DON DOKKEN: 'I Don't Care About Sales Figures'

Matt Becker of Melodic Rock Concerts recently conducted an interview with DOKKEN mainman Don Dokken. A few excerpts from the chat follow below.

Melodic Rock Concerts: Now on this [upcoming DOKKEN] greatest-hits album, Don, it's two covers and two new tracks?

Don Dokken: Yeah, two covers and two new tracks. We have a cover song called "Lies" by THE KNICKERBOCKERS and also "Bus Stop" by the HOLLIES. Mick [Brown, drums] sang live as a duet on that and it came out really cool. And then two new songs, one is called "Magic Man", it's about drug dealers.

Melodic Rock Concerts: Which label is handling the release? Is Rhino out of the picture?

Don Dokken: Cleopatra. Yeah, Rhino is out of the picture.

Melodic Rock Concerts: There are a lot of rumors about a DOKKEN/LYNCH MOB tour. Do you know how those got started?

Don Dokken: It's a possibility. I talked to George [Lynch; LYNCH MOB/ex-DOKKEN guitarist] about it, they're going to see if they can put dates together. I threw it out there, and we'll know in 10 days.

Melodic Rock Concerts: Speaking of George Lynch, I heard that you recently had an encounter with his SOULS OF WE project. You actually ended up on stage at one point?

Don Dokken: Yeah, I just walked up and told him to tune his guitar. I mean, it's the SOULS OF WE. It's a very strange band; you know, it's dark music and he's just doing his thing. George is doing a spin-off and I get it, you know. But it's not my style.

Melodic Rock Concerts: So my question is when does the Don Dokken reality show start? Would you ever do something like that?

Don Dokken: Never. My life is private and I want to keep it that way.

Melodic Rock Concerts: You got a point, I mean, Bret Michaels is out there…

Don Dokken: And he's made millions God bless him. It was fun. But, to keep his private life private, he was in a rented house with a bunch of bimbos, so it wasn't really his private life. But I'm not down with that, those aren't the kind of girls I like. I'm not into strippers and I'm not into sluts, you know. I'm not into sport screwing.

Melodic Rock Concerts: Have you always steered clear of that stuff?

Don Dokken: Yeah. I mean, I had my day in the '80s, you know? I had my binge. It's kind of hard to say no when a runway model walks up and says, "All I'm wearing is a trenchcoat." (both laugh)

Melodic Rock Concerts: Are there any crazy stories from the road over the last few years? You've been doing a lot of shows.

Don Dokken: No, things are mellow. All we do is hang out and go to the show, go to the movies. I'm over 50 now, things have slowed down. There is no craziness backstage. I'll leave that for Bret Michaels.

Melodic Rock Concerts: I made a special note to touch on the solo album that you did last year — "Solitary". Are there any plans to make that available again or are the copies all gone?

Don Dokken: Yeah, I mean, I haven't released it yet, I just put it out privately. But I'm trying to get a record deal with people who seem to get it. The labels go, "Oh, it's not rockin', it's too mellow." I'm like, tell that to Robert Plant who's sold two million copies with Alison Krauss. I don't know what to tell you. I like the album, I'm proud of it. Maybe Starbucks will pick it up, I don't know.

Melodic Rock Concerts: Looking back a little bit to the "Back for the Attack" era when the infighting reached a peak. Do you think that putting George on a separate tour bus would have solve the problem, or would that have been too little too late?

Don Dokken: Yes, looking back, if we would have put him on a different bus, we could have survived. But whatever, that's coulda, woulda, shoulda. It's like looking back at old girlfriends saying I should have done this. Look — Ghandi, Buddha, they all say don't live in the past. Live in the future, because that's where you're going to spend the rest of your life. So I don't dwell on that, it's just a waste of time.

Melodic Rock Concerts: Why do you think it is that quality vocalists like yourself, Rob Halford, and David Coverdale are so hard to come by today?

Don Dokken: Because Pro Tools and Autotune, and all of these programs can make you in tune. It makes you lazy. We come from the days where an A was an A, an E was an E. You're either flat or you're sharp. We were trained to sing on key. But now it doesn't matter if you're flat, doesn't matter if you're sharp. You can sing, bark, and then walk out of the room and the engineer fixes it. You can come back and it's all perfect.

Melodic Rock Concerts: You've talked before, and said a few different things about what will be next for DOKKEN. Because of the good sales figures on "Lightning Strikes Again", are you going to record another album, or was "Lightning Strikes Again" the curtain call?

Don Dokken: Yeah, we're going to do another studio album. I don't care about sales figures. I don't make records because of sales figures anymore — I make records because I love to do it, it's fun. It's art. People don't create paintings to become millionaires - they do it because they love to paint. The great painters of the 1800s died poor, but they still painted. Monet, all of them. They were poor, living in little apartments in Paris. They didn't paint because they had to, they painted because they had to because they loved it. That's why I make music, I don't care about record sales. 20 million records sold, who cares anymore.

Read the entire interview from Melodic Rock Concerts.