DOKKEN‘s longtime member “Wild” Mick Brown is “done” playing drums, according to Don Dokken.
During a recent appearance on “The Classic Metal Show”, Don said about Mick‘s status with DOKKEN:
“I think he’s done. He’s retiring, basically. It hit me very suddenly. We were actually on tour — I don’t know — a month and a half, two months ago. I remember, we were at the airport, and we were getting on yet another freakin’ plane flight, like we do four or five times a week, and he pulled me aside and he says, ‘Bro, I can’t do it anymore.’ And I said, ‘What’s the matter?’ And he said, ‘No, I can’t do it anymore. I can’t do this. I can’t keep flying and playing and [staying in] hotels and playing drums.’
And I said, ‘Is it a money thing? Or is it just travel? We can cut the shows back. We can do less shows.’ And he said, ‘No. I just can’t do it, man.’ And he made a point. He said, ‘Look, I started playing drums at 10 years old, and I’m 62.’ He goes, ‘I’m just worn out.'”
Don continued:
“People don’t realize, if anybody in the band — guitar player, singer, bass player… Singers lose their voice; bass players, whatever, get carpal tunnel, but a drummer, he’s got the hardest gig in the band. And I told Mick years ago — years ago I told Mick — I said, ‘Mick, you need to take it easy on the drums. You hit too hard. You’re like John Bonham.’ Anybody who’s seen Mick knows he beats the hell out of those drums.
And I said, ‘Mick, just take it easy and just hit ’em softer and don’t kill yourself.’ And he said, ‘I don’t know how to play the drums any other way. I go out there and I just go for it and pound the drums as hard as I can. I don’t know how to play like a jazz drummer. I’m a rock drummer.’ But he’s had a lot of stuff like torn [rotator] cuffs, arthritis, [his] knees, his feet, elbows…”
Dokken added:
“So, Mick, he’s doing his [WILD MICK BROWN AND THE] BOURBON BALLET, he’s got his little solo band, and he goes out when he wants to play, just to feel the spiritual rush of playing and having fun with the guys he plays with. That’s what he’s doing, man. He said, ‘I love you. We had 40 years together. It’s been a great run. We had some good times. We went to the top of the mountain. And we sold millions of records and made millions of dollars, but it’s time for me to stop.’ That’s what he said. It is what it is…
He goes, ‘I’m just burned out, man. I’m just toast. I’m tired of being on the plane.’ He said the plane kicked his a*s sometimes worse than playing… And he said he had a scary moment a couple of shows before he quit.
He said, ‘I had this out-of-body experience while we were playing, and I felt like I was out of my body watching myself play. And then I went back and I looked at you, and you turned around and looked at me, and my arms felt like they were lead. I just couldn’t lift my arms. I just felt like they weighed a thousand pounds. And I thought, ‘Oh, sh*t. I’m having a heart attack or something.” So it really scared him. After the show, he said, ‘That was a really weird experience.’ But he went to the doctor. He had a full physical. Everything’s fine. But he did [think] he was having a heart attack, I think. And he just said, ‘I’m fine, but it kind of just put the fear of god in my thing, and I just thought, ‘This is not what I wanna do the rest of my life.’ So you look at his Facebook, he’s riding his Harley and playing in BOURBON BALLET and having fun and enjoying his life.”