Classic Lineup Of DOKKEN Announces Only U.S. Reunion Show

The classic lineup of DOKKEN will play its only U.S. reunion show on September 30 at Badlands Pawn Guns Gold And Rock 'N' Roll in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The concert will be a warm-up gig for the band's six-show Japanese run dubbed "Unleashed In The East".

Singer Don Dokken, guitarist George Lynch, bassist Jeff Pilson and drummer "Wild" Mick Brown will launch the Japanese tour on October 5 in Osaka, before heading to Fukuoka, Tokyo for an appearance at the Loud Park festival and continuing on to Hiroshima, Aichi and finally, back to Tokyo for the final show on October 12.

Tickets for this once-in-a-lifetime event, as well as VIP-package experiences, will be on sale beginning August 27. This will be the one and only opportunity for fans to see the classic lineup play its iconic hits.

"Unleashed In The East" tour dates:

Oct. 05 - Osaka, Japan - Namba Hatch
Oct. 06 - Fukuoka, Japan - Fukuoaka Civic Hall
Oct. 08 - Tokyo, Japan - Loud Park
Oct. 10 - Hiroshima, Japan - Blue Live
Oct. 11 - Aichi, Japan - Zepp Nagoya
Oct. 12 - Tokyo, Japan - Zepp Divercity

Don Dokken recently spoke to "The Classic Metal Show" about how the long-rumored DOKKEN reunion finally came to fruition. He said: "Years and years ago, I made a comment offhandedly, like, 'You wanna do a reunion tour? I'll do it for this amount of money. "It was like a one and a lot of zeros. And that was my price, and everybody said, 'You're crazy.' And I said, 'Well, that's my price, and I'm not gonna do it [for anything less].' And now, fifteen years later, somebody came up with that price. So I approached George and Jeff, and I said, 'You guys wanna make a shitload of money for about one week of work?' And I told them the price, and I told them how much I wanted and how much they'd make, and, basically, they could make more money in one week than they'd probably make in several years. And so everybody said, 'Okay.' So I said, 'Well, I'll do it on the condition that I don't wanna do it in America or Europe or anywhere else. Just six shows in Japan.' 'Cause we were very big in Japan, and it's just a… It's a reunion tour. So they agreed."

Despite the fact that there is plenty of interest from promoters in other parts of the world to book the DOKKEN reunion, Don claims that the Japanese dates are the only shows the group is committed to doing.

"Of course, everybody came out of the woodwork, and they want us to do Sweden Rock, Wacken festivals, M3… People are throwing money at us to do a DOKKEN reunion in the States and Europe, and my answer to everybody is, 'No. It's not gonna happen,'" he said.

"I feel bad for my agents, 'cause they're getting bombarded from these offers for us to play these big festivals all over the world as a reunion, but I'm just not interested; I'm sorry, I'm just not," he continued. "Jeff's busy. He plays like crazy in FOREIGNER. He's on the road. George is out, you know, playing the bars with LYNCH MOB, so everybody's busy. So I don't see any reason… I can't say, 'We can make all this tons of money…' And we're doing this tour for a lot of money, but I'm doing it to put an exclamation point on a very temporary reunion."

According to Don, part of the reason there are no plans for the reunited DOKKEN to play any other shows after the Japanese run is the fact that the current lineup of DOKKEN — which includes fellow member of the band's classic lineup, drummer Mick Brown, alongside longtime guitarist Jon Levin and bassist Chris McCarvil — is still very much an active entity, with a steady schedule of live shows throughout the year.

"I'm so happy with Jon Levin and Chris," he explained. "I mean, we get along so, so good. We're happy. We get on a plane, we fly to a venue, we hang out together and we go to dinner and we do the show and we hang out in the dressing room. It's very easy; you know, there's no drama. And at my age now, the last thing I need in my life is drama. So I am hopeful everything goes smoothly in Japan [with the reunion shows], but I am ready [laughs] for something to… There was always drama in DOKKEN, so I don't expect anything to change. I'm just gonna kind of keep myself removed from it all. All I'm gonna do is go up there and sing my butt off and play two or three songs on guitar and just make it a fun thing for [the fans]."

(Thanks: NJthrasher)