In a recent interview with MetalTalk, George Lynch remembered one of Dokken’s tours from 1988, also along Van Halen and Metallica.
The guitarist reflected on the tour, saying:
“That was pretty much the pinnacle of it, wasn’t it? That was the last big tour of that style, I think, in that kind of giant rock arena tour, I think that was the last one. So it was kind of an end of an era. Nobody knew it at the time. And we were misplaced on that bill. It was kind of good for us, I guess, in a way, but we were billed over Metallica; they hadn’t quite gone over the edge yet. We had the same management company [Q Prime], so we were very fortunate to get that spot. […]
“I operate — or at least then operated — out of a sense of commitment and on a mission. We built this thing as a family, as friends, as a band of brothers. And that was really the struggle between Don and I. Don was kind of out for himself and used people as best he could. I’m not saying this in a derogatory way. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, because we succeeded because of him and that mentality — the way he views the world and the way he operates. He’s able to do things that I personally couldn’t do, or I wouldn’t live with myself. For better or worse, I don’t know if it’s good or bad — I can’t even say — but we benefited from it. […]
“When you renegotiate, you’re negotiating from a position of strength. And now you’re Motley Crue, now you’re Van Halen, now you’re set for life. And we all were looking at that, and we all worked for that, and we all earned that, and we should have been patting each other on the back and in a really good place. Instead Don took that as, ‘Well, I’m gonna take this all for myself, and f*ck these guys.’ I had to go on stage knowing that every night.
”And it depressed me, and I kind of just fell into drugs and alcohol and just went out and went through the motions. I was quite dispirited. I mean, I had some good shows, but I was maybe just faking it to a certain extent, ’cause I was definitely dispirited. All this for this, and now I have to go out and put on a face? I’m just sort of like a ‘wear my heart on my sleeve’ kind of guy, and it was [very hard] for me to do. It was very depressing. And the only way I’d deal with it was drugs and alcohol.”