In a new interview, Don Dokken talked about the famous 1988’s Monsters of Rock tour with Van Halen, Scorpions, Metallica, and more.
As reported earlier, Dokken disbanded due to fights in the camp which to this day is due to George Lynch & Don Dokken.
When asked about the lineup, Don said:
“Well, I would say it was the pinnacle of rock ‘n’ roll in ’88-’89. It was the biggest tour ever put together up to that point. We were doing 100,000 people a day – that’s a lot of people! And it was five of the biggest bands in the world.
“So, it was exciting that I’d come from playing clubs on the Reeperbahn, and here I am in stadiums.
“It was pretty scary, and the only thing I didn’t like about that tour was that Metallica went on before us, and they kicked our a*s every day! [Laughs] They did – I can be honest about that.
“Playing after Metallica was a very, very hard thing to do. They were heavier, and even though we’d had more hits and we were on MTV and people saw us as being more famous at the time than Metallica, they kicked our b*tts.”
On the end of Dokken after the tour, Don said:
“No. I think if we had made one more record after the stadium tour, we could have gone out and done a world tour, headlining, because by then we were famous enough to go out and play headlining.
“So, we should have done one more record and at least gone out and done a full world tour, and that would have been a good way to go out. And that was the plan.
“The plan was another record, a tour, headline, do the whole world for a year and a half, but, as you know, there was just too much in-fighting in the band.
“There was too much arguing, too much arguing, and I just didn’t have the stomach for it. I was just so tired of seven years of fighting for every record, and fighting for every song, and arguing about what songs to do.”
That conflict was mainly with George Lynch.
“George and I just could not see eye to eye on which direction we were going. And I admit, I’m more of a melodic guy; I sing very melodic, I’m not a heavy metal guy. George wanted to go more heavy.
“He was listening to bands like Monster Magnet and bands like this, and I like those bands, but I just kept saying to the boys, ‘This is not what Dokken’s about.'”
8 comments
Not sure about Don’s memory, but Dokken played before Metallica. Dokken was 4th on the lineup.
Wrong! Kingdom Come, Metallica, Dokken, Scorpions and Van Halen, in that order.
It took us forever to get in there, kingdom come while stuck in the traffic, then heard the place coming apart at the seams from the outside when Metallica was playing, made it in by dokken, then scorpions and Van Halen played till everyone was toast?
Nope, you’ve got it backwards … it was Kingdom Come, Metallica, Dokken, Scorpions, Van Halen. Was at the KC show in 88. Dokken was 3rd in the lineup.
In Memphis, they played after Metallica
I was at the KC show. Metallica’s sound was awful. All you heard was bass. No guitar, no singing. Just bass and some drums.
Trump won,
Once again, Don shows absolutely no acknowledgement of his own culpability in the band’s demise. Both Lynch and Pilson have stated that Don told them prior to the tour that they were finished. When he recorded the original version of the “Breakin’ the Chains” album (originally “breakin’,” with no “g”), it was a solo album and Lynch, Croucier, and Brown were just guys he paid to play on the album. When Elektra signed him and remixed it, and re-recorded some other parts, they wanted all of the guys as a band. Well, Juan was already playing with Ratt, and left, so Jeff was hired. Anyhow, by the time of Monsters of Rock, Don wanted to drop them, and have all the glory–and profit–for himself. George took it hardest. His heart just wasn’t in it, and that had a lot to do with their inability to follow Metallica’s set. This is why you had George, Jeff, and Mick battling Don in court over the name, claiming the four of them were Dokken, and they won. Don had to put out “Up From the Ashes” under his name as a solo artist. He did get to keep the logo, which was on the original “Breakin’ the Chains” album, anyway, so there really was no dispute over that. Of course, he changed it on “Up From the Ashes,” anyway…