GEORGE LYNCH: 'DON Enjoys Having The Control Of His DOKKEN Tribute Band'

Blogs N' Roses recently conducted an interview with legendary guitarist George Lynch (DOKKEN, LYNCH MOB, SOULS OF WE). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Blogs N' Roses: You're a pretty disciplined musician, what percentage of your life is dedicated to just playing the guitar?

Lynch: A very, very small percentage, unfortunately. I wouldn't say small, that probably isn't accurate, but I spend a lot more time on the business of music rather than the playing of music. My obligations to play are so heavy that I've got a guitar in my hands a lot of the time, but as far as sitting around and doing disciplined practicing and tearing stuff apart and reading and expanding my knowledge base, I unfortunately don't get to do much of that.

Blogs N' Roses: You are an actual guitar hero, what do you think about the Guitar Hero games?

Lynch: I think it inspires a lot in interest in guitar but I don't think it's relative to guitar. I think it might be a transitional thing, it could introduce people to the idea of wanting to play real guitar, but I haven't met anybody that's good at one and good at the other. I know lots of shreddy guitar players that couldn't play a note on Guitar Hero, including myself, and lots of kids that can get to the DRAGONFORCE level with one hand tied behind their back, blindfolded and couldn't play a C chord. I know Best Buy is starting to sell musical instruments and I think that makes sense because you get these people that are Rock Band and Guitar Hero and they are going to want to make the transition to real music.

Blogs N' Roses: A couple of months ago I read an an excerpt of an interview and you were talking about DOKKEN and you were saying basically that you and Don [Dokken] wouldn't have a problem with it (a reunion) and you're pretty much just waiting until the right time. Is that the situation, are you guys still on hold?

Lynch: Well, there's no dialogue there, so I don't know. That's really an unanswerable question. I mean, I'm totally fine with it but to get four people at our age, at our points in our careers where everybody's really busy... Mick Brown's [drums] in TED NUGENT working his ass off, Jeff [Pilson, bass] has been in FOREIGNER for four years making tons of money, having tons of success... Why? You know, what's the point? I think the problem has always been...people go, "It's personalities." It's not. It's really money. It's always behind all of it.

Blogs N' Roses: It's management behind it saying, "Hey, you guys should hook up so we can make some money."

Lynch: Uhh, no. It's within the band. There's certain components of the band that are very much thinking that it's all about them. My position is, and I think most of the rest of the guys is, that unless it's going to be an equitable situation like it was for most of the time we were together, that it just isn't going to happen. I think Don enjoys having the control of his DOKKEN tribute band, so good for him.

Blogs N' Roses: So if it happens, it happens and if not that's cool also?

Lynch: Oh yeah, I'm down. If they gave me my 25%, we go and do a real record; no games, no bullshit, no lies, everything's up and up and transparent and go out and create some closure for the fans and ourselves, I think that would be a wonderful thing for everybody. Everybody wins, why not? But uh, a lot of egos there... The thing is, you get bands that achieve some success and then they break up and there's always this one-upmanship thing going on, you know.

Blogs N' Roses: Yeah, it's kinda like Humpty Dumpty, right? It's never the same.

Lynch: "I don't need you guys!" "No, well, I don't need you either!" Well, maybe the people that we worked so hard to get to, that we sold them on our music and they loved the band and the personalities... maybe we should give them this and it wouldn't be a bad thing for anybody. It's music, it's a lot better than having a day job!

Blogs N' Roses: Yeah, it is!

Lynch: They're offering us millions of dollars to go back! Your own TV show, your own record, giant tour all around the world... "Nah!" Fuck! That shit pisses me off. I try to do everything I can. I work as hard as I can. I say no to very little; thus, why I'm here tonight. I don't necessarily have to do this, but it keeps my chops up and keeps me busy. I never ever try to pretend I'm a rock star, I don't give a fuck because you go up, you come down and meet the same people on the way down, then you gotta live with yourself. Try to stay humble…and play the best I can and stay relevant, and that's all you can do. But when you get involved with other people that don't think that way, you get the conflicts.

Read the entire interview from Blogs N' Roses.