In a recent interview, Podcast “On the Road to Rock with Clint Swiss”, dokken leader don dokken He explained why he and his bandmates initially decided to split songwriting royalties equally among the four members of the group. He said (as transcribed) Blabber Mouse Net): “dokken It was a very unusual band. When we formed a band, dokken Years and years until I met you george [Lynch, former DOKKEN guitarist] and jeff [Pilson, former DOKKEN bassist] and mick [Brown, former DOKKEN drummer] — I had already toured Germany twice — but when we finally got together, I said, “Let’s keep it simple.” You write a hit, you write a hit, you write a hit, you split it four ways. It doesn’t matter who writes what. May the best song win. ‘That’s what it was. Looking back now, I can say it was a foolish move. Because I had written a lot of hits, and I gave 75 percent to his three. So instead of getting $4, you got $1. mick get the dollar george get the dollar jeff I got a dollar, management got their dollar, the accountant got their dollar, and I thought, “Yes.” I end up writing, “I lost millions.” “In My Dreams” and “Just Got Lucky” or “Alone again”.I mean, I can name the billions of songs I’ve written playing guitar myself. all music. But that’s the deal we made. We were nobody. We weren’t famous.Hey, if george If you write a hit song, you get paid. jeff You can earn money by writing hits. mickHe was the one who scored. he didn’t write. We rehearsed the songs for a week, went into the rehearsal studio, fleshed everything out, and chose the best 12 songs. mick Come to the studio for four or five days, bang out the drums, go to the drug dealers, then head to Rainbow. [Bar & Grill in West Hollywood]. I said, “mick, scored. I made millions of dollars and only spent a few weeks playing drums. ”
almost ten years ago lynching I talked about the collapse of classical music. dokken Talking about the 1989 lineup guitar interactive Magazine: “These things happen to bands…especially in our time, in the 80s, I don’t know, maybe even now…but when you have a record deal or a master contract that’s worth a certain amount of money, time… Time passes, record sales increase, you get to the point where the deal closes, your manager comes in and renegotiates it, you get paid. Then you’re ready for life — maybe. That’s when everything will be Change. That’s what it’s all about. You’ve been working for years. This is where everything you’ve invested in your… time and energy will pay off. And the singer [Don Dokken]At that point he decided he wanted it all and didn’t want to share it with anyone. [the rest of] And he let us know that.So after this [Monsters Of Rock] trip [in 1988 with VAN HALEN, METALLICA and SCORPIONS]We were going to go out and play in front of hundreds of thousands of people and get paid a lot of money, [he basically said] “I’m going to take it all and try to run with it, and you guys are going to be left in the dust, and if you’re lucky, I might hire you.” [to play in my band]. ” And that’s how you have to go on stage. ”
“The reason we were on fire before that was because we were so dedicated and persevered. It was because we were all working for something. It wasn’t even for money. , just to get to that point.” And success on every level, musically and financially, has kept us safe and all of this has been justified. There was a reason. And we’re a band of equals, looking out for each other, and that’s what I fought for.and by monsters of rockwhen Don Basically, he announced that he was going to grab the negotiating brass ring and try to keep it to himself, which backfired on all of us.Financially, it backfired on all of us, because we weren’t able to make that large of an income…at that point, I think that year Motley Crue Signed a $25 million contract, anthrax Had he signed a $12.5 million contract, he would have been fine. Basically, we had a lot of influence. It was really disappointing because we were going to be free agents. It didn’t work for everyone.So I continued making the form lynch mob, worked pretty well. ”
dokkenThe current lineup of Don with the bassist Chris McCarville,guitarist John Levin and the drummer BJ Zampa (House of Peers).
dokken‘s 13th studio album, “Heaven is coming down”released in October hopeful music.follow up “Broken bones” produced by bill palmer and don dokken and the mixed Kevin Shirley (aerosmith, iron maiden).