DON DOKKEN Says MIKKEY DEE Contracted COVID-19 In Australia: 'He Lost 35 Pounds' And 'Was Sick As A Dog'

DOKKEN will play a pair of socially distanced concerts this month that will feature special guest guitarist Reb Beach (WINGER, WHITESNAKE). He will be filling in for DOKKEN's longtime guitarist Jon Levin, who has opted to sit out the shows due to the coronavirus pandemic which is sweeping the globe.

DOKKEN frontman Don Dokken explained the guitarist switch in a new interview with Greg Prato of Songfacts. He said: "Reb is coming to fill in because Jon can't go on the road right now — he doesn't feel comfortable with the COVID because his father is 90 years old and he's the primary caregiver. He said, 'Man, if I get COVID and give it to my dad, he'll die.' And I said, 'I get it, Jon. I respect you and your father.' So, I got Reb coming in to fill in for these two shows, and I just told Jon, 'Let's hope for the best. Let's hope the COVID thing gets better and they come out with a vaccine. Until then, if you don't feel comfortable getting on a plane, then don't.'"

Don continued: "I talked to Mikkey Dee from the SCORPIONS the other night, and he and his wife got COVID in Australia. They were in the middle of nowhere and got it. He called me up and he said, 'I'll tell you, Don, you don't want to get it. I was on the floor.' He lost 35 pounds. He was sick as a dog. He was in a hospital. He was really in bad shape. He said, 'I don't know how I got it.' Because they had social distancing big-time in Australia.

"So, I'm taking a risk doing these shows. I know that. But what are you going to do? My girlfriend makes me put the gloves on, the mask on, the spray — we constantly spray our hands. I try not to wipe my mouth. I'll go to Home Depot and buy supplies for the house, but mostly I'm just staying home. So, she's not happy about me going on a plane. I have five or six plane flights in two days, so that's pretty high chances.

"My son is a pilot, and I talked to him — he flies for JetBlue. My son flies an A300. He's young to be a captain — he's only 33. I said, 'What's going on with the flying?' And he said, 'They're just going to try and space people out.' But it's kind of a joke, because he told me all the air in an airplane is just recirculated. They just send it to the scrubbers — to the engine filters — and they send it right back to the cockpit. So, all this '20 feet away, 10 feet away,' it's all kind of bullshit.

"But I've got to go out and work. I want to play."

Beach is best known for his work in the band WINGER and for being a member of WHITESNAKE since 2002.

Beach is best known for his work in the band WINGER and for being a member of WHITESNAKE since 2002.

After WINGER disbanded for a period in the mid-1990s, Beach first joined Alice Cooper's band and later replaced Lynch in DOKKEN. With DOKKEN, he recorded one studio album, titled "Erase The Slate", and a live DVD, titled "Live From The Sun".

Since leaving DOKKEN, Beach has been a part of several different recording and touring projects. In addition to sporadic touring with WINGER, he released a solo effort titled "Masquerade" in 2002. Since 2002, he has been a member of David Coverdale's current incarnation of WHITESNAKE and has been the longest-serving guitarist/member of the band to this day, excluding Coverdale.