DON DOKKEN: [When] he hands [his daughter] the magazine (with him and Don on the cover) and goes "Here, go put this in the fireplace." When I saw that I thought, "You’re an idiot!" He didn’t like the band since he joined it. That’s why he’s not in the band anymore. As far as the music, I was in love with the band. Jeff loved it and Mick loved it. For years, [George] didn’t do a lot of interviews because of that. [George] did an article in Guitar Player Magazine and they said, "Why did you join Dokken again?" He says, "I’m just doing it for the money so I can get enough money to get my Lynch Mob thing going again. I really don’t like playing with Dokken. I always was there for the money. I never liked the music." He just spilled the beans. We didn’t know about it until we got to Japan, and things weren’t going well. Ticket sales were down, record sales were down, and people started saying to Jeff and I, "What’s this about George saying he’s doing it for the money. Was it always like that?" We ended up having a very bad tour. People were very disappointed. I said, "George, why did you say that?" He said, "It’s the truth. I don’t lie." I said, "But George, you can’t [have] the band get back together and ask fans to embrace it again, and you come out and say, ‘I’m only in it for the money, so as soon as you start liking us again, I’m gonna be outta here again.’" It was an insult to the fans.

If that was how he felt, how did he stay with Dokken for so long.

Ya know, that’s a really good question. Some people live off of misery. Unfortunately, it made everybody else miserable and that’s why it was a problem. Actually, we weren’t together that long. In the 80s, we were only together five years. From the day he joined the band, he always said, "The one thing I hate the most about this band, is the name of the band." That really bothered him.

How about the music?

No, he didn’t like the music.

During that time he was being hailed as a ‘Guitar God’ yet he doesn’t like what he’s playing?

No, he thought it was awful. Like "Alone Again," George just absolutely, adamantly refused to do that song. [He’d say,] "I’m not doing "Alone Again." I hate that song. It sucks." I said, "If it doesn’t go on the album. I quit." And it went on [Tooth And Nail], and of course it was a hit. I had to fight for that shit. I’d say, "What’s wrong?" He goes, "You wrote it so I don’t like it." And that shit went on every record. He just did another record and he said, "Now, I’m gonna do what I really want to do." It’s a hip-hop record and everybody’s crucifying it. It’s awful. His new band, they’re all bodybuilders. The Japanese were really upset because he signed the contract under the premise that it was the original Lynch Mob. He said, "Mick’s in the band." And Mick’s going, "What are you talking about? I’m in Dokken." They called us. They said, "So you’re looking for a new drummer?" I said, "No, why?" They said, "Well, George got Lynch Mob back together. He just signed a record contract with the original members." I said, "You better talk to Mick about that because he doesn’t know that he’s in the band. Mick said, "Are you crazy. I’m not gonna play with that guy. He’s nuts." Obviously he’s bitter because there’s a song on the album called "Into The Fire" (Ed. note: this song was on the independent release but the Koch Records pressing does not include this track), which is a lyrical slag on me, on a song I wrote. (laughing) Yeah, I wrote that song, it was a big hit, and it made him a lot of money. The other problem was, he got mad because every time a single would come out, it was a song I had written, not him. In Dokken, it was split all four ways. I did that early on. A lot of people don’t do that when they form the bands. I got the record deal and it was just me. When I cut all the people [into the deal], I thought it would make it all better, but it didn’t. I was surprised. I said, "God, George, you make dollar for dollar and all you have to play is guitar solos. Be happy."

And he did them well.

He’s a great guitar player. People didn’t know I played guitar. They thought, "George wrote these rhythms and songs." I’m like, "No." I’m playing guitar on the new tour, finally. I played guitar on the first couple tours with George. I played rhythm and leads. He felt I was encroaching on his gig. I said, "George, I’m flattered. You can’t be threatened by me. You can blow me away. You’re an awesome guitar player." What’s nice about Reb (Beach - the new guitarist in Dokken) is he’s confident. I play guitar on [Erase The Slate] and he didn’t care. We were all kidding [when making] this album. I said, "God, wouldn’t it have been nice to make records like this our whole career?" Four guys got in a room and jammed and wrote songs. We’d go out to dinner and hang out together, instead where I wasn’t allowed to be in the studio when [George] was doing guitar. I’d walk in, and he’d say, "I don’t want you in here. I don’t like your vibe." It was pretty bad.

When you reformed in the mid-90s, what was the point in bringing George back?

[Dysfunctional] was my solo record. I’d written the whole thing and it was finished. I produced it and recorded it in my own studio. John Kalodner wanted to sign us. Obviously he felt that the name ‘Dokken’ with the original members had more value. He was gonna sign me either way. [Kalodner said,] "It’s gonna be Don Dokken or Dokken but it would be nice if [George] came on board." I said, "I can’t work with him." He said, "It’s been five years and people grow up and mellow out, and he’s broke." So we called him up and he was very nice. He said, "Oh yeah, it’s a great album. I’d love to be involved in it." Spiritually, I tried to take the high road and let bygones be bygones. So we put him back in the band. He redid my guitar solos and some of my rhythms. Actually, my guitar solo on "To High to Fly" stayed the same.

Did you know that he was going to redo the solos?

Oh, yeah, we figured because his solos were going to be better than mine. But actually, he didn’t play very well on that album. He kinda came in like "Give me my money and I’ll play." And I went, "Uh-oh. He tricked us." After that album, that’s when George went crazy.

I remember seeing you guys on the Dysfunctional tour and he looked totally miserable.

He was beyond miserable. He looked hateful and everybody could tell. And he was playing bad. I said, "There’s no way we can make a comeback if we’ve got this one guy looking like he’s in hell." I said, "This is deja vu from ‘88. He wasn’t playing good toward the end of Monsters of Rock." Plus, it was worse on the tour bus. Think about the three of us trying to be on a tour bus for ten hours with this kind of energy. We were so happy to get signed to Columbia. John Kalodner really loved us, and that album sold 300,000 [but] we got kicked off the label because of [George]. Columbia had a broadcast nationwide, they did like 120 stations, and two minutes before we went on the air, he walked out of the studio and left with all the Presidents and Vice Presidents [there]. The record company literally had to get in a taxi, beg him to come back, meanwhile we were on the air. We ended up playing the rehearsal tape that we had done before we went on the air, and pretended it was live until we got him back a half hour later. It was awful and, of course, four days later we were fired, kicked off the label. They just said, "We don’t need a band like this, too much trouble."

Mick Brown was in Lynch Mob with him. How did he deal with that, and why?

When Mick came back he said, "Ya know, Don, it was you and George fighting all the time and I thought that you were the asshole. You were getting the reputation of being the asshole. I thought that going with George he’d be all happy. He’s got his own band and record deal and he wouldn’t be like this anymore. When I got into Lynch Mob I realized not only was he still miserable, he was worse." I don’t think it was Dokken. I honestly don’t think it’s the problem. If that would have been the case, he would have been totally happy in Lynch Mob.

And he wouldn’t have kept switching singers.

He beat up both of them. He slugged Oni Logan right in the face and the other singer (Robert Mason) too. That’s something he always wanted to do to me but he knew couldn’t. (laughing) I’m 6’1" and a black belt.

I guess that’s why he became a bodybuilder.

That was one of the big reasons. We had several fist fights in our career. I’m not a fighter but I did martial arts for fifteen years, so I wouldn’t have to hit him. He’d take a swing at me [and] I’d just take his wrist and put it in an armlock and say, "Chill out." I’m just not into violence. He’s just a physically violent person. He got into this bodybuilding and the steroids. Everybody knows what steroids do to you. He’s so addicted. I couldn’t stand it with the bus. There’s needles all over the place and viles of that stuff you inject. And I’m goin’, "He’s gettin’ bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, and he looks more mean and angrier." So I start gettin’ on my little laptop and I’m pullin’ up these things on the Internet about steroid abuse, people who almost killed their parents. It brings out the violence in the personality. It got really bad. Basically, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. He came up behind me one day in the bus and got me in a chokehold. Everybody kept saying, "You’re not worried about this, are you Don? You can kick his butt." I said, "No, I can’t, not anymore. He’s too big. I’m over 40 now. I’m not into that." That’s why I got out of kickboxing. I’ve been kickboxing for ten years. Then I went into Aikido, which is more of a gentle martial art. I just wasn’t into this full-blown contact karate anymore. Here [George] is getting all pumped up. First of all his arms are like the size of my legs. If this guy gets me in a head lock and he’s mad, there’s a good chance he could probably crush my windpipe or break my neck without even knowing about it because he’s so strong. When he got violent with Mick and go violent with Jeff, physically he threatened both those guys, they were all afraid on the bus. He was shootin’ up in the bus, sittin’ there with a needle, and then he’d look at us with this glazed look in his eye. It was scary. I was actually afraid. I said, "What happens if he goes off? Who’s gonna get it?" They go, "Probably you first, Don. He hates you the most." And I go, "Well, I have children. I don’t want to get hurt and I don’t want to fight and I don’t want to get slugged in my sleep in a bunk in the tour bus. I’m afraid. I’m really honestly afraid." I was really good about it. No matter what he’d do to push me, I’d go, "Whatever" and back off. Then it turned to toward Mick, then it turned toward Jeff. Before the end, he looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger . We watched him on the [Shadowlife] tour because he pumped [iron] everyday. He kept getting bigger and bigger, and then it affected his playing. He’d literally be on stage and just stop playing. His hand would be cramped because he would pump before he would go on stage so he’d look as big as possible. He’d lift weight walking up to the stage. We’d record the shows and I’d say, "Hey George, you’re a guitar hero, and your solos are kind of a mess and the rhythms are all screwed up," and he’d retaliate and just get violent. He’d threaten all of us. We brought one psychiatrist out claiming to be a friend of mine and we brought out a crisis intervention person that Kalodner sent out. They both had the same diagnosis. I’m not going to tell you what the diagnosis was but it was scary. There’s something in his heart, his soul that he’s not happy with. I took it personal for years and I used to go to therapy over it and go, "Why does this guy hate me? What can I do?" The doctor said, "He doesn’t hate you. He hates what you represent. He doesn’t like it when you’re happy. He doesn’t like you because you are what he cannot be, happy." Mick knew George since he was thirteen years old. Mick told me stories about [George’s] childhood, and I’d say, "Poor guy. What an awful childhood." [But] it’s not the world’s fault. I didn’t do it. Don’t take it out on me. I had a f***ed up childhood too. I was raised in a foster home. So what! You get on with your life. Goin’ around hating the world is not gonna help anybody.

Tell us about what went wrong on Shadowlife.

We did the Dysfunctional tour and our career was crushed. Then Shadowlife speaks for itself. I was not involved in that record at all. I was kicked out of the record, literally. I didn’t write any songs on that album. George said, "Look, if you want me to do one more record, I want my shot. I’m tired of the ‘Don singles’." The band was nervous. They said, "We need George. Without George there’s no Dokken." I said, "I don’t necessarily believe that. I founded this band as Dokken before George was in the band, before any of you were in the band, and I don’t think our lives revolve around George Lynch. He’s not into it. We can’t make a good record with this negative." He was more into Rage Against The Machine and Tool at the time. That’s not what we do. Hence came Shadowlife, and I just came in and sang on it. I was shocked [that] on Shadowlife there were no solos. All those noises he made, and squeaking sounds. I said, "What are you doing?" He said, "I’m saving my chops for my solo record."

The band image was dropped on that album. You all looked very depressed in the press photos, especially you.

I was miserable. Then it reversed where I was miserable. Now, I was asked to do what George had done. I was asked to go out and say to the press, "Yeah, this is a great record. I love Dokken and we’re all getting along great." Now, I was like George. I hated the record and I hated being in the band. It was interesting, the Dokken logo was used on every record except that one. [George] said I want everything new. I want a new logo, new songs, new sound, new producers." I have been involved in the production of all the albums except that one. They brought in a producer from Seattle of course (Kelly Grey - now the guitarist in Queensryche), and I said, "This is wrong! We are what we are and we’re not grunge. If somebody wants Soundgarden, they’ll buy Soundgarden, and if they want Rage Against The Machine, they’ll buy Rage against The Machine, they’re not gonna buy the Dokken version of Rage Against The Machine. It’s not gonna happen and it’ll kill our careers." He said to me, and this is the God’s truth, "This is the perfect record. This is gonna be the end of Dokken, and that is what I wanted to accomplish." I said, "But then you’re gonna go down with us." He said, "Doesn’t matter, as long as you guys go. I want to end this thing once and for all. I want to make sure there’s no fans left when I get done, so that way when I do Lynch Mob again they’ll come to Lynch Mob."

I really liked the press photo for Shadowlife, especially George’s tweed jacket.

Oh, God! Tweed jacket with baggy pants and barefoot. I said, "George, we’re all in black jeans. You can’t dress like that." We got in a fistfight over that one after that photo session. He went nuts. I said, "George, you’re not gonna wear that, are you?" He went on stage like that every night. We would come out in full-blown rock regalia and he’d have [his pants with] the crotch down to the knees and sandals. Who’s that guy? His head’s all shaved, military haircut. Total gangbanger, skateboard bullshit. He still stayed rock in Lynch Mob with long hair. Mick said when he started doing the roids everything changed ‘cause people that work out don’t have long hair. You just don’t do that. He wanted to compete and the hair had to go.

The music on Shadowlife was all down, so you couldn’t sing in your normal high end style.

That was the problem. I could only sing over what he gave me. There’s nothing up-tempo on that whole entire record. It’s just one big drag. I said, "What am I supposed to sing on this thing? Everything’s so mundane, and kinda melancholy and dark, and detuned." His guitar was tuned way low and I couldn’t get my range up. I go, "What am I gonna do here? I’m talking on some of these songs." The producer said, "No vibrato, no high notes, no screams." The single, "Puppet on a String," with this Tool [sound]. I’m goin’, "Oh, my God. This is gonna be the downfall of me." So here I went to Japan on that album and I’m saying, "Well, it’s ahh... different. We’re goin’ in a different direction. It’s the 90s." [The Japanese press asked], "So what do you think, George?" He goes, "I don’t know. I don’t care. What can you do when Don’s singing?" The whole tour was a complete fiasco.

So what actually led to his departure after Shadowlife?

He just left. We had to [go] to Europe, and he said, "I don’t want to go." I said, "Well, what do you mean?" Honestly, no bull shit, he said, "The gym’s don’t have the right equipment." I said, "You’re joking, right? You’re not going on tour because the gym’s don’t have the right Nautilus gear?" He said, "I don’t feel like it. I just don’t want to go." I said, "Well, we got to. This is what we do for a living, George." He just disappeared on us for like a month. When he left, I thought, "This is a blessing." Everybody was depressed. Everybody’s thinking it’s the end of Dokken. I said, "He’s left. Let’s go on. Let’s get somebody else. I believe people still want to hear "Into The Fire," "In My Dreams," "Breaking The Chains." Yes, there’s been a lot of damage done on our credibility as far as, "Does this band have anything valid to put into the music scene?" People think, "It’s over for these guys. They’ve just done a bunch of crap the last couple albums and the guitar player can’t play anymore. I said, "I believe I can still write." I had all this material that I had written for Shadowlife. The stuff I thought was a Dokken sound. People heard the demos and they said, "What happened to all the songs we liked? They didn’t [make] the record." I said, "I don’t want to talk about it." When he left the band I said let’s get John [Norum](ex-Europe) and finish the touring obligations, and we’ll get a new guitar player and we’ll have to do just the most kick ass album we’ve ever done. So I called John (Norum) because he played on my solo record (Up From The Ashes - 1990) and he knew all the songs [and] all George’s solos note for note. He came on, did the tour for a month, played his ass off. It was wonderful. The day before we went on tour with John, George called and said, "Where are our gigs at?" I said, "What are talking about? We couldn’t find you for six weeks. You’re out." Then he sued us for a million dollars, so that was really ugly. Cost us a fortune. We went to court. We showed our phone bills. The managers came forward. [They said,] "Look, the band has been trying to find this guy and he just vanished." He went backpacking in Colorado somewhere, knowing we had a tour in a month. So what could we do? We had two choices: stop, end it, or go out, make some money and get another guitar player. He left us no choice and the judge saw that. So he lost. I told the lawyer, "Try to deal with this guy and keep us out of it because we want to make a record. We don’t want to embroil our lives in this." This happened to me in ‘88 (when the band originally broke up and a court case occurred) when they took my name away because we were incorporated at the time. Same thing, George quit in ‘88. I said, "My father gave me that name. It’s not a stage name. And I was Dokken before these guys were around." The judge said, "Yeah, but you made them all equal partners, so you’re screwed." So they couldn’t go on as Dokken and I couldn’t go on as Dokken unless there were three original members or more. That’s why we can still go on as Dokken without George.

Why didn’t John Norum stay with you?

Because he had a solo deal. He wanted to do the album but he said, "Can I do the album and then we can work touring with Dokken around my touring in Europe with my John Norum project?" He had a $100,000 deal. I said, "No. You have to be in Dokken or not." He thought about it for awhile and he was kind of going back and forth. I said, "You got your solo deal. If you want to go ahead and pursue that, you probably should. If your heart was totally into [Dokken] you’d just say, ‘Yes.’" So

that’s when we got Reb.

Reb was a good choice. Did you have contact with him before?

We knew him from the Alice Cooper tour. I didn’t know him really, no. He was a big Dokken fan, a big George Lynch fan. He just fit perfectly. He was nervous. He said, "I’m not gonna play George Lynch solos because that’s not what I do." I said, "Don’t do that." John [Norum] did that, copy his solos. I said, "Just be Reb Beach." All I cared about was what he wanted to do musically. He was disappointed like everybody else. He said, "I thought Dysfunctional was okay but I thought it was a little too Beatles-ish. Shadowlife, I thought was awful. Let’s go back to what you guys did." I said, "Well, that’s what we plan on doing." He said, "How are you gonna do that because George was such a big writing force in Dokken?" And we all kinda laughed and said, "No, he wasn’t." He didn’t believe it. I said, "We’ll just do a record and let the music do the talking. Let George do a solo album and we’ll do a Dokken album, and you tell us where the influences come from." I think, unknowingly, George helped this record become what it was. We went in the studio like, "Okay, guys we have to write cool lyrics, cool melodies, bitchin’ harmonies, burnin’ guitar solos, bitchin’ guitar riffs, Mick you gotta play your ass off on those drums. We all have to completely go off. We have to be like it 1983 again, we’re doin’ Tooth And Nail." We wrote 25 songs for this record. I said, "If there’s any turkey’s we’re gonna get crucified." Now, everybody’s expecting a Shadowlife or George’s non-playing.

If you were gonna put Tooth And Nail right next to Erase The Slate, do you think it has the Tooth And Nail sound.

Sound, no. But I think it has the honesty, the aggression.

I hear Dysfunctional mixed with your 80s sound.

I love The Beatles, Jeff loves The Beatles, and we love harmonies. I really tried to expand upon that on Dysfunctional. I wanted the lyrics more like Dysfunctional ‘cause I didn’t want the songs to be about [being] broken hearted, "you left me, I’m so sad and blue." I wanted lyrics a little deeper, a little more poetic, a little esoteric, like Dysfunctional was. I said, "Keep the Tooth And Nail vibe but let me run with the lyrics."

The title track, "Erase the Slate," just rips.

Jeff wrote that. That was a song written for the last album. He wrote the music and we wrote the lyrics together. Reb wrote a lot of stuff. I did most of the lyrics on this album. The melody, they let me take over that. Musically, I wrote a couple of songs, the ballads and then I wrote a couple of the rock songs. Jeff and I just sat down and started writing. We said, "Let’s just do a Tooth And Nail again. We need another up-tempo slamming song." I said, "I’m so sick of this bullshit, medium tempo, dark, depressing stuff." So he had "Erase the Slate." "Maddest Hatter" was a medium tempo song. It was all completely written and Reb said, "We should kick that thing in the ass."

While the 80s guitar sound is on "Erase the Slate," it becomes a more modern, darker sound as the record goes on.

It ‘s a little darker, yeah. But with the harmonies being high and the vocals high, I think it keeps it fresh. Why go back and do Tooth And Nail. People say, "We want another Tooth And Nail." I said, "If you want Tooth And Nail, go buy it." That was fifteen years ago.

Mick sings a song on the album called "Crazy Mary Goes Round" which is quite good.

I sang it and my voice is not gruffy enough. That song needed that AC/DC, dirty thing. I said, "My voice sounds too clean for this." Mick is a cross between John Lennon and Foghorn Leghorn. I wrote those lyrics about a girl I ride Harley’s with, and she is crazy. She’s a nice girl but I said, "If I sing this song she’s gonna kill me. She’s gonna come at me with a butcher knife. You sing it, Mick, because that way I’ll say, it’s just a girl named Mary, not you, Mary." She came to the studio once and she’s schizophrenic. She was in the bathroom talking to herself, looking in the mirror. We could hear her goin’, "Just be quite. No, shut up." She had a full blown conversation, yelling at herself." Her nickname was Scary Mary, so we wrote the song "Crazy Mary." When she does hear it, she’s gonna know that it’s about her.

Is Mick still wild? I noticed you put ‘Wild Mick’ back on the cd?

Yeah, he wanted that on there. He’s the only guy in the band still goin’ full-tilt boogie. I don’t know how he does it. He is Keith Moon. I hope he doesn’t end up like Keith Moon but he is a party animal. The guy can drink and do whatever and just get on his drums and go, but he never gets f***ed up before a show, ever in his life. I’ve never seen him do drugs or drink [before a show]. The last two songs he starts crackin’ open a beer. He’s like, "I don’t want to get high or drunk before I go out and play." I’m a wine guy. I can’t drink Jack and Coke. I can as long as I can stay in bed the next two days. Jeff’s really heavy into his yoga and his meditation. I meditate quite a bit and I’m into Buddhism. Mick’s like the Rodney Dangerfield of drummers, so he keeps it pretty fun on the tour.

A lot of bands from the 80s had problems with drugs. Was it a problem for Dokken?

Huge problem. I didn’t personally do drugs but there was a lot of drug abuse in the band. Jeff, Mick and George were all heavily into drugs. Jeff’s been clean eight years now. Jeff quit drinking, quit smoking, quit doing coke. The Monsters of Rock was a joke. Everybody was just high as a kite on that tour. Coke and booze. It was just ridiculous. All the bands were stoned out of their minds. Supposedly some people just got in the Betty Ford Clinic and they were clean. Yeah, right!

It sounds like you were the cleanest of the bunch? How’d you steer clear of all that?

I did my drugs before we got signed. I did them in ‘79-’80. I went through my cocaine phase. I never got heavily into it but I did it for a couple of years. If somebody would say, "Hey, you want a line of coke?" I’d say, "Sure, okay." Then when the band got popular I was like, "I got other things more important." I couldn’t, you know why? I’m a singer, for one thing. You cannot do cocaine and sing. Your voice sounds like shit. I just couldn’t and I didn’t really want to. I just wasn’t into it. It didn’t make me popular in Dokken. They’re all in the back of the bus chopping, and I was the odd man out. You got Jeff, Mick and George, chop, chop, chop every night, and I’m popping Valium because they’re stressing me out.

You experimented with some vocal distortion on "Haunted Lullabye."

That wasn’t supposed to be. I came in, the mix was done. That was the engineer. He said, "Check this out, what do you think?" I go, "Hmm, I don’t know. I did this on Shadowlife. I’m not really into this stuff." The band really liked it. They said it was different. They said, "It’s the 90s, going onto the year 2000." So we went with it, but I sang the song like just thinking it was gonna be a regular rock song. The engineer said, "That’s my problem with this song. Of all the songs on the record I think this is too much of a regular rock song, and I just thought that we’d do something a little more special." So I just let him run with it.

How much freedom do engineers usually get?

None. Like on this album he’d mix it and I’d come in and either approve it or make changes, or if I didn’t like where he was headed, I’d tell him to start over." The guy was really good. He did some Ozzy records. The cool thing was when he heard the stuff he said, "Oh, I love this stuff. This is me." We were having a hard time finding an engineer. Everybody’s like, "Well, do you want to sound like Soundgarden? Or do you want to sound like Nirvana?" I’m like, "No, we want to sound like Dokken!" And this engineer was a Dokken fan, and he worked with Michael Wagener, who had done a lot of Dokken records. He knew all songs, and records. He said, "I just want to make you sound big, loud and aggressive."

How’d you choose to do the remake of Three Dog Night’s "One."

Last year, on tour, our last song was "In My Dreams" in the set. Reb was screwin’ around in the soundcheck and we kind of broke into this little medley of "In My Dreams" and "One," a double bass/heavy metal thing. The band said, "That song would be perfect for your voice." I said, "I’m not big on doing remakes [but] let’s just try it." So they worked it up. I went in and sang it and it went on the album. It was kind of Reb’s idea. I figured Metallica got away with it on "Turn The Page" (a remake of a Bob Seger tune) and we wouldn’t get hurt on it.

Any particular song that you’re really into from the record?

I love "In Your Honor." I think it’s a cool ballad. I like "Shattered’ because it’s kind of a different vocal style for me. I’m kind of doing a Robert Plant-ish vocal. I like all the songs. It’s one of the first albums that I’ve done in years where I just like everything. I think "Haunted Lullabye" is my least favorite. I didn’t like that. "Erase the Slate" is killer. It’s just to say, "If you’re expecting Shadowlife, it’s not gonna happen."

Juan Croucier from Ratt was in Dokken in the early 80s. Did he play on the Breaking The Chains album?

No, Peter Baltes (ex-Accept) did, actually. Accept was doing an album, the same time I was doing my album. Juan’s girlfriend tore up his passport. She didn’t want him to go. He didn’t make his flight, so we had Peter do it. Juan left the band, the same reason that we’ve been talking about. As soon as George got in the band, Juan said, "I’m out of here. This guy’s nuts." Juan was an original member in Dokken. Juan and I toured Germany as Dokken in ‘79.

I remember seeing a European version of the Breaking The Chains album with an alternate cover and a studio version of "Paris Is Burning."

That’s me playing guitar on that. That’s the original version. The original album had a picture of me on the cover with sunglasses on, tied to a post. Then we remixed it in America when we signed to Elektra. After we did the European tour with Juan and after playing with George for six months he said, "I can’t play with this guy." Juan’s a very mellow guy. He had an offer to go with Ratt, and he went because he said, "I can’t play with George. The guy’s too hostile." I thought, "I got thick skin. I can deal with it." I believe the best revenge is success. We have to fight our way back to the top. That’s why the album was called Erase The Slate. That whole song is about erasing the slate. This is not Dokken continuing. This is Dokken starting over again.