Don Dokken Is Still Rockin’
On his band’s final album, the singer remains a vital voice in heavy metal
As one of the most successful bands to emerge from the 1980s Los Angeles metal scene, Dokken began releasing albums more than 40 years ago.
In late October, they drew this part of their career to a close when they released their 13th – and final – studio album, Heaven Comes Down (via Silver Lining Music).
It’s a fitting swan song because, as frontman Don Dokken points out, “Everybody keeps saying it sounds like a classic Dokken record.” But, he adds, there are some key differences in the songs this time: “These are more story based, and they’re more metaphoric. Each song has a message – since this is my last record, I wanted to have messages. And I wanted the lyrics to be up, and stories about hope. Like, “Over the Mountain,” that song is about trying to get to the top and finding peace of mind. Sometimes it’s not easy, but you’ve got to keep climbing until you get there.”
He knows about this kind of resilience from personal experience: his right arm became paralyzed from his shoulder down after a spinal surgery went horribly awry about four years ago. As a right-handed person, the adjustment to only using his left arm has been challenging, to say the least.
“It’s just really difficult with one arm because [with] my right arm, I can barely hold a cup of water. It’s pretty bad,” he says. “Making the bed or taking the dog for a hike with just one arm, it sucks. But I can’t think about that. I have to stay positive and make the best of it. At least I can go onstage and sing.”
But he can no longer play instruments, and this is the reason why Dokken will no longer release any more studio albums after this. “If I can’t play my guitar, I can’t compose,” he says. “I got rid of my piano and all my guitars, everything. I’m not happy about it. Playing guitar was the love of my life. But that’s it, it’s over. You go through depression, and then you go through anger, and then you go through revenge, all of those emotions. But I’ve gotten used to it.”
He finished writing the songs for Heaven Comes Down before he became incapacitated, then he and his bandmates finished the record and turned it in a year ago. He says he can’t remember why they delayed its release until now.
Though this album will mark the end of Dokken’s recording career, he stresses that the band are still touring, at least for now. In fact, the band have many dates set across Europe and Japan in the coming months, for which he promises they’ll play some new songs from the Heaven Comes Down album, as well as a selection of their many hits.
But after those shows are done, he says, “Then we’re going to call it a day,” drawing that aspect of the band to a close, as well. Though he’s not yet exactly sure when or where Dokken’s final show will take place, he knows it’s coming. “When it gets to the point where it’s just too much, and I value my private time more, then I will stop,” he says.
He already has the next phase of his life planned out: after living in Los Angeles for most of his life, Dokken is calling from his home in rural New Mexico, where he moved about four years ago because he’d “had enough of L.A. It just isn’t what it used to be,” he says. Also, he adds, “I wanted peace and quiet. I spent my life on a tour bus. I gave everything I had to my fans. And now that I’m getting older, I think it’s time for me to give some time to myself.”
That certainly won’t be a problem for him in New Mexico. “It’s just trees and animals. I have no neighbors, nothing: I’m very secluded,” he says. “I have 25 acres on my estate. Thousands and thousands and thousands of trees. Pinions, ponderosas, Russian elms. That will keep me pretty busy, trying to take care of that.”
While he’s openly sad about having to stop writing and recording songs, Dokken makes it equally clear that he’s grateful that he’s been able to spend his life making music. It was a path that he seemed destined to take because he came from a musical family.
“Everybody in my family played,” he says. “My father had a jazz band. My mother played piano. One of my grandmothers played piano. So I was banging on the piano at five years old, and then my mom bought me a guitar to keep me out of trouble. So instead of getting into the gang life, or drugs, I would come home, go in the garage and sit next to the washing machine with my little amplifier and guitar and play records and try to learn the songs. It worked.”
Growing up in Los Angeles, he found himself in the midst of a flourishing music scene. After founding his eponymous band, Dokken’s soaring vocals and guitarist George Lynch’s melodic riffs soon put the group at the forefront of the famed metal scene that was centered on the Sunset Strip.
They released their debut album, Breaking the Chains, in 1983, and found success with the title track. A string of international hit singles followed: “Into the Fire,” “Just Got Lucky,” “Alone Again,” “The Hunter,” “In My Dreams,” “Dream Warriors,” “Burning Like a Flame,” and more.
VIDEO: Dokken “Dream Warriors”
The band’s success likely had to do with the fact that they had much more depth than many of their peers in the metal scene at that time. “I’ve written some dark songs in my life. ‘Kiss of Death’ was about AIDS. ‘Will the Sun Rise’ is about nuclear bombs and the end of the world. I don’t just write songs about love found, love lost. I’m very picky about my lyrics,” Dokken says.
But even as the band achieved massive stardom, internal conflicts kept them from fully enjoying their success. “It wasn’t that fun in the ’80s,” Dokken says. “I kept thinking the more famous we got that the more happy [my bandmates] would be, but it didn’t work out that way. Just the more they complained. That’s why the band broke up in ’88. [The other members] came back and they left again and they came back and they left again.”
In the end, Dokken has been the only consistent member within the band across its four-decade span (though his current guitarist, Jon Levin, has been a member for twenty years now.) George Lynch went on to form his own band, Lynch Mob, while bassist Jeff Pilson has been a longtime member of Foreigner.
However, Dokken points out that he and his former bandmates have buried the hatchet. In particular, his once-notorious feuding with George Lynch has finally come to an end. “George put Lynch Mob back together [and] he’s been opening for us, and he comes out and plays a couple of Dokken songs with us,” he says. “We don’t fight like we used to, or argue, because there’s no point. We’re too old to fight.”
Though there have been many ups and downs, Dokken is grateful for the forty-year career he’s had. “Trust me, I’m just as surprised as everybody how many records we’ve sold and how many fans we still have, and how many people still show up at the concerts. It’s a little mind boggling. I think it’s a great honor.” But now, he says, “We just want to go out with a bang, so that’s what we’re going to try to do.”
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