DON DOKKEN On 'Lightning Strikes Back', Upcoming Solo Album

Marko Syrjälä of Metal-Rules.com recently conducted an interview with DOKKEN mainman Don Dokken. A couple of excerpts from the the chat follow:

Metal-Rules.com: What is happening with new the DOKKEN album "Lightning Strikes Back"? It's been in the works for about two years now?

Dokken: Yeah it's been two years. There have just been a lot of setbacks. We toured in America and did festivals and things like that. I lost my voice for a while and that was like what can you do? The record was written like two years ago and I had about seven or eight songs but the record company didn't like them. They thought they were too modern and Jon agreed and said we should do more old-school stuff so he re-wrote the album and made it more classic with catchy guitar riffs and catchphrases. Then I had to rethink and try to go back twenty years and I understand. It's difficult you know, you get older and you change. So, we basically wrote the album twice. I spent a year writing out then threw it out and started over and that took a couple months. And just life stuff, everyone has life stuff and families and things that slow you down. This summer was just like doing shows, making quick money and we did the same thing every weekend. You go out and play Friday or Saturday night, come back on Sunday but then you're tired on Monday. Then you have a couple days to write and then do it over again. Right when I was ready to do the album and finish it, my voice just died because I was just stupid. I was just being an idiot and wasn't taking care of myself and getting out of shape. I thought we would go to Europe to promote the record and that's why we're here. We promised we would come so here we are. My word is my word.

Metal-Rules.com: How did you come up with the name for your new album, you have an old song which is called "Lightning Strikes Back", does that mean that this album is some kind of back to roots album for you?

Dokken: I always have a habit of doing that. When we did album "Tooth And Nail" where was a song titled "Lightning Strikes Back". The album was originally going to be called "Lightning Strikes Back" but we then decided to change it to "Tooth and Nail", which is another album track. It has always been my thing; I always name the album after a song. It makes sense too. Well, God willing, we're trying to hit it again. I really had to change my mindset on the writing for this new album.

Metal-Rules.com: How about the latest DOKKEN album "Hell To Pay"? That album didn't receive too many positive reviews and many people were considering it more like your solo album than an actual DOKKEN album. How do you like that album now afterwards?

Dokken: I don't know what happened. As a producer, I just got kind of lost; I didn't know where I was going. It was too medium-tempo. What do you do? Jon came into the band and we didn't really know where we were going. You hear NICKELBACK and HINDER and you get these new influences in your music but then it doesn't really work.

Metal-Rules.com: How is the status with your solo album, when it will be finished?

Dokken: It's finished. It's been finished for a year now. Jon played with it but people don't understand it because it's acoustic. People think it's "Up from the Ashes" and heavy but it's not. It's acoustic all the way. There are no drums on it.

Metal-Rules.com: One day I went through my record collection and accidentally I found a solo album of former SCORPIONS drummer Herman Rarebell. You do a couple of songs there, how did that thing come about back then?

Dokken: Originally I sang on that whole record but it didn't sound very good. There were some stupid songs like "Wipeout" and stuff like that. The only reason they even got to put out that record was because I was singing on it. They were telling me I had to sing some and they had to sing some. It was a silly record. I just did it for fun and to help them. That was a long time ago.

Metal-Rules.com: You did record vocals for the demo tracks of SCORPIONS album "Blackout". Back in the day there were all these rumors about you were about to replace Klaus Meine in SCORPIONS because he had some serious problems with his voice. Was there any truth behind that rumor?

Dokken: No truth at all, I just did it because his voice was hurting. I mean, we just had a guy come sing on our record. So what? I had Kelly Hansen to sing background vocals. He has the low more husky voice, I'm in the middle and Jeff Pilson has a higher voice. Why would I scream my ass off all day and stack my vocals when I can have someone else come in and do it?

Metal-Rules.com: So at any point you were not going to seriously replace him?

Dokken: Well, that's stupid. Even if they had asked me to replace him, I would have said "Are you crazy?" If they asked me to sing in SCORPIONS, which would be a dream, I would say no, because you can't have SCORPIONS without Klaus. I just went in and sang a couple lines and trust me, they killed me. They kept telling me to sing higher and higher. After eight hours of work and it just sounded like a buzzing.

Read the entire interview at Metal-Rules.com.

DOKKEN performing "Unchain the Night" at Skagerock 2007: