George Lynch Explains Roadblock To Dokken Reunion

04-24-2023

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(Vintage Rock Pod) George Lynch spoke recently with Vintage Rock Pod about his new record with Stryper vocalist Michael Sweet (Sweet & Lynch's, Heart & Sacrifice). The topic of conversation got on to his former band Dokken and the chances of the classic line-up of he, Don, Mick and Jeff reforming for any projects.

George shares his wish for something to happen, that he's sad not to have a relationship with Mick any more, that he still works regularly with Jeff, and that any project if it were to happen would have to live up to the quality of the 80s version of the band and not just be a "cash grab".

He also talks about what his relationship is currently like with Don Dokken. Here is an excerpt where he discusses his former band. "Will we see the classic line-up of Dokken reform for an album/tour?"

GEORGE: "No. In a short, short version, the answer's no. The reason is, for one Mick has retired sold his drums, got rid of his drums, he doesn't play anymore. Maybe he goes and jams here and there but, he's kind of, I think, first of all mental and physical health, he's just kind of disconnected from that whole world. You know, he doesn't return our calls. It's just, that's okay. I think that's probably what he needs, needed to do. And I respect that.

"It's sad in a way, because, you know, we're friends for decades and build something together, we came up together, you know, it was Mick and I, before anybody else before Jeff or Don. But I would love to still be friends with him, you know, maintain a relationship, but that's alright.

"But, you know, Jeff has been in, I think, Foreigner for, I don't know, maybe 15 years, doing very, very well, keeps him very, very busy. And we do our side things, you know, The End Machine, which we're working on right now. Other projects, heavy hitters projects, we do that together, we live down the street from each other. So we're always working together, we love each other. And we always dream of kind of doing something else band wise that we can take out on the road and kind of do that whole Dokken building the band process again, and even at our age, we talk about that and hope that we'd be able to do that someday.

"But doing it in the context of Dokken I think that ship has sailed because we tried so many times to put it back together, and it's like Humpty Dumpty. Don's got his thing, you know, he owns the name, his hired guys are great. And he's very happy with that. And they've been together for a lot of years. And they service the songs and people dig it. And if it's not broken, why fix it?

"And, you know, for him to come back into a true band situation where everything's split up equally, and he's not the king, and he's not getting all the lions share of the money. I think that has something to do with the fact that it probably won't happen.

"Jeff and I would probably do it. But we would do it with Steve Brown, which is Micks brother who we use in The End Machine Records. Who looks just like Mick, plays just like Mick, the younger version. So that would work. But I really don't think it's gonna happen.

"And you know, maybe if we were still in our 50s, maybe early 60s, but I'm going to be 69, Don's gonna be 70 I mean, I would want to make sure that if we did that last record, it would be a great book end to the whole story. And if it was anything less than that, I don't think it's worth doing because it would be, it's better to leave people with the memories of the good stuff like the first four or five albums whatever they were just leave it at that rather than going for a cash grab." Stream the full episode and interview here.