famous quote by Andy Warhol that everybody gets 15 minutes of fame, it seems someone forgot to tell them. After 20 years the group continues to have a major recording contract as well as a loyal fan base allowing them to ’still follow their bliss and make a living at it as singer and founder of the group Don Dokken puts it. The group is slated for a July 13, 2004, release for their latest recording Hell to Pay on Sanctuary Records.
I used to think if you had talent that’s all you needed to survive the music business. After all these years I’ve come to realize you need an equal amount of luck! says Don.
The 12 songs on Hell to Pay include: The Last Goodbye, ’don’t Bring Me Down, Escape, Haunted, Prozac Nation, Care for You, Better Off Before, Still I’m Sad, I Surrender, Letter to Home, Can You See and Care for You (Unplugged Version).
The group kicks off yet another world tour June 17 to promote their new CD and have some fun as drummer Wild Mick Brown puts it. Unlike some of their peers, the group has survived member changes, drugs, alcohol and egos, almost! Qualities that seemed to be almost mandatory during the 80s and 90s for a rock band. They have been often lumped into the title of hair band, even though the group had already been established as a multiplatinum arena act by 1983. Their videos were a staple in the early days of the then fledgling MTV and continued on into the late 80s.
We’ve always taken our music very seriously. But I think it’s healthy when you can be self-deprecating, says Don, commenting about a recent show. We were headlining a concert last summer with a lot of other 80s bands. When we arrived in town we heard a radio commercial that the show was being promoted as a hair ball fest. We bought a can of extra-hold Aqua Net and put our hair as high as we could get it. When we hit the stage we were laughing so hard at each other we barely made it through the first song. We’ve never considered ourselves a pop band, we’ve had commercial hits but we’ve always prided ourselves for our heavy edge.
Dokken has shared the stage with rock acts such as AC/DC, Metallica, Aerosmith, Judas Priest, Van Halen, Kiss, Scorpions, as well as Bon Jovi, just to name a few. When people ask us who we’ve toured with we just say EVERYBODY! says Don.
The band hit stadium status in 1988, playing in front of over a million fans in just five weeks. Their current LP at the time Back For the Attack had sold over 1 million copies in just 21 days. It seemed Dokken was on the verge of superstardom. But like so many other bands that have come before and after them Dokken broke up in 1989.
It’s tough to go from nothing to everything and no one to guide you or say stop. We made millions and spent millions but none of it on therapy, says Don dryly.
In 1994 the legendary A&R man John Kalodner moved to Sony Music. Kalodner has been credited for reviving many groups careers with similar breakup problems most notably Aerosmith. Even though it was at the height of the Seattle grunge sound phase and groups like Dokken were out of vogue Kalodner offered Dokken a recording contract on the condition the group had to be original members.
I hadn’t spoken to the other members in five years but I made the call anyway to the other members. I figured we’d had five years to grow up, says Don laughingly. The group released the appropriately titled ’dysfunctional in 1995 selling 250,000 copies which by the mid 90s was considered by industry standards very respectable. Dokken was really happy and excited, but just as they were on the verge of releasing a second single, filming a video, starting a world tour and taking it all the way, as Don puts it, the baggage from their past reared its ugly head, and again the group began to unravel. Soon after guitarist George Lynch again left the group. It was really a shame, says Wild Mick Brown. We were on a roll! It seems lead singers and guitarists are always at odds, it’s been going on since before the Beatles.
’don Dokken on surviving fame.
I think it should be mandatory that all recording contracts have the stipulation that their artists go to marriage counseling together at least once a month.
The group signed to CMC International/Sanctuary Records in 1995 and continued to forge forward. With new guitar wizard Jon Levin on board the group has gone back to their roots, as he puts it, with Hell to Pay, their sixth CD for Sanctuary. We just recorded what we liked not what’s in fashion musically this week, says Levin.
In the last year between recording their new CD Dokken has performed with a crop of new groups such as Sevendust, Trapt, Eve 6 and Staind.
It’s really a trip when a new generation of fans knows all the words to your songs even though some of them were written 15 years ago or more. It puts a big smile on your face and reminds us that good songs can stand the test of time, says Dokken bassist Barry Sparks on performing with Staind to a soldout audience of 10,000.
Dokken exploded out of the boiling hard rock/heavy metal scene in Los Angeles in the early 1980s. 1983’s Breaking the Chains, with its catchy title track, set the stage for Dokken becoming the most dominant creative and commercial force in the world of melodic hard rock. Tooth and Nail, Under Lock and Key and Back For the Attack all became platinum selling smashes and the live Beast From the East went gold. Songs like Alone Again, Just Got Lucky, Into the Fire, In My Dreams, Unchain the Night, ’dream Warriors, Burning Like a Flame and Heaven Sent are among the genre’s finest.
Not only has Dokken survived and kept their loyal fans in a time when people’s tastes change as fast as Britney Spears wardrobe, they have been embraced by a whole new generation of rock fans. They say a cat has nine lives and it seems Dokken is enjoying more than a few as well.
For all the latest Dokken news and up-to-date tour information, visit www.dokken.net.
: : : : :
I have heard about 3 tracks so far on air. They are not like Tooth And Nail like we had been told it would be, but the songs are very solid and their are some great riffs on these songs. Looking forward to the rest of the release & tour! – said theloudestrock on May 05, 2004
we will have to wait and here on July 13, 2004, lets hope its good, i will pik it up more for the collection but i hope it will be good. – said PAUZED on Jun 06, 2004
I’ve actually never been a huge DOKKEN fan, but I do dig this new CD. I heard several tracks on XM radio and decided to buy it! Good CD. – said brich68 on Oct 10, 2004
Leave a Reply